
Glass, Stone, and Concrete
Tristan Sauer
Humans have been documenting their changing environments for as long as art has been made. Landscapes can transport us to places we’ve never seen, preserve sites of significance, and record the passing of seasons and time. But when does a landscape become unnatural, and what role do humans play in that transformation? Is it possible to consider human intervention as a natural process, as in the case of bee hives and beaver dams, and if so, how do we move toward that possibility? What can our current urban environments tell us about our path towards or away from that future?
The works assembled here subvert traditional expectations of landscape representation as untouched, pristine, and sublime by reframing the land through the lens of industrialization. They ask us to consider the beauty and monotony we perceive in environments influenced by humans—how development, sprawl, and industry have not only shaped and transformed the landscapes we inhabit but also the ways we see and move through them every day.
Throughout, monotone pallets of concrete and geometric shapes of built structures stand in stark contrast to the elemental presence of the sun, sky, and rain—urban forms that both obstruct and transform landscapes. Together, the works question whether beauty is still possible in these environments, or if urbanity inherently robs them of this capacity.
Image detail: Susan Dobson, 725 Steeles Avenue, 2011, C-print from digital file, 83.8 x 207.6 cm. Gift of the Artist, 2021. Art Gallery of Guelph Collection.



Curated by Tristan Sauer, recipient of the 2025 Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators and presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Artists
Michael Adamson
Sheila Ayearst
Susan Dobson
Wanda Koop
Christopher Pratt
View More Exhibitions

exhibition
September 18.2025 / January 4.2026
Challenging colonial conceptions of how Land and Water are used, valued, and protected, Reworldings speaks to living relationships with place and peoples, to the interdependence of species and systems, and to the urgent need to restore not only ecosystems, but justice.

exhibition
September 18.2025 / January 4.2026
Through practices that span net art, interactive sculpture, installation, video, and textile, Soft Internet Theory invites audiences to consider a gentler, more human digital future.

exhibition
May 22.2025 / August 29.2025
Fuzzy Thinking explores how textiles’ softness and tactility challenge boundaries between art and craft, weaving together historical and contemporary works rooted in material and cultural complexity.

exhibition
May 22.2025 / August 29.2025
Curated through an open call, artists from across Guelph were invited to share their work in a collective reflection of the city’s creative landscape.

exhibition
May 3.2025 / May 8.2025

exhibition
April 24.2025 / April 29.2025
Through photography, Bahar Enshaeian unravels the intricate layers of memory, identity, and belonging. Rooted in personal experience, her work speaks to the complexities of migration, displacement, and the search for home.

exhibition
April 10.2025 / April 15.2025
What utility can we find in vestiges of the past? This question shapes Hal Fortin’s interdisciplinary practice and its distinct sculptural language, punctuated by humour, dream logic, and the rhythms of domestic labour.

exhibition
April 2.2025 / April 6.2025
At the heart of Stephanie Fortin’s practice is an ethical inquiry: is it necessary—or responsible—to aestheticize waste in the context of global exploitation and climate change?