Blog Posts

Sea of Love

10/8/2021

The sea, once it casts its spell,
holds one in its net of wonder forever…
- Jacques Yves Cousteau

Sea of Love: to have passionate desire, longing and feelings for something or
someone: to like or desire very much
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Sea of Love is a homage to nature, ecosystems, connections, and discoveries.
Artists Shannon Lester and Endrene Shepherd are immersed in an artistic practice that offers commentary, anecdotes and observations of the natural world.

Shannon Lester
...is a visual artist and teacher based in the Okanagan since 1999. He works primarily in acrylic on canvas and has explored topics related to gender identity and sexuality in the past. His current work has moved more into the realms of fantasy, mysticism, surrealism and nature spirituality with a strong focus on underwater/ocean art.
Lester grew up in Newfoundland and spent six years living and teaching in Osaka, Japan where he started the drag-based performance art collective Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2009. He is also a local drag personality known as Sasha Zamolodchikova in Kelowna and entertains regularly at different venues in BC and beyond.

Endrene Shepherd
Born in Vancouver and raised in the rural setting of Kaleden, BC, Endrené displayed an aptitude for art-making from an early age. She learned how to handle watercolours from her grandfather, and has made art the focal point of her life for as long as she has existed. She graduated from the Capilano College Film Studies program in 1999, and went on to get a BFA degree from UBCO in 2004. Her work has been exhibited in exhibitions locally and internationally.

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Artist's Alley - 2021

8/25/2021

Download Delve-In

Follow the Artists on Instagram:
Adrianna Singleton: @liminal.spces
Angela Wood: @doodle.beann
Ari Sparks: @ari_sparks
Arianne Tubman: @ari_tubbs
Arianna Tooke: @ariannatookeart
Ashleigh Giffin: @galaxie
Breanne Wood: @bw.illustrations
Faith Wandler: @faithwandler
Maura Tamez: @maurazemat
Michaela Bridgemohan: @michmo
Noah Macleod: @paintedbutthole
Raine Simon: @outlawoutliving
Sage Cannon: @sage_cannon
Violet Desiree: @violet_desiree
Zoe Simpson: @_ivy_francis_

The gallery may be closed for renovations but you can still check out original art just outside the gallery. The alleyway between the gallery and art house has had many sets of banners and they have just been refreshed. Summer student and recent graduate from the UBCO BFA program Faith Wandler brought together a mix of emerging artists to refresh the Artist's Alley.

“I wanted to give emerging local artists the ability to do whatever they wanted, no restraints or requirements. As emerging artists we are often asked to do work for others, whether it be for school, commissions etc. we have to do what we can to make a living. It is not very often that we are given a paid opportunity to create what we want with no boundaries other than the size of our canvas. This intention has come to life in our Alleyway located in between the Lake Country Art Gallery and ArtHouse. Reawakening the space and giving the community a chance to experience the next generation of artists within the Okanagan.” - Faith Wandler
Lake Country Public Art Gallery Community Engagement Assistant 2021

Check out the Delve-In with details of all the artists participating and their instagram handles. Be sure to pop by & don't forget to share your photos of the work using the hashtag #artistsalley and tag @lakecountryartgallery & @lakecountryarthouse.

Uncharted Territory

7/3/2021

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July 9th to August 21st

Sarah Ronald, Robin Ripley, Victoria Verge

Vancouver based artists Robin Ripley and Sarah Ronald join Okanagan artist Victoria Verge in an exhibition that explores the meaning of territory.

Sarah Ronald is a Canadian artist living in Port Coquitlam BC.
A Summerland British Columbia native, Sarah Ronald’s diverse upbringing in the rural Okanagan shaped her future as a conservation-minded animal artist and aspiring creative writer. After graduating from the Okanagan University College with her BFA, Ronald relocated to the lower mainland of BC, settling in Port Coquitlam where she now works out of her home studio.
In recent years Ronald has immersed herself in conservation issues and studies, has explored the possibilities of community connection through artist residencies, and has continued building upon a lifetime of real-world natural experiences that have been instrumental in furthering her studio practice.
Central to Ronald’s studio practice is the constant evaluation of the role of the artist when it comes to conservation-related matters. As her work comes from a place of reflecting human behavior towards the natural world, her desire is to function partially as a conduit of the issues facing wildlife. As such she maintains that partial profits from art sales coincide with donations and support towards the non-profit wildlife organizations doing on-the-ground work to better the real lives of the wildlife that appear in her artwork.

Robin Ripley
After a peripatetic childhood I am now a long time resident of Vancouver.
Since receiving my BFA from Emily Carr, my work has become increasingly three dimensional and often incorporates both found and made elements to slow the experience of looking and encourage the viewer to reconsider the familiar. Working in discreet series I use a variety of mediums and formats from large installations to small collages to address my interest in the multiplicity of meaning. Engagement with materials and process are integral to my practice.
I exhibit regularly and have been involved in a number of collaborative and community-based art projects.

Victoria Verge is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Kelowna, British Colombia, Canada. Having completed her BFA in Visual Arts with a double major in art history from Memorial University of Newfoundland, she has participated in exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Whether she is working with found objects or paint on canvas, the contemporary view of military life is always an underlying theme in her work. She often uses found objects or sepia toned colours to contrast the modern military with its historical past.

Grounding, In Touch / Inland Water II

6/12/2021

Artist Talk

June 29th at 6pm

Artist Talk Details

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UBCO MFA Graduate Exhibition

Lake Country Art Gallery is pleased to present The University of British Columbia - Okanagan Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Graduate Thesis Exhibition, Grounding, In Touch / Inland Waters II by Brittany Reitzel and Sam Neal.

At UBC’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna, BC graduates gain exposure to advance concepts in contemporary art while working in a mutually supportive and critical studio-and-production environment. Over the two years, each artist develops different process sensibilities and explores personal artistic research questions. UBC-Okanagan MFA specialization in Visual Arts requires an exhibition of a body of work completed during residency in the program, a written thesis, and an oral defense of both exhibition and written thesis.

Brittany Reitzel is currently an MFA candidate at UBCO whose primary interests are grounding practices, forest bathing and site-specific expanded painting practices. She graduated from Brock University in 2016 with a BFA (Honours). In her current practice she works at the intersection of painting, ceramics and performance. She positions herself as a settler and long-term visitor on unceded Syilx territory, where she is interested in the boundaries of our human bodies in relation to the land. Her work posits a tactile unlearning of settler values and attitudes when working with and on the land.

Grounding, In Touch is a body of work that documents my process of grounding myself through creating site-specific artwork on the unceded traditional lands of the Syilx nation. As a settler I work directly on and with the land to open my body to ‘touch’ and be ‘touched’ by the land and provide a direct translation of the sensations I feel. I create works bare-foot and trade my paint brushes for my hands and other body parts, relating to the mindfulness theory of ‘grounding’, whereby is a process which our bodies “electrically reconnect to the earth when our skin is in direct contact with it”.
Like the permeable boundary of body, the canvas and clay are places of ‘encounter and transformation’. Through clay I am able to explore the softness of material, the absence and presence of the body and the movement from matter to object. The growth and decay of nature and the body's natural cycles are my inspiration. Using my hands as the primary tool to create, the work reveals the material’s relations to my body and its movements. The hand is exaggerated in my work leaving pinches, mini recesses and fingerprints. With my hand emphasized, connections are made to the process and the resulting final form reveals its own creation.
The work talks to my role in that creation and bears vulnerability to the presence of my own body. It comments on the interface of myself and other natural forms. Prying open raw material as grounds to discover the interwoven relationship between my body and other natural phenomena. Like a flower in bloom the sculptures reveal the gradual opening up between myself, the material and the land. Recording the stages of growth and transformation as I become further attuned to the Okanagan valley.

Sam Neal is currently studying for his MFA in Visual Arts at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus. His most recent work utilizes cyanotype, a photographic process, to create a collaboration between the artist and the environment. He accepted the Graduate Scholarship Award in 2020 and has been a teaching assistant in photography since 2019. He is also a research assistant for Living with Wildfire, a project funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund. Neal has exhibited most recently at The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art. He also exhibited for the Spring Festival of the Arts 2021, which featured a video installation at the Rotary Centre for the Arts.

Inland Waters II is an exploration of time, place and process. Using cyanotype chemicals, a photographic process discovered in 1842, I brush large pieces of paper that become sensitive to UV light once dry. Each of the works is created in collaboration with a body of water. I have been drawn to how water can appear to change color when light moves across it, how we can see water’s surface and its depths and how it reflects and refracts to create caustics. I carry the sensitized paper to the water and let the water impact or flow over it. The paper is then left to expose and dry at the site in which it is created. The connection between the overlapping of water, light and my engagement with the process explores a performative relationship with nature that can be visualized as a direct mapping of a place.
Inland Waters II features detailed prints that incorporate digital and screen printmaking, alongside the original cyanotypes. The prints depict the reaction between chemicals, water and light on the paper’s surface during the initial contact with water and after it oxidizes in the following days.
Each body of water acts as a potential threat to the land around it through processes such as shoreline erosion, flooding and other forms of environmental degradation. The cyanotypes in this space are left unfixed, and they retain sediment that is carried along with these bodies of water. They are impermanent objects that are susceptible to growth and decay.
Fixing a cyanotype would require me to thoroughly wash the material and let it dry to its final state. By leaving them unfixed, sediment, algae, and other deposits that reacted with the chemicals remain on the paper's fibre. The sediment and any other organic material can grow, fall off or stay in place. Ultimately, each piece is a living object within an interior space, reflecting its original environment.

On My Mind

5/29/2021

Laundry Room Collective presents:

On My Mind

May 29 - Jun 12

On My Mind is a pop-up exhibition that explores the role that art plays in addressing one's mental health and the healing properties that creating can have.

Eight artists - Pip Dryden, Adrianna Singleton, Nyasha Dube, Faith Wandler, Shay Ritchie, Arianna Tooke, and Jetta and Jade Loudon are a mix of formal and informally trained artists who present works created out of personal experiences, both vulnerable and intimate. This exhibition addresses the ways in which we, as individuals, process our experiences through creative practice.

This group of artists aims to bring awareness to the need for self care, and hope to contribute to the ongoing discourse surrounding themes of mental health awareness.

As a way of engaging the wider community, we invite you to be vulnerable with us by anonymously sharing your own stories. Guests are invited to share private moments, secrets, advice, or letters of solidarity with private written letters posted into a box at the gallery.

The Laundry Room Collective is an artist collective created by Brooklyn Bellmond and Moozhan Ahmadzadegan. Our mission is to foster the arts, creativity, and community. We hope that with our platform we may build up our community through initiatives that promote diversity and inclusiveness, that we may support emerging artists, and engage with creative and critical thinking. Our name derives from our shared studio space within a repurposed laundry room in the Lake County ART House which is situated on the unceded and traditional territory of the Syilx people.

Voice & Land

4/17/2021

Community Exhibition with guest artist David Wilson

April 17th to May 23rd

Community members were invited to submit work about voice and land. This theme was open to interpretation and we encouraged exploration of possibilities to create art work that speaks to the relationship and beauty between humans and the natural world.
Art work by artists of all ages was invited and collaboration between artists was encouraged.

Check out our Gallery Guide, Delve-In with a sneak peek of the exhibition and questions to consider on your visit. Click below to download.

Down Load Delve-In

Events

Forest Bathing - May 16th - Youtube Premiere
#RememberEarth - May 21st at 4pm - Zoom Photography Workshop

For more details on these workshops click link button to the main events page.

Event Details and Registration

Poems & Thoughts

Many Artists in the Voice & Land Exhibition provided words or poems with their work, here is a selection of these in a downloadable PDF.

Poems & Thoughts

Equipment Space

2/27/2021

Equipment Space

February 27th tp April 10th

Lucas Glenn and Mat Glenn are BFA graduates from UBC Okanagan and Kelowna-based interdisciplinary artists. Their sculptural, digital, and site-specific works use regional identity, science-fiction, and fantasy to address global crises.

Delve In

The Delve In Gallery Guide accompanies each exhibition with artist quotes, and questions to consider as you experience the exhibition.

Download Delve In

We will also be re-opening the
Creative Growth Centre for Spiritual Nourishment
Situated in the garden space behind the Art House, you will find an intriguing workspace that you can access and use as a space for quiet contemplation, for work, or use your imagination to find new ways to interact with this space?

For more information about this space, watch this interview with Lucas Glenn, recorded by the Kelowna Art Gallery, when the Creative Growth Centre for Spiritual Nourishment was installed there in 2019

Made By Hand: LCAG Members Exhibition

1/2/2021

‘Artisan is defined only as someone who makes things with his or her hands. That's all. Therefore, by that definition, pretty much all artists are artisans. However, not all ar- tisans are artists’...hmmmmm, confused?

What about this definition...

’An artist is a person who performs any of the creative arts. This can range from painting to music. An artisan, on the other hand, is a skilled worker who makes things by hand’.

There have never been clear lines drawn between artist and artisan...and this debate always makes good dinner conversation and a good subject for this year’s Members’ Exhibition.

Exhibition runs January 9th to February 20th, 2021

Under 100 Exhibition of Gallery Members Art

11/21/2020

Under 100 Exhibition & sale of original art by Gallery Members Nov 28 - Dec 21We are pleased to announce that the popular Under 100 Exhibition will take place this year, in spite of the unusual circumstances and various restrictions caused by the covid-19 pandemic. We will follow all safety protocols to ensure that everyone's health is cared for. There will be some changes from previous years, more information about that to follow

Get an early access pass at our unique premier event

UPDATE Following Dr. Bonnie Henry's announcement of Nov.19, we are cancelling The Front of the Line event, converting it to a Timed Ticket Entry exhibition experience. Your ticketed appointment will ensure that you are among the first to see, select and purchase your favourite works of art

This popular annual Under 100 exhibition has typically attracted large numbers of visitors when it opens. It is more important now than ever that we limit numbers inside the gallery to ensure a safe environment for staff, volunteers and visitors.

YOU CAN STILL PURCHASE your Timed Ticket Entry for a 40-minute viewing appointment if you want to be one of the first to see this Members Exhibition.

Your Timed Ticket Entry WILL give you: Exclusive first viewing of the exhibition; entry for a prize draw (prizes include a painting, a gift basket of art materials, gift vouchers and more).
You will also leave with a goodie bag of fine chocolates, your tax receipt, and any art you wish to purchase, which can be gift-wrapped for free in the Arthouse.

For your safety (and ours), This access will be limited to only eight visitors at a time. We can no longer offer wine or refreshments or provide live music.

Mask-wearing will be required, safe-distance moving around the gallery will be monitored. Extra sanitizing will take place between each group of visitors. The Gallery's HEPA air filter unit will be operating throughout.
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There are six timed-ticketed options — a maximum of 8 tickets available in each tier.

5:30 pm Diamond $100 with a $80 tax receipt (Almost sold out - ONLY ONE TICKET AVAILABLE)
6:15 pm Platinum $90 with a $70 tax receipt
7:00 pm Gold $80 with a $60 tax receipt
7:45 pm Silver $70 with a $55 tax receipt
8:00 pm Bronze $60 with a $50 tax receipt
8:45 pm Copper $50 with a $40 tax receipt

The public opening on Saturday November 28 will also be subject to all COVID safety procedures including mask-wearing and number limits inside the gallery, and may also be subject to wait times for entry.

On The Eighth Day

10/8/2020

Julie Oakes and Christian Bernard Singer

On the Eighth Day

October 10th to November 21st

In many spiritual traditions, the number Seven represents a special signifier for the natural manner in which life flows, in a cyclical escalating evolution from inception to completion. In the biblical story of Genesis, God rested on the seventh day after having created our world, all of its beings, including the first two humans. Regardless of how one interprets this creation story and the supposed fall and exile of humans, on the Eighth Day, humans entered into a co-creative relationship with the Creator. Today is still the Eighth Day.

On the Eighth Day, is an exhibition of works by Julie Oakes and Christian Bernard Singer that explores the act of creating as inherently linked to the ability to destroy in order to bring about harmony and peace, or chaos and loss. As we grapple with the climate crisis and a world pandemic, humans are being given an opportunity to review our relationship with the land that we were given, but on which we are merely passing tenants.

Open House: Saturday October 10th from 10am to 4pm
(Artists in Attendance from 12pm to 4pm)