City Art Space’s recent exhibition, Wild Way Sides: Queer Ecology and the New Natural, was held on Feb. 6, 2026. Originally curated by Pearl Van Geest and James Fowler, the exhibition toured Canada and is now being showcased in Rochester, featuring new contributions from LGBTQIA+ artists, including alums Lydia Sharp and Emily Baker.
The collection invites viewers to reflect on how queer thinking changes the way people view the world and challenges traditional ideas of landscape, identity and their relationship to nature. As a multidisciplinary exhibition, it features field recordings, visual artworks and performances that present the natural world through a queer lens.
Wild Way Sides is only one of the many exhibitions that City Art Space has held. RIT originally resided in downtown Rochester, but it moved to Henrietta in 1968, and by 1990, the last building housing painting studios and an art gallery was sold. Nine years later, the faculty of the College of Art and Design decided that students needed a way to connect with the art scene of the city, and Gallery R was opened.
Moved twice and rebranded as City Art Space, it is RIT’s only downtown art gallery. It holds monthly exhibitions showcasing student, faculty or alumni art. Its exhibitions and events are free to the public and open year-round, serving as a bridge between RIT and the creative community of Rochester and making it a one-of-a-kind space.
The next exhibition will be presented by Lydia Boddie-Rice. Rising on the Wind is a multimedia installation serving as a visual representation of personal transformation. The opening reception will be held on March 6, 2026, and the exhibition will be centered on sculpted kites. In support of the artists, every first Friday of the month, RIT offers a campus shuttle to the exhibition for all students interested.
