Burtynsky: Extraction Abstraction

14 Feb-6 May 2024

Overview

This exhibition marks the largest exhibition ever mounted in the 40+ year career of world-renowned photographic artist, Edward Burtynsky, who has dedicated his practice to bearing witness to the impact of human industry on the planet.

Curated by Marc Mayer, former Director of the National Gallery of Canada and Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the exhibition will feature 94 of Burtynsky’s large-format photographs as well as 13 high-resolution murals, and an augmented reality (AR) experience. A centrepiece of the exhibition will be an immersive film presentation of In the Wake of Progress (2022).  A never-before-seen element in this exhibition, referred to as the “Process Archive,” will also showcase Burtynsky’s navigation through each of the technological shifts in the photographic medium that have occurred over recent decades. The exhibition will reveal Burtynsky’s life-long observation of humanity’s incursion into the natural world, and the environmental consequences of industrial processes. 

Edward Burtynsky: “I have spent over 40 years bearing witness to the ways in which modern civilization has dramatically transformed our planet. At this time, the awareness of these issues presented by my large format images has never felt more urgent. I am grateful to be mounting the largest exhibition of my career at Saatchi Gallery in London, UK and I hope the exhibition experience will continue to provide inflection points for diverse conversations on these issues and move us all to a place of positive action.”

Artists