You might just happen to be strolling around downtown Edmonton this weekend right around the district where Jasper Avenue curves north and turns into 124 Street. You realize that it’s the area’s annual Fall Gallery Walk, a wonderful opportunity to both connect the dots between seven great galleries across 12 blocks and, of course, to see some of the best art on display in the region.
As you stop in to Tu Gallery on the west side of 124 Street, just north of the Roxy Theatre, you get a strange sensation like you’ve suddenly been transported to a little location in south-eastern St. Albert. The artists all have familiar names and the paintings on the wall are exactly the same. This isn’t the Twilight Zone. It’s just that Tu is celebrating all things Hidden Talent Fine Art School.
Hidden Talent opens on Saturday for a three-week run. The show is a real love letter from owner Alex Paterson. He already knows the quality of work he can expect from school owner Laura Watmough as he has exhibited her paintings in the past. As he became more interested in the St. Albert scene, he made a trip to this fair city to check out her students’ work. To say he was impressed would be an understatement.
“He came in and chose what he thought would go best in a show and what he thought would sell in a commercial gallery,” Watmough said. “There’s a long lineup to get in [to have a show]. He gave us a prime spot with the Edmonton Fall Gallery Walk. I just couldn’t believe that he would do that.”
Apart from the time and place, the fact that Paterson himself juried the selection provides an added level of confidence-boosting for the artists.
“All of these artists knew that they were doing pretty good but now we have validation from an outside source.”
It is extra validation if you consider that some of these artists have never exhibited previously. Take 21-year-old Kayla Nagazina for example. The graphic design student at Grant Macewan University was thrilled to hear the news about the show.
“I was ecstatic,” she enthused. “I was quite excited because I thought it would be my first opportunity to actually display my work and get a name and a start out there for myself.”
This is going to be just the first of a series of shows focusing on the hidden talents at Hidden Talent.
Watmough said Tu is going to make the Hidden Talent exhibit an annual occurrence, a commitment that should make her already popular art school even more prestigious as time goes on.
