Brian R. Donnelly & Jason van Horne: Past, Present, Future

An Exhibition Hosted by the Collective City Gallery Project

Images (left to right): Jason van Horne, The Lost City, 2024, dimensions variable. Brian R. Donnelly, Cornered, 2026, video still.

Brian R. Donnelly & Jason van Horne: Past, Present, Future

November 18 – 29, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, November 20, 6 – 9pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 28, 11am – 1pm
Dupont Rail Gallery, Toronto

Collective City Arts is proud to present Past, Present, Future – an exhibition featuring the work of artists Jason van Horne and Brian R. Donnelly on view at the Dupont Rail Gallery. This is the final exhibition in a series of eight hosted in the 2026 season by the Collective City Gallery Project.

About the Exhibition

“All cities are mad, but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful, but the beauty is grim.”
– Christopher Morley

Built of concrete, glass, and steel, bound by the legalese of property ownership, land deeds, and landlord-tenant agreements, and sustained by a litany of maintenance obligations, cities are where eighty-five percent of Canadians live their lives. Neighbourhoods of clustered cultures, well-beaten shortcuts, and the history evolving around them translate into a municipal identity.

Past, Present, Future is a two-person exhibition that interprets this identity through a lens of growth and decline.

Using recontextualized film fragments, video artist Brian R. Donnelly looks to the past as he charts psychogeographic paths through Toronto. Here, a dialogue between nostalgia and modernity emerges, revealing how the imagined landscapes of film and the lived geographies of a city intertwine. Skirting the legalities of copyright, Donnelly’s work challenges the ownership of a disjointed cultural archive and the city as a living organism shaped by collective imagination.

Looking forward, Jason van Horne imagines a world after people, presented as a scratch-built, scale-model city being slowly reclaimed by wildlife. The absence of human systems nullifies the authority of ownership. Upon closer inspection, the buildings are made of consumer waste: reused cardboard boxes, plastic packaging, and fragments of obsolete electronics and broken toys. Gazing at the skyscrapers of refuse, the truth of our endowment to the future takes on a darkly sinister cast, raising the question of whether our thirst for convenience binds us to a contract of our own demise.

Artists (left to right): Brian R. Donnelly and Jason van Horne

About the Artists

Brian R. Donnelly (b. 1979) began his career as a painter. Exhibiting internationally since 2007, he began experimenting with video in 2018. His work has been included in museum screenings and multiple international film festivals, taking top honours for experimental film at Toronto Film Week (2025), Screener Short Film Fest (2024), and the Façade Video Festival (2024).

torontofilmboard.com | Instagram @torontofilmboard

Jason van Horne graduated from the Ontario College of Art & Design Sculpture/Installation program in 2002 and is co-founder of the public art project City Beautification Ensemble and the community arts collective The Soft City. Jason has been exhibiting work nationally since 2000, including exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, and Harbourfront Centre.

Instagram @jvh_miniart

Collective City Gallery Project 2027

The Collective City Gallery Project is now planning its schedule for the 2027 season, following a very successful 2026 launch year that included eight exhibitions, providing free, professionally curated exhibition spaces to unrepresented regional artists.

The Collective City Gallery Project is expanding its offerings for the 2027 season and will host twelve exhibitions next year at four different galleries, which include:

Dupont Rail Gallery, 1444 Dupont Avenue
Red Head Gallery, 401 Richmond Street, Suite 115
2-303 Lansdowne, Roncesvalles
Awkamon Gallery, Queen West

Collective City Arts would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that contributed to a great inaugural year and look forward to seeing and working with everyone again next year! With deep thanks and gratitude, Richard Mongiat, Dave Sylvestre, Hugh Alcock.

For more information about the Collective City Gallery Project, visit The Gallery Project.

To learn more about Collective City Arts, visit the website.

Collective City Arts
www.collectivecity.ca
Facebook @collectivecitystories
YouTube @collectivecity3016
Instagram @collective_city

Dupont Rail Gallery
1444 Dupont Street, Unit 10
Toronto, ON M6P 4H3

Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 12 – 5pm

Accessibility: Dupont Rail Gallery is fully accessible. For more information, visit Dupont Rail Gallery.