Danny Hussey stands outside his gallery, Central Art Garage, in Chinatown. Hussey’s gallery opened its first show, OIL/CHANGE, on Sept. 13.
A garage has opened in Chinatown not to offer oil changes, but to display art and further expand the Centretown art scene.
de a converted car garage, was packed full of visitors on Sept. 13 for its opening exhibit, OIL/CHANGE, which featured works from artists from all over Canada.
Gallery owner Danny Hussey says that the opening of the gallery helps to further establish the Ottawa art scene. Many struggle to get their name known and tend to gravitate towards bigger cities such as Montreal and Toronto, says Bridget Thompson, co-owner of the gallery.
Hussey and Thompson drew inspiration for the use of a garage from similar buildings being converted into restaurants and galleries in Toronto.
“We were seeing these spaces as semi-industrial, but also really big, open spaces and in the range of affordability that someone starting out could manage,” says Hussey. “I liked the unusual and offbeat nature of the garage and the fact that it hadn’t been done yet in Ottawa.”
OIL/CHANGE showcases some works that are unfamiliar to the Ottawa art community, says Hussey. “A fair number of these artists haven’t shown their work in Ottawa before,” he says. Natalie Waldburger’s work, “Not a Codeable Disorder,” uses a jumbling of colourful encaustic numbers and text melted onto wooden panels.
Linda Mathies, a high school art teacher and visitor to the exhibit, says she was happy to see a large turnout in a city that she says needs more art festivals. There is a bigger market in other cities such as Toronto, so we should start mimicking what they’re doing, says Mathies. The Ottawa art scene has been a slow build, she says.
The expansion of the arts is being spearheaded in Centretown, because it’s mostly an untapped area, says Hussey.
“When Imoved here, the scene was in its infancy. I think it’s grown quite a bit since then to the point where people are happy to stay here, rather than move on to somewhere else.”
He says this is partly due to the establishment of the University of Ottawa’s master of fine arts program. Art festivals such as Chinatown Remixed have also been popping up in the area over time.
Hussey says he has no intention of imposing a strict theme for the exhibit; but, some artists took OIL/CHANGE literally.
Craig Leonard’s “Tar” is drawn in the style of an old newspaper clipping and shows a pair of hands.
In an email, Leonard says he drew inspiration for “Tar” from his “loathing for the brutishness and rapaciousness of the oil industry in Canada.” The price for Leonard’s piece is calculated by the cost of a litre of gas on the day it’s purchased, multiplied by 159, for the amount of litres in a barrel of oil, times 1.303 for tax.
Many galleries come and go in Ottawa, but the art community is very supportive, says Hussey. “When we opened this space, we had other galleries coming to us and saying, ‘whatever we can do to help, we’ll do it,’” says Hussey.
Central Art Garage’s OIL/CHANGE exhibit is scheduled to run until Oct. 31.