The Story Behind My First Major Gallery Exhibition

In the summer of 2025, I received an email from Suzanne Carte, the Artistic Director and Curator of the Art Gallery of Burlington. Hello Dave, I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to participate in the Art Gallery of Burlington's Community Generator Exhibition Program. We are excited to present your work as part of this ongoing series. The AGB's Community Generator is a series of community arts projects and activations geared to serve more artists and audiences. The programs are dedicated to creating equitable and open processes for artists and community organizations across the Burlington, Hamilton, and Halton region to apply for free access to exhibition spaces, arts education, and studios. I submitted an application earlier in the summer of 2025. With so many great artists in this area, I didn't think I would be accepted, but it was worth a shot. My photos will be presented on a 17 foot long by 8 foot high wall along a hallway that faces a courtyard. My exhibition will feature photographs taken across Canada, the United States, and a recent trip to the Azores. The theme will be light, and how the perfect light can create a photograph that is pleasing to the eye. Now, let's take a look at each photo, why I selected it, and how I put the whole thing together. Before I selected my pictures, I had to decide first how I wanted to present them. I had sourced a set of old wooden window frames from an abandoned house. These would be the perfect way to bring something from my subject matter into the experience. Picture number one, Records from the Attic. I chose this photo, taken in 2014 in an abandoned funeral home and music school in Detroit, for its composition, interesting subject matter, and the way that the natural light from the window is illuminating the whole scene. At the gallery, this photo will be displayed on the far left side of the wall, as the window is on the left side of the frame. Picture number two, Forgotten Stroller. I selected this photo, taken in the winter of 2022, in an abandoned house in Caledon, Ontario, for specific reasons. It features a forgotten stroller, bathing in the natural light from the window, which is on the right side of the frame. This photo will be displayed on the far right side, opposite of Records from the Attic, to balance out the display. The next two pictures are a slightly different concept. Rather than using more photos taken with windows and natural light, I wanted to use light in a different way. I printed these photos on a specific paper stock that would allow me to backlight them with LED light strips. Then, once again using large window frames from an abandoned house, I would build a light box, lining the inside each with 10 meters of white LED strips. For the glass, I recruited my friend and local business owner, Ben Arnold, and his partner Todd Livick, from Continental Mirror and Glass in Oakville, Ontario. Ben placed the photos in between a top layer of standard glass and a back layer of frosted glass, to help buffer the light from the LEDs. Ben, Todd, and the Continental Mirror and Glass team in Oakville did an awesome job for me. Look them up if you need any mirror and glass work, you can find them at continentalglass.ca. We've also got to give a big thanks to my dad, who helped me turn these old crumbling window frames into photo frames and stabilize them to support the weight of the glass and still look great on the walls. Picture number three, The Witch's Hat House. For the two backlit photos, I needed to pick two abandoned house exteriors that would stop people in their tracks. For the first one, I selected this ultra moody photo of an abandoned house that I photographed in Saskatchewan in May of 2023. The background was dark and hazy as a result of forest fires that were ravaging Alberta, and the exterior of this house is unlike anything I have ever seen. This one was a no-brainer for the exhibition. Picture number four, The Eaton Catalogue House. Since the other backlit picture was dark and ominous, I needed to contrast that with a bright and eye-catching photo. This one was the first that came to mind. I took this photo also in Saskatchewan in May 2023. It was a bright, sunny, and beautiful day with a blue sky, a few clouds, and just enough haze from the forest fires to add a bit of drama. The abandoned house stood out from a distance with the blue sky in the background and the yellow remnants of a recently plowed cornfield. An impressive photo on its own made even more pleasing once I added the LED backlighting. Pictures five, six, and seven, The 3D Layered Triptych. With four frames and four images that complement each other and balance out the layout, my middle photo had to be an impressive centerpiece to bring the whole thing together. One of the frames I had acquired was a three-panel window frame, perfect for three vertically oriented photos. My plan was to have my father take the window frame and create a deep shadow box, adding two separators inside. Once the shadow box was completed, I would take multiple copies of the same photos, then cut and splice them into a 3D layered image, giving each photo depth and a truly unique display. Sticking with the overall theme, each photo would either be lit only by the natural light coming in through a window, or use a window to frame the subject. Oh yeah, and another big shout out to Ben at Continental Mirror and Glass for providing the fresh new glass panels for this frame. The first of the three photos in the triptych was taken in the bedroom of an abandoned house in Grey County, Ontario in 2025. I picked the photo because of how the light from the window is falling onto the bed and then spilling onto the hardwood floor. When you see this photo in the gallery, however, I have added a picture of an abandoned grain elevator from Saskatchewan outside, instead of the harsh white that you see in the original. The second photo of the triptych was taken at an abandoned power plant on São Miguel Island in the Azores, off the coast of Portugal. Conveniently, the power plant is called Fabrica da Cidade, or Factory of Light. The photo features a look through a large window at the remains of the former power plant. Creating the layered 3D photo that you see in the gallery was the most intricate work that I had to do for this exhibition, made even more challenging by the fact that I had laser eye surgery less than one week before I made the final photo. The third photo that makes up the triptych, and the last photo of the exhibition, was selected to balance out the frame. The left photo contains a window on the upper right side of the frame. The middle photo is perfectly centered, so I selected this one as it has a window on the upper left side of the frame, making for a perfectly balanced display. I took this photo in the summer of 2025, in the abandoned former St. Catharines Standard newspaper headquarters. A few months after I took this photo, the entire building burned down, and with that we have a fully realized centerpiece to the exhibition, and one that is guaranteed to make the visitors to the art gallery do a double take, and get in for a much closer look. My exhibition at the Art Gallery of Burlington launched on Saturday, February 7th, and will be on display until May 24th. I am joined by fellow Community Generator artists, Francesca Durham, with her exhibition titled, Still Blooming, Emerging in Radiance, Rooted in Resilience, as well as Natasha Martin and her ceramics work in Vessels of Memory. The Burlington Art Gallery is located at 1333 Lakeshore Road in Burlington, Ontario. Admission to the gallery is free, and you can give a donation at several spots throughout the gallery, via tap, cash, or with the receptionists.