The Wide Arts National Association (WANA) officially opened its gallery doors along with the very first show on Saturday, May 15.
The show features 10 individual artists from around the Okanagan region, working in different mediums and various styles.
Rather than aligning with a traditional gallery, the space gives off a more casual, and eccentric energy.
With live music playing outside, and people filtering in and out, while chatting away on the sidewalk, the gallery and the space around it was buzzing.
Instead of picking a specific theme for the show, the WANA team decided to showcase a broad spectrum of talent.
The arts society decided to go off of a list of artists they already knew and reached out to a number of them for the show, instead of doing a call-out for artists.
The gallery space is also relatively small (connected to The Curator/Wina’s Closet), forcing the curatorial team of Kate Hobin, Wina Poliquin, and Evan Borges to fine tune their selection of displayed work from the selected artists.
“In the end, we have 10 people that responded with interest (not everybody we reached out to was ready or had the time or a body of work together). So it sort of miraculously sorted itself out into the 10 people [we selected],” said Hobin, WANA president.
A number of the selected artists are painters, but displaying quite distinct and various styles, from portraits to landscapes. The show also features photography, glass art and jewelry.
“I’m really pleased with how it went up. And it just goes up by magic, you make a few choices, and all of a sudden things will start fitting together like putting puzzle pieces together in a way. Curating an art show is an art,” said Hobin.
The show will be longer than the usual one month period that most galleries subscribe to, going on until the end July.
WANA will also be giving a chance to artists who may want to switch up a few of their pieces around the end of June.
“So be the same people but then you’re going to have the opportunity to come in and say I’d like to replace that painting with this one or something like that. And at the end of June, we’ll be taking another look at space and resorting, hopefully not too much.”
The WANA gallery is open Friday – Monday and Wednesdays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. They are located at 5- 8302 Main St, Osoyoos, right beside Art Therapy Corp.
