Touring the best art galleries in Kelowna doesn’t have to happen all in a day. Just as we drizzle the splendour of a fine wine slowly down the hatch to draw out the aromas, the unique taste and finish, so should a tour of art galleys take place with measured tranquillity at a relaxed pace for maximum effect.
Understandably, the exquisite beauty everywhere you look in Kelowna provides artists with all the inspiration they need for their work. Art appreciation is always in the eye of the beholder and Kelowna Art Galleries do not disappoint.
Kelowna Art Gallery Tour Guide
- Kelowna Art Gallery - is the heart and soul of Kelowna culture in the Pandosy Village With four gallery spaces to keep you intrigued for hours, local, national, and international artworks will have you spellbound and spoilt for choice.
- Gallery 421 - also in Pandosy Village, exhibits for local, national, and international artists feature sculpture and blown glass besides exquisite paintings.
- Tutt Street Gallery - the third galley in Kelowna’s Pandosy Village, offers select contemporary fine art, original oils, and acrylics from authentic and talented regional and national artists.
- Geert Maas Sculpture Gardens and Gallery - boasting one of the largest collections of bronze sculptures in all of Canada, this open-air exhibition is not to be missed.
Touring means discovering, so in case you thought you were done having visited all the above, broaden your horizons one more time and diarize days to tour these Kelowna art galleries too.
- Art Lovers Gallery - in Water Street, is Western Canada’s only licensed Art of Dr. Seuss Gallery - how could you miss that?
- Hambleton Galleries - on Ellis Street, is home to contemporary and historic artists in paintings, ceramics, glass, and sculpture.
Kelowna’s Plethora of Art Events & Outlets
Time would fail us were we to cover all the exceptional festivals and art events Kelowna hosts.
Arts on the Avenue is a unique, one-day visual arts event, the largest of its kind, and includes live performances. Add to that the annual ArtWalk event that is held at different venues. Plus the Kelowna Public Art Tour with its artist in residence feature. The NAC (New Arts Collective) is a brilliant concept located in downtown Kelowna. Professional resident artists work their magic in a studio setting and there is an event room for classes and workshops.
Touring Kelowna Art Galleries is a Life-Enriching Experience
You’d be forgiven for thinking that, as Kelowna is so beautiful, why to go look at painted versions of the real thing. People take photos of the real thing and look at them constantly don’t they? But art is not about replicating, it’s about interpreting.
People fall in love with a painting or sculptural piece because the interpretation of the reality reflects a shade or nuance of something deep within. When artists and sculptors express their perception and experience on canvas, it exudes its own energy that resonates with different people in different ways.
It’s not something belonging to left-brain logic, it’s emotional and right-brain oriented. It’s even spiritual, in that it awakens the metaphysical.
Guess who said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun”? What a classic oxymoron that one of the most intelligent humans with an IQ of somewhere near 180, and ever the traditional left-brain scientist gave us.
For those reasons, visiting art galleries is an enriching activity that evokes a part of ourselves that city life pretty much shuts off.
Why not explore your creative genius and let Kelowna’s art galleries coax it out of you?
