By Jeff M. Darwin
After many years of sitting vacant, the second floor mezzanine of your historic market building is being revitalized with the exciting new Point of View Gallery.
Point of View Gallery showcases the art of established and emerging photographic artists in a space specifically designed to encourage public viewing. The gallery is the creation of Louise Radmore, a local photographer, as a space that gives emerging artists an affordable opportunity to exhibit their work and interact with the public in a historic location.
The ByWard Market building attracts visitors from the community and from around the world with international visitors, for whom the “birthplace of commerce”in Ottawa is a must see.
For many emerging artists, it is difficult to gain a foothold in the exhibition world. Exhibiting at Point of View Gallery may be their first opportunity to introduce the community to their work.
Radmore says this project is her way of giving back to the arts community, which has been instrumental in her own success. She credits the generosity of local artists and the encouragement of fellow students and mentors from the School of Photographic Arts of Ottawa (SPAO) for providing her with the breaks that earned her exposure in Ottawa art circles. As a long-time student of SPAO, Radmore has access to some of the most creative new photographic artists in Ottawa. The opening exhibition featured “Bones”, a portfolio created by first- year students, abstract works by Laurence Head entitled “Hidden memory”, as well as a 35-piece exhibition of Radmore’s own work entitled “Migration through Time” with the famous Eagle Hunters of Mongolia.
Public interest in the work and gallery has been beyond enthusiastic. The gallery will eventually have creative project spaces for work in progress also.
To celebrate our national winter festival, Point of View Gallery will be creating an inclusive body of work entitled “We” to be exhibited throughout the Winterlude festivities. For “We”, Radmore will select and photograph random people visiting the Market during January. These portraits will then be on exhibit during Winterlude in February, giving us all a view of what “We” of Ottawa look like.Photographic art with a winter theme will also be featured throughout February.
The gallery is unique as it encourages the public at large to visit. Many people are intimidated to walk into an art gallery; however that will not be the case at Point of View Gallery.
The artists will be on site for exhibition openings but otherwise the images will speak for themselves. We want the public to be able to explore and interact with the art at their own pace. Contact and purchase information for each artist is discreetly displayed.
Please drop by the Gallery and support the work of local artists. Nothing is more rewarding that seeing the public appreciating these images. Comments and words of encouragement on the website or FaceBook are greatly appreciated by all.
To exhibit your local art at the Point of View Gallery, please contact Louise Radmore directly at louise@pointofview.photos
Jeff M. Darwin is Executive Director at Marches d’Ottawa Markets.