For the first Thursday of each month, Ottawa’s own Gallery3 opens its doors after-hours in Wellington Village to the public to view contemporary art and possibly meet up-and-coming artists like David Kaarsemaker.
Gallery3 “represents a diverse range of Canada’s most talented contemporary artists, established or up-and-coming,” according to their website.
Although there are no concrete criteria, the gallery works with the St. Laurent + Hill gallery in Ottawa to initiate the monthly artist into a more formal gallery setting in the nation’s capital.
Enter Kaarsemaker. Already a celebrated artist due to the inclusion of his work in the Newfoundland Provincial Art Bank Collection, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, and the City of St. John’s Art Procurement Collection, Kaarsemaker is currently working on his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Ottawa.
Kaarsemaker’s style lines itself with illusionism, dealing mostly with different angles of perception in one work. Kaarsemaker said the inspiration behind his art comes from the different ways people interpret their surroundings.
“I like to think about how we are each surrounded by space, each of us in our individual soap bubbles of perception,” he said. “I want to celebrate the beauty of the broken and transparent spaces that open as forms emerge out of and dissolve back into the raw surface of the canvas.”
Kaarsemaker also said his interest in different natural environments is influenced by where he has lived.
Born in Chicago, raised in British Columbia and Burkina Faso, Kaarsemaker said he utilizes the change in his life as an aid to celebrate different ways of perceiving.
“Having moved in and out of different environments has forced me to continually recalibrate,” he said. “At the same time, changing environments helps me to maintain a sense of wonder and sensitivity.”
Gallery worker Brendan de Montigny said Gallery3 is continually trying to bring new people to the gallery and to the ArtWalk.
“Every month we assemble small groups of about 50 people each from different community groups associated with the gallery so that they may come together after hours as a group to sample this new art,” he said.
Gallery3’s social media representative Melodie Sadler said she has high hopes for the ArtWalk in Ottawa.
“We hope to attract a younger audience to the art scene in Ottawa,” she said.
Sadler explains that the ArtWalk in Ottawa is one of many events in large cities worldwide that aim to exhibit new art.
“If you Google ‘First Thursdays,’ results for events in cities such as Toronto will appear. We hope to extend that trend of local art to Ottawa,” Sadler said.
