The Vernon Public Art Gallery is eager to re-open its doors following a damaging flood in early December. It’s been one month since the disaster occurred and the exhibitions were closed to the public.

After crews have completed the repairs, the curatorial staff will be working overtime to prepare for the opening of four new exhibitions set for January 16^th, 2014. The original dates were pushed back by one week in order allow necessary time for drying, cleaning, dry walling and painting of the walls of the Gallery.

“We are just happy to be getting back to business as usual. The Gallery Shop received great exposure at the temporary site over the holidays but we need to get back to regular operations of providing exhibitions and programming.  It was unfortunate that we had to close our exhibitions prior to the holiday break and we also had to cancel events and programming, operations. We were basically non-existent for about two weeks at one of the busiest times of the year. On a positive note, our guest count was actually up significantly while we were at the site of the proposed new art gallery, a good sign that it is the right location for the new gallery facility.” – said Dauna Kennedy Grant, Executive Director.

“VPAG would like to thank everyone for their support during this time. It’s great to see we have the support of the community and we are all looking forward to a very positive year ahead.”

Upcoming exhibitions include a wide variety of subject matter and mediums including text-based art, painting, printmaking and model drawing.

Members and the public are invited to attend the opening reception of all four exhibitions to kick off the New Year. A reception will be held at the Vernon Public Art Gallery on Thursday, January 16^th, from 6:00 – 8:00pm. The Gallery is located at 3228 31^st Ave, Vernon BC. Exhibitions will run until March 13, 2014.

The Gallery will organize and host an exhibition titled dis/Order produced by Amy Modahl, a Salmon Arm, BC based artist and educator. The focus of the exhibition is a text-based conceptual inquiry into the relationships of linguistics and the visual arts, and the propensity to convey meaning encapsulated in a work of art.

The exhibition titled Stories and Dreams produced by Vernon based artist Paula Scott, investigates identity politics in narrative-driven painting. Scott’s work is a psychological portrayal of the human condition rendered in dreamy surrealistic environments.

Christine Kashuba: Thrown, January 16 – March 13, 2013

Vernon based artist Christine Kashuba will exhibit prints in the exhibition titled Thrown.  Thematically linked to baseball, the prints were produced by throwing a baseball at the paper suspended over inked plate and producing marks by the action of a thrown ball.

This group exhibition features sketches and drawings produced by artists during several Live Model Drawing Sessions organized by the Gallery from 2012-2013. Works are produced on paper, from a variety of media, from quick sketches to long poses. Models were male and female, draped or nude, and provided a study of the human anatomy for professional and amateur artists to explore.

Photo: Amy Modahl, disOrder, 2013, stop motion animation

              Paula Scott, Happy in Nature, Then the Church Bell Rang, 2006, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches