2025

City Block: Liminal Spaces - 2025

Series by David Scriven
@davidalbertscriven
davidscrivenphotography.com
August 2025 - October 2025
Opening Reception Thursday August 7th 5 to 8 PM

City Block is an ongoing long-term project documenting the streets and laneways encompassing Queen Street West, Ossington Avenue, Dundas Street West and Dovercourt Road. As a long-time resident of Little Portugal, I have observed and documented its rapid transformation from supporting an ethnic community to a trendy entertainment destination. For this mural, I have focused on the liminal spaces that for me are the essence of my neighbourhood.

The black and white images of storefronts represent each of the streets that form the perimeter of the City Block. Over the years, each of these storefronts have hosted numerous tenants and served varying functions. In this mural, they are each presented in a time of transition.

The laneways of Little Portugal are evocative of my childhood growing up in the east end of the city and were an early inspiration for my artistic practice. While they provide practical access for residents and businesses, they are presented here as a playful place of unrestrained urban wilderness.

The wheat paste artwork captured in the 1080 Queen Street West Image is by Jeremy Lynch (@jumblefacefoto)

I am indebted to Shaney Herrmann (@shaney.herrmann) for her curatorial guidance.

Thank you to Gustavo Jabbaz (@vacaseca) for giving me the opportunity to present this work in the neighbourhood that inspired it and my practice.

David Scriven

David Scriven is a lens-based artist living in Toronto. Grounded in documentary photography, his practice explores the confluence of place and time.

An ongoing project entitled City Block captures the Little Portugal neighbourhood where he is a long-time resident. Images from this series were featured in the Spectra 2022 and 2020 group shows at Artscape Youngplace.

Common Ground, another ongoing project, emerged out of ancestry research started during the COVID-19 pandemic. Images from this series were featured in the Spectra 2025 and 2024 group shows at 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education and in the online Montreal-based magazine Carte Blanche, Issue 46.

He has also exhibited work at the MacKendrick Community Gallery, Gallery 44 Centre of Contemporary Photography in Toronto and at ViewPoint Gallery in Halifax. In November 2021, he self-published a photo book entitled Alexandra Park that captured a year in the demolition and rebuilding of a Toronto west-end community housing project.

Gallery location

Streetcar Stop - 2025

By Gustavo jabbaz
November 2025 - April 2026

The streetcar is my favourite mode of public transportation in Toronto. There’s something special about gliding through the city in a vehicle that sits high on the road, with no side-to-side movement, and generous windows framing urban life. Though they are slow, easily blocked, and often infuriate drivers, they persist.

Toronto’s streetcar system has operated continuously since 1861, initially as horse-drawn carriages, and has been electric since 1892. Managed by the Toronto Transit Commission since 1921, it is now the most extensive streetcar system on the American Continent and one of the few that has never been shut down or entirely replaced.

Today, the entire active fleet consists of Flexity Outlook low-floor articulated vehicles, fully accessible and wheelchair-friendly. The total planned fleet size is to reach 264 cars by 2025. In 2024, nearly 35 million passengers rode streetcars, which travelled over 10.4 million kilometres. While the subway remains the fastest and most efficient mode overall, and the bus offers the widest coverage, streetcars are most effective downtown, where they serve as moving observation decks for city life.

In my work, I celebrate this flawed, enduring system—not for its speed, but for its character. The streetcar is a symbol of continuity, resistance to erasure, and the quiet beauty of transit that insists on taking its time.

Gustavo Jabbaz is a Photography-based Visual Artist and passionate urban photographer whose work explores the dynamic energy of city life. His artistic journey began early, as he taught himself the intricacies of developing and printing black-and-white photographs. In 1998, he transitioned into the digital era with his first camera and has since remained committed to this medium, embracing its potential to transform his creative vision.

As an emerging artist, Gustavo designs digital collages that blend photographs of urban scenes and pedestrians. His process involves capturing the visual allure of specific locations or structures, which he amplifies to create immersive and captivating artwork that dominates the viewer’s vision. Through his work, Gustavo seeks to reveal the extraordinary within the ordinary, offering a fresh perspective on the familiar.

Gustavo’s work has been showcased in several exhibitions, including People Looking at Art at Alleyway Gallery during the CONTACT Photography Festival in 2024 and Stilled Moments and Looking for Sky at Gallery Arcturus, curated by Deborah Harris for the CONTACT Photography Festival in 2023. His other exhibitions include Blue at Gallery 44 in 2023, SNAP for ACT Photo Contest in 2024, and the Annual Juried Shows of Fine Arts at the Art Gallery of Mississauga in 2020 and 2024.

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