At the intersection of art and community

Earl Grey

Osborne Village

There’s a new art gallery in town.

On Oct. 24, Lifes Short Gallery and Studios officially opened its doors to the public at 411 Pembina Hwy., hosting the opening of Beaches, Cemeteries and Playgrounds, a combined show by local artists Hamideh Behgar and Ten Yetman.

“Two amazing local artists who use colour and play a lot, a really fun first show,” said Karen Hare, who co-owns and runs the space with her partner. “I feel like they both take kind of a bit of an approach of looking at dark subject matter and using lightness.”

Yetman’s neon-heavy paintings draw “on influences from Fellini films, Devo music videos, 1980s fabrics, and Renaissance art” while her “surreal creatures inhabit spaces where joy, nostalgia, and horror coexist in equal measure,” according to Yetman’s online artist’s statement.

“I’ve seen her work grow over the last five years and she’s been so fun to watch,” Hare said. “Her work is so inspiring, and her process, I just get so excited about seeing someone who is so into working with their own practice that it just seems to flow out of her. It’s so great.”

Meanwhile, Behgar’s sculptures, which are part of her master’s thesis at the University of Manitoba, “evoke the interdependence of humans, animals, and plants, celebrating unity and play as acts of healing.”

“I’m so lucky that Hami is right here,” Hare said, noting that Behgar is one of the artists renting studio space in back of the gallery.

The idea to launch a gallery, or even provide studio space for other artists, came about organically, Hare said. An artist herself, who works with reclaimed wood and other organic materials, Hare said she felt she was outgrowing her home studio a few years ago. After looking for rental space for only a few weeks, Hare came across the building at 411 Pembina. Together with her husband and some close friends, they bought the Pembina Highway space, which includes a three-bedroom residential rental unit on the second floor and a billboard, which can be rented out.

“It really hit all the right boxes,” Hare said. “We’re in Osborne Village, and my kids go to school on Lilac. Location wise, it was really exciting for us. It gives me more time to work and be open.”

The next step was to figure out how to make the most of the place.

“Often, people have a big business idea and start working, but we found the property first and kind of asked the property what it could be, knowing I needed a studio,” Hare said. “We thought, ‘OK, if we can get ourselves and a few other artists in here, the front space lends itself well to a gallery,’ and I’ve always been interested in curation and uplifting other artists.”

Hare used her background in environmental design to create a warm and welcoming interior, making use of reclaimed and refinished cedar, and vintage lights and furnishings.

“We wanted there to be more of a tactile experience than some galleries have,” Hare said. “Hopefully it really starts to feel like a piece of the neighbourhood. We want to be good neighbours.”

Hare hopes that, along with providing modest studio space for artists, the gallery can also act as a space for artists whose work often falls between classification.

“I consider myself a craft-based artist, (and) I do feel there are a lot of artists that kind of fall between lines and don’t have a space to support them — I feel like I’ve been one of them, a little bit,” she said.

“I’m interested in the intersection of things and how it can work with art in a space to showcase something spectacular.”

Lifes Short is open to the public Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Beaches, Cemeteries and Playgrounds runs through Dec. 6. Visit lifesshort.ca for more information.