With the Christmas gift-giving season upon us, this month’s First Friday gallery openings offer a plethora of choices in original art.
The Red Deer College Library’s The Panels gallery, as well as its Four Corners Gallery and PortHole Gallery, will be featuring artist displays this Friday.
Works by visual art students will be shown in Behind Glass: Relief Prints in the Style of the German Expressionists. This exhibit will be shown in The Panels until Dec. 11.
The Importance of Line, works by Red Deer artist Elena Rousseau, will be displayed in the Four Corners Gallery until Jan. 9.
And small-scale work by past RDC artists-in-residence will be shown until Jan. 11 in the PortHole Gallery, which is located just outside the library’s front doors.
All of the RDC exhibits will be open on First Friday until 11 p.m.
Original art will also be available for purchase at various Red Deer businesses, including:
• Cafe Pichilingue on Ross Street. Local artist Wendy Meeres will show her works in the Time Travel display on until Dec. 31. A First Friday reception will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
• … comforts the sole on 50th Avenue will be selling original jewelry created by Meeres and Carol Nault. A reception will be held on Friday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
• And The Velvet Olive Lounge will be showing works by Trent Leach and Holly Elliott until Dec. 31.
The First Friday shows at galleries are:
• The Gallery IS 4 Christmas show, featuring art by local artists Susan Woolgar, Erika Shulz, Jeri Lynn Ing and Victoria Schulz. Gallery IS, at 5123 Alexander Way, will briefly reopen to the public for a First Friday reception between noon and 8 p.m.
• A members-only juried show and sale is on to Jan. 1 at the Kiwanis Gallery at the Red Deer Public Library. The Red Deer Arts Council show of paintings and ceramics from 15 Central Alberta artists has an opening reception on Friday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
• Connecting Places, paintings of imaginary landscapes by Galia Kwetny, is showing until Dec. 19 at the Harris-Warke Gallery in the Sunworks store on Ross Street. The First Friday reception is from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
• Indigenous Impressions, works by Metis artist Claudine Fleury, will be exhibited until Dec. 31 at The Hub on Ross. The opening reception will be held on Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. This will be followed by the Gift of Music Christmas Concert featuring various musical artists, to benefit Loaves and Fishes. It starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15.
• Various artists will also be displaying their paintings and drawings on Friday at the Art from the Streets gallery at 4935 51st St. The opening reception is from 6 to 8 p.m.