The Kunze Gallery has attracted a strong following this year, with visitors making the drive to Wynndel to see the works of a number of local artists.
The gallery is ending the season with a show that might take even the biggest art enthusiasts by surprise.
“We put out a challenge to our artists,” owner Sandy Kunze said recently. “We asked them to create pieces for this show. Di=Verge is the result.”
Artists were challenged to step out of their comfort zone and use different media and styles.
Kunze, a painter and potter, moved away from her large landscape format to paint abstracts. Ann Fetterly, best known for her very creative clothing items, used her artistic side to stitch drawings on canvas, which were then overlaid by cutouts of see-through fabric in various colours.
Bart Bjorkman’s contribution, a wood piece that he laughingly described as a trailer hitch support, drew admiration of its simple beauty.
“I’m not much of a woodworker,” he laughed.
In recent years he has taken cast concrete to a new level with his Legend Rock Concrete business and made lamps and other home decor items from unusual antiques. Puffin Design, a 14th Avenue workshop and gallery operated by Bjorkman and his wife Allison, has been another important addition to the local arts scene.
Maggie Leal-Valias, whose work on display at the gallery this summer featured manipulated photographic images printed on aluminum, painted an abstract in a style reminiscent of Klimt. Popular Creston painter James McDowell also turned to an abstract form. His daughter-in-law, Lisa, produced large crocheted hangings.
At an opening night reception earlier this month, artists wandered through the gallery, happy to discuss their own work but also excited to see what their peers had created.
“We live among such talented people,” enthused Leal-Valias. “These artists are so supportive of one another — it’s quite wonderful to see what they have done.”
The Di=Verge exhibition is open to the public again this weekend, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 24/25.
