Whyte Avenue Art Walk is back full scale with 400 unique artists – Edmonton Journal

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Fans of democracy will appreciate the idea “by the people, for the people.” Whyte Avenue Art Walk’s producer Jill Roszell thinks those words are a fitting mantra for the annual open-air festival marketplace, which stretches out through Old Strathcona for its 28th year Friday through Sunday.

“Those ‘by and for the people’ words have been resonating with me,” says Roszell, noting the scale of the interactive Art Walk is finally back to its bumpin’ 2019 levels, including 150 brand new artists renting spots between 103 and 107 streets on both sides of Whyte Avenue. Tables will also be up in Dr. Wilbert McIntyre Park, SouthBARK and other spots you can pinpoint on the map at art-walk.ca.

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“I come from theatre,” continues Roszell, “and I call Art Walk the visual-arts Fringe. So basically as long as you register, you’re in — with the one stipulation that it’s visual art.

“It’s an incredible age range of artists,” she adds. “But also a range of demographics, a range of different mediums, all from different corners of the city.

“And, as you know, we also encourage people to create onsite.”

Adding to this artistic-performance aspect, a full roster of musicians will be playing all weekend in the Music in the Gazebo series in McIntyre Park, with buskers singing for supper in the SouthBARK park at 8122 106 St.

Last year’s return-to-the-streets Art Walk had 235 vendors — its first year back outdoors following a small-scale pandemic run inside the former Army & Navy on Whyte.

“Not everyone was comfortable yet, and not everyone was making art, to be honest,” Roszell notes of 2022. “But now we’re back this year with 400 artists, which was the average pre-pandemic, so we’re really very happy with that.”

Some 40,000 people typically come out to engage with and buy myriad wares made by local artists and, in the pop-up marketplace, crafters of ceramics, jewellery and so much more.

The preview list of scrollable vendors, also at art-walk.ca, is a great way to get pumped up about who’s going to be out there starting at 10 a.m. Friday — from the municipal-minded watercolours of Kay Rose Creative to Ratchet Gold’s saucy acrylic designs to Lisha Bunny’s manga-based caricature drawings, just to pick a few that leap out from the thumbnail garden.

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Here you’ll see samples of each artist’s work and where to find them.

For example, Ivy Cardinal’s surrealistic hybrid animal watercolours will be on the north side of 105 Street, table 12, while Alex Middleton’s sweet nature photos will be in Wilbert McIntyre Park (104 Street and 83 Avenue) at table 29.

Jo Valentine’s illustrative watercolour portraits really caught my eye — but to serve your own taste, look around and you’ll find photographers, glassblowers, printmakers and oil painters making everything from pure abstracts to tribute drawings of Swamp Thing and Ernest Hemingway.

And, of course, there are reliably hundreds and hundreds of depictions of animals — often anthropomorphized doing very human things — as we find in the work of longtime vendor Jared Robinson. The 43-year-old almost didn’t make it out this year after a fire recently destroyed his garage studio, including all his whimsical paintings, art supplies and even vendor gear.

Art Walk kindly offered Robinson a rental refund, but after the supportive art community dropped off tubes of paint and other supplies — “along with a bunch of high fives,” Robinson laughs — he made up his mind.

“So we’re like a month and a half out,” says the painter, “and I’m just like, I’m going to make this happen.”

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While he could only finish one full-sized painting, that didn’t stop him from creating a respectable haul of new and unique art drawn from his archival images. “I printed off a bunch of my pieces on fabric, cut it out with an X-Acto blade and ended up gluing these down with embellished, hand-painted little additions,” he explains. “I’ve been just working my butt off, so I’ve got 13 of these pieces.”

Robinson says he’s been developing his distinct style on the streets of Art Walk since around 2005.

“For someone who just started painting thinking, ‘Hey this is cool,’ just for my own lols, Art Walk has been amazing. First three years I didn’t sell a thing,” he laughs. “And a bird literally took a s— on one of my paintings.” (Of a bird, of course.)

That avian criticism aside, the painter encourages new artists to channel the art that speaks to them and find their own hand instead of chasing what they think will sell.

“Make what works for you, in your own voice,” says Robinson.

This is one of the things Mike Perrino, longtime owner of Mars & Venus and Whyte Knight, most appreciates about the temporary, massive outdoor gallery.

“It’s a diverse mix of artists, including the weird. All’s welcome on Whyte, you know?” says Perrino. “I do think out of the events down here that it’s one of the better ones that showcases a slice of Edmonton’s creativity — a positive thing.”

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The Paint Spot’s Kim Fjordbotten, who ran Art Walk for the first quarter century, notes of the ongoing Art Walk, “They’re doing great!” In conjunction with the fest, her shop at 10032 81 Ave. is launching its open-call 12×12” POP! show Friday, the walls filled with portraits of superheroes, political figures, toys and gaming avatars. An online preview is at paintspot.ca.

Current producer Roszell wraps up what makes Art Walk unique.

“So much of what we do in the arts is curated, and it’s curated for good reason. But there always has to be a space for people that is not curated, that people can get into and try new things and break into this world and see what people like,” she says. “And to use that experience of Art Walk and have artists meet each other, and ultimately be inspired by each other.”

Tandem Walks

Kicking off Thursday, meanwhile, is Artwalk St. Albert, with more than 30 local artists indoors and out.

Spread around the city’s various venues, it’s a three-day event, each about a month apart, starting at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The next two instalments happen Aug. 3 and Sept. 7 — first Thursday of each month.

AWSA’s locations include downtown St. Albert, St. Albert Place Plaza, St. Albert Public Library, Musée Héritage Museum, WARES Gift Shop and Art Gallery of St. Albert.

And if you can’t make it Thursday, the fantasy-inspired AFA travelling exhibition Come What May is up through all of July at the library.

A full list of events and artists can be found at artwalkstalbert.com.

fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com

@fisheyefoto

PREVIEW

Whyte Avenue Art Walk 

When Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Where Whyte Avenue between 103 and 107 streets     

Cost Free

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