Lo Brutto Stahl Gallery in Paris is hosting New York-based artist and gallerist Shelby Jackson’s first solo exhibition, “The Idea of a City”, this autumn.
The exhibition consists of paintings, objects, and works on paper produced by Jackson over the past five years—yet it primarily offers a meditation on the idea of a city as both a physical and mental construction process.
An Artist, a Gallerist, an Observer
Born in 1990, Shelby Jackson is the founder and director of the contemporary art gallery 15 Orient in downtown Manhattan, New York. While Jackson has long created space for the works of others, this time she reveals her own production practice through the invisible codes of cities. The distance that comes with running an art gallery intertwines intriguingly with the inner proximity of being an artist in The Idea of a City.
Fragments of the City: Canvas, Object, Map
Though the works in the exhibition appear to belong to different disciplines at first glance, they all revolve around the same question:
When does a city become an idea?
Jackson’s paintings consist of abstract geometries reminiscent of map fragments; lines, plans, notes, and unfinished forms evoke both the structural and emotional anatomy of the city.
In some canvases, building silhouettes can be traced but are immediately erased; in another, a road network collapses on its own.
This is the constant tension between building and forgetting—the nature of cities as much as human memory.
Listening to the City’s Voice
Jackson’s objects stand somewhere between architectural models and everyday items.
Small surfaces covered in concrete textures, broken neon pieces, old signs…
All resemble both the aesthetic and emotional remnants of the modern city.
These works remind us that a city is made not only of buildings but also of lost sounds, delayed glances, and missing plans.
An Urban Thought Experiment
“The Idea of a City” is conceived like an urban experience in itself.
As visitors move through the exhibition space, they determine the rhythm of the works with their own movement—just like getting lost in a city’s streets.
The minimalist, industrial gallery space of Lo Brutto Stahl supports this idea:
Concrete floor, high ceiling, and silence—the abstract echoes of the city.
Jackson’s exhibition presents a narrative that can be thought of in parallel with philosophical texts on the city.
It brings together Henri Lefebvre’s concept of “the production of space” with the imagination of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.
Apartment No: 26 Note
The Idea of a City is not merely an exhibition but an exercise in urban consciousness.
Shelby Jackson merges the architectural layers of New York with the historical weight of Paris—
and what emerges is a structure that reminds us space can exist as a thought.
This exhibition recalls that cities are not just places we live in but structures that shape our thoughts.
And perhaps that is why the “idea of a city” is always unfinished, always under construction.
📍 Exhibition: The Idea of a City
🎨 Artist: Shelby Jackson
🏛️ Venue: Lo Brutto Stahl Gallery, Paris
📅Dates: Continues until November 22, 2025
