OBSERVER: City Gallery
City Gallery announces On The Street Where I Live: Viva Gibb’s portrait of North and West Melbourne, a landmark exhibition celebrating the work of Melbourne artist and social documentary photographer Viva Jillian Gibb (1945–2017).
Opening March 12, this exhibition, curated by Savannah Smith of the City of Melbourne’s Art and Heritage Collection team, marks the largest presentation of Gibb’s work in more than 30 years.
The exhibition features never before seen material, including a selection of the artist’s photo albums, and will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue featuring contributions by Ruth Maddison and Helen Garner.
In 2025, the Melbourne Art Trust received a significant donation: more than 200 black-and-white silver gelatin prints by Viva Gibb, generously gifted by the artist’s children, Sybil Gibb and Rupert Duffy. Taken between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, these photographs create a vivid, compassionate portrait of life in North and West Melbourne at a moment of profound social and urban transformation.

