Saint John Artists Bring Expression Back To Charlotte Street Gallery
SAINT JOHN — Artists Abi Reinhart and Craig Gower hosted over 400 people at the grand opening of their new art gallery/studio space on December 2, as a part of the Uptown Sparkles celebration.
The 1 Charlotte St. location, which has been sitting vacant since Jones Gallery left over a year ago, got a breath of fresh air when the Saint John artists opened the latest iteration of their gallery – renamed Mitote.
“Seven days a week, we’re an open-door studio, and people can come in and see us painting and working on pieces. We both work on five or six pieces at a time,” explains Gower, perched upon a paint-stained chair in the middle of the otherwise pristine, new space.
At over three times the size of their previous gallery, Grannan Street Studio, the opportunities to create and share their work at Mitote are even greater than before.
“The room is covered in paint and messy with a good creative vibe. So people can come in, join us for that, always. And then we clean up the room and repaint the walls and do gallery nights or gallery events.”
Even though they’d only moved in four days earlier, Reinhart has already created three new pieces.
“I just finished a couple of days before the show and then Craig stretched them onto the canvases,” Reinhart says.
A photo from a night the art was created, with the canvas on the wall, a drop cloth directly under the new work, and supplies surrounding the pieces, belies the spotless hardwood floor and clean, open space of the gallery today.
The three pieces sit right where they were created, among the other paintings that witnessed their formation.
“The one in the centre specifically, is about 5G. It’s mostly to inspire conversation about that and keep it relevant, like the possible effects on the human body and the ecosystem,” she says.
“It’s meant to really inspire people to think a little bit deeper about it.”
There are approximately 25 pieces that adorn the high, white walls of the gallery. The large, contemporary, striking pieces, reminiscent of neo-expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, are meant to do more than make a statement. They’re meant to tell a story.
“We’ve had so many people say to us during our grand opening that they need to come back and almost study the artwork,” says Gower. “Really, sit with the pieces for a while to get it. They’re all conversational, deep pieces. That’s real art where you get to really connect to it.”
The large windows into the gallery allow passers-by to get a glimpse of the art being created when they’re in studio mode, and the new location affords more opportunities for passers-by to see the work that’s being created.
“It’s interesting for me when people were looking through the window while I was just doing that for a couple of days, [people] knocking on the window,” Reinhart says. “And then during the Santa Claus parade, there were tonnes of people coming through.”
After the success of Uptown Sparkles, Reinhart and Gower say that Mitote will be participating in other events happening uptown as time goes on. For now, though, they’re focusing on returning to studio mode, after the show of the current works at the gallery is complete at the end of the week.
The plan is to leave half the gallery open for displays of completed works, and half shifted to a studio for the creation of new works.
As native Saint Johners, they’re hoping to inspire local youth to think of other ways to create, beyond photorealism, or other more constrained art forms.
“A big thing on our agenda is getting a program rolled out with a group of kids to bring them in here. Not so much teach them anything, just let them be inspired in the space,” Gower says.
“Kids already are very artistic … I think a lot of kids are taught in the wrong direction, and it really ruins their creativity. We want to change that narrative. And just give them our space, and be there to help if they need it.”
For Reinhart, moving full-time into art creation, and curation has been life-changing.
“For a long time, I was just working for different people and doing what my clients wanted for graphic design. You can’t really be that expressive. So, it feels good now to just be able to do my own thing. To paint what I want, and get some messages out there that I think should be more relevant to conversation,” she says.
“That’s exactly the point – to make some of these issues relevant and represent them visually, in a positive way.”
That ability, to communicate a message through art, where artist and observer have the chance to meet face to face and discuss the work, is what’s the most compelling for Reinhart in this age of online interaction.
“It’s a totally different message,” she says. “People listen. And people get it.”