The Baggage Building Arts Centre
is off to a good start in the last few months aiming to be “a workshop for new
artistic creations” and “an incubator for creative people and organizations.”
There are monthly exhibits with artists in residence and a gift gallery. This
commercial space, located on the second floor, displays the work of local
artists, jewelers, authors, and more.
Currently, exhibiting a show
called “A Superior Experience,” the walls of the centre and gift shop are
covered with a variety of artists’ work, with about 36 artists displayed. The
works are very colourful and represent a good spread of styles, mostly
beautiful landscapes and a few surprises. In one corner of the gift shop is a
section that features a new artist every month.
For the month of March,
accomplished portrait and figurative artist, Anna Jane, will display her
drawings and paintings. Anna is a relatively recent graduate of the Lakehead
University Fine Arts program. For her young age she is very accomplished and
continues to develop an individual professional style. She draws and paints in
intricate detail with dramatic and endearing beauty, leaning towards hyperrealism
and hinting at the kind of animal and plant symbolism found in the works of the
19th Century Pre-Raphaelites.
It’s clear that Anna loves to play
with strong shadows and sharp contrasts. She employs a surreal approach with
long swirls of bright colour that stream and splash from the bodies of her
subjects, making her work fun and playful, yet asking to be read more deeply.
A short walk from the Arts Centre,
is Gallery 33, across from the excellent Thai Kitchen. This is a commercial art
gallery displaying up to 50 local artists’ work. The place is very spacious, so
each artist has lots of room to hang more than a sampling. The quality ranges
from novice to professional. A large amount of wall space is donated to
aspiring students of art. The gallery sells jewelry and books by local authors
along with other items. The stairs to the basement leads to The Painted Turtle.
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