Robert Amos continues a review of galleries he remembers:
Back in 1982, I reviewed shows by Jack Wilkinson and Wayne Ngan at Whales Gallery, at the corner of Fort and Vancouver streets, in a shop that had evolved out of a pottery-supply company.
With the exception of Polychrome Fine Arts (now in a tiny space on Fort east of Quadra) and the apARTment Gallery (upstairs on the north side of the street), not many galleries have set up on what used to be called Antique Row. In the late 1980s, Robert Vanderleelie of Edmonton did his best in an old house on Fort up the hill past Cook Street, showing H.G. Glyde and Walter Dexter, but he faced the inevitable and closed within two years. Vanderleelie then took over Art Rental at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and invented the Moss Street Paint-In.
Carla Levinson used the ground floor of her husband Ben’s architectural office at 1540 Fort St. as a gallery for a few years, bringing us the dramatic abstracts of then-young Jeremy Herndl. She later relocated to a spot upstairs from Murchie’s on Government Street, but upstairs galleries are rarely financially successful. Beatrice Jumpsen had tried it in an adjoining space before her.
Back in the 1970s, Paul Kyle, son of Victoria College of Art founder Joseph Kyle, opened Kyle’s Gallery at the junction of Fort and Oak Bay Avenue, in a former furrier’s shop. Kyle really set a new standard for galleries, with Toni Onley and Bill Porteous in his stable of talent, but his business practices were unsupportable, and he abandoned the gallery.
His framer, Bernie Raffo, and a silent partner renamed it Winchester Galleries. This became the convivial home of the Limners, but on Raffo’s retirement the business was sold to Gunter Heinrich and Anthony Sam, who continued there as Winchester until success required a bigger, purpose-designed location at the far end of Oak Bay Avenue. The original shop at Fort and Oak Bay Avenue is now one of Victoria’s 38 marijuana dispensaries.
In the late 1970s, a house on Oak Bay Avenue near Redfern was known as the Backroom Gallery. Colin Graham had his first show of paintings there, after retiring as founding director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (1953-1974). Eliza Hawkins, a highly opinionated and colourful painter, had her shop next door during the 1980s.
Luz Photography opened in a lovely light-filled shop front at Oak Bay and Fell Street in about 2000, but eventually moved the business to the industrial area of Victoria, opting for workrooms rather than gallery space. About that time, photographer John Taylor and his wife, Vijaya, opened Eclectic Gallery, at Oak Bay and Wilmot. This craft and gift shop has slowly morphed into more of a gallery, where Jennifer Macintyre’s cheerful paintings can always be found.
Across Wilmot from Eclectic is a grocery store that once was the Print Box gallery. Established in the 1960s by Limner member Nita Forrest, it was the place to find Maxwell Bates, and its location next to the original Ivy’s Bookshop provided a benign synergy. Forrest eventually moved down to Wharf Street, but her waterfront location closed when Hartwig Court was renovated. It had been the main gallery of the Limners, a group that had originated in the 1960s as an outgrowth of meetings held above Don Adams’ furniture shop on Fort Street. At first called the Point Group, they remained denizens of that loft space when Joseph and Shushan Egoyan took over Adams’ business.
About the same time, Standard Furniture on Yates Street had an in-store gallery and framing service headed by interior designer Harold Tweten. Tweten later took his business up to a quaint storefront at Oak Bay and Fort Street. When it closed, his partner moved up to the south side of Oak Bay village and opened The Gallery on Oak Bay Avenue. The store continues as an outlet for many respected Victoria artists — Robert Genn, Kathryn Amisson, Harry Heine, David Ladmore — and, since the shakeout of many of the artists from the Winchester stable that took place earlier this year, you can find Deirdre Roberts’ fine watercolours there.
The Gallery on Oak Bay Avenue is a hole in the wall, compared with the elegant Avenue Gallery on the north side of the street where Blu Smith abstracts often adorn the window. Further up, toward Monterey, I used to visit Marion Evamy’s Red Art Gallery, which closed last summer and has now become a real estate office.
Side Street Studio, across the road on Oak Bay Avenue, which actually began on a side street at Oak Bay and Fell Street, was first a co-operative and since has operated under a number of owners. Speaking of co-operatives, the Collective Works Gallery, which held an important place on Gladstone near Fernwood for years, disbanded in 2011, and some of the members reformed as the Gage Gallery, now at Oak Bay near Mitchell. The ever-changing membership keeps up a busy schedule.
Readers of this column hardly need to be reminded of the presence of the Winchester Galleries on Oak Bay Avenue. Under the current owners, that business has rewritten the rules of what a Victoria gallery can do. The neat renovation of their property (which includes Ottavio’s Deli) was masterminded with architect Pamela Charlesworth, and raised the bar for all other businesses on the avenue. Representing the estates of some of Canada’s finest artists, they have made their suburban location a destination for art lovers.
Not every gallery has been able to manage that. The Framing Experience on Cedar Hill Cross Road, where admired realist Catherine Moffat worked as a picture framer, is long gone. The Maples Gallery, which was in a rambling and ramshackle building at West Saanich Road and Benvenuto Place, is ancient history. And who remembers the Utley Gallery, where artist Windsor Utley displayed watercolours by Oscar Kokoschka?
Even without them, I find it worth the trip to visit Sidney’s Peninsula Gallery. Founder Larry Hanlon sold the business two years ago, but the new management makes every effort to keep their clientele happy.
As the shades surround me, I hear the whispers of those I have neglected to mention, and never fail to be encouraged by those who take the plunge and open a new gallery. It’s not an easy way to make a living, but hope springs eternal!