Last month, I got a brief introduction to the coolest idea I’d heard in a while: an anonymous art show. The intro came from my friend Jane who is participating in the original Anonymous Art Show (this is it’s 14th year!) put on by North Van Arts. It’s exactly as it sounds: artists create their pieces, all using the same 8×8 canvas and then submit their works to the gallery. The gallery creates an exhibition with all the artwork displayed on the walls without any indication of who created any of it. It’s all completely anonymous. All canvases are on sale for $100 and the show is a fundraiser for the arts organization. Once a patron purchased a piece, then the painting comes off the wall and a tag with the artist’s name is hung there in its place.
Isn’t that fun?!?
Well, Jane thought so, too and she submitted three pieces. She then proceeded to challenge me to go there and see if I could pick hers out. From over 700 submissions. At first I thought it was a fun idea and thought it’d be easy. Then the anxiety kicked in. I wondered if it made me a bad friend if I couldn’t recognize her works. Had I not been paying close enough attention to get style?
We went to the gallery on Saturday and didn’t find out until that evening that we must have *just* missed each other. Tragic.
Jane let me off the hook after I’d been to the gallery saying that she’d actually tried a few new techniques so there was no telltale style and, as she described it, there were no hidden clues.
Here are some more photos from the exhibition. If you’d like to check it out, make sure you do so this week because it closes on Saturday, December 15th.
I like the diversity of the event. You get to see all kinds of skill and talent levels, a wide variety of techniques and styles. It was enjoyable to hang around there for a while – we stayed for about an hour. Next year, I’ll definitely go earlier so that I can see more of the works before they sell.
