By Darren Eke
While it started out as “just a hobby,” artwork has become a permanent fixture to Centretown’s Shanghai Restaurant, leaving new and regular customers pleasantly surprised.
Shanghai’s regular display of art adds to the “flavour,” says Don Kwan, co-manager of the Somerset Street restaurant.
While the Shanghai has been displaying art since 1992, it started regular art exhibitions in 1995.
Each month, the restaurant is home to an artist’s exhibition, and ranges in different artistic mediums including sculptures, canvass paintings and photography.
Shanghai’s February showcase features photographic artwork by Tina Windsor.
“I captured things people don’t normally look at,” says the Grade 10 Canterbury High School student.
Under the dimmed lights, the black and white framed photos shine on the walls like permanent fixtures at the exhibit’s opening night at Shanghai.
Windsor’s exhibit includes fifteen photographs; a mixture of a summer trip to an art exhibition in Italy, Venice’s Biennale d’Arte, and shots taken in downtown Ottawa.
“I get bored of regular photographs,” says Windsor.
Recounting its history, Windsor enjoys telling about the photo of a new baby shoe perched on a fence.
Windsor says it was the result of “wandering for four hours” with her mother while looking for a particular beach in Venice.
The pictures was “something to remember at such an exhaustive moment,” says Windsor.
And while this is Windsor’s first-ever photographic exhibition, she says it won’t be the last.
As tables are quickly filled during the dinner rush, a customer remarks on the artwork surrounding them.
“It’s such an eclectic restaurant unique in the neighbourhood,” says Shanghai customer Patrick Kelly.
“It’s a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach,” says Kelly, adding that people who are intimidated to go to larger art galleries in the city would be “pleasantly surprised.”
The “funky environment” was one of two reasons local artist Kenneth Emig decided to display his first solo exhibition, “Substance,” at Shanghai last January.
Emig also credits the restaurant’s interest in each artists work.
Shanghai’s willingness to allow artists to secure their artwork, by drilling and putting bolts in the walls, adds to the permanence of each artists’ work, says Emig.
“Having that ability to make it seem belong there is something very important to me,” says Emig.
“That’s more of a gallery thing.”
And that is what Kwan wants the restaurant to do.
He says displaying artwork in restaurants encourages artists to showcase their work in more open public places with higher areas of traffic.
“We treat it like a gallery,” says Kwan.
“We’ve kind of trained our customers to expect something different.”
Kwan says the restaurant will continue to promote local artistic talent through its exhibits.
As an artist, he understands the importance of having opportunities to publicly display work.
“Everything you do is a stepping stone to something bigger,” says Kwan.