Satchel Gallery - National Post Apr 10/04

Toronto has its fair share of galleries that are so small lots of people walk right by them without even noticing. There's Barr Gilmore's consistently excellent Solo Exhibition space, a window that is 18-inches wide and 96-inches high, and sandwhiched discreetly beside Dufflet's Pasteries at 787 Queen Street West. Currently on view is one of Paul P.'s paintings of a young man in pink. Titled Pink Gothic, the painting is similar to the exquisite light-touch works that are included in the Power Plant's current Republic of Love exhibition. [Blog extra: Actually I got that bit wrong. Paul P.'s pink boy was NOT in the SOLO window when this article ran. It was filmmaker Maris Mezulis's Peep installation, which I don't have a pic of, but here's a little Q-time vid of Mezulis's Bus Stop]

And there is Lynne Rosen's Look Up Gallery located between two second-floor windows near Beaconsfield and Queen West. Weather-tough art is suspended over the sidewalk, and of course, you have to look up to see it.

But Anitra Hamilton's newly launched art space called Satchel Gallery, which is located inside her sturdy yellow carry-all bag, is definitely the smallest gallery in town at the moment.

Hamilton tells me she's heard of even smaller galleries than hers. In the UK someone has been curating exhibitions in their breast pocket. There is also a gallerist wandering around Halifax who has set up exhibition space on a bald spot of his otherwise bearded cheek. The patch of skin is programmed for site-specific works, and things like plastercine sculptures have been built and attached to his face for extended periods.

Hamilton, an artist herself, is being more practical about comfort and portability. She carries Satchel Gallery over her shoulder whenever she goes out. "I'm at gallery openings all the time anyway," she says, "so I thought, why not carry someone's art with me."

So far, art in a bag has been a huge micro-hit among opening partiers. The most common question asked is, "how can get a show?"

Currently Hamilton is sticking with a one artist, one work, for one month program schedule. This month Germaine Koh's Placebo is in the bag. The work is a small medicine bottle filled with 25 pill-size stones that you swallow to help root yourself by switching your focus and meditating on the wee stone as it passes through your body. "It's ecstasy for awareness," says Koh. People were happily popping stones at the recent Rodney Graham exhibition gala and at Ydessa Hendeles's opening last Saturday.

A full bottle sells for $75, which is not a bad deal for a work of art made by one of Canada's leading conceptualists; Koh has just been short-listed for this year's Sobey Art Award, a $50,000 prize given out every other year to an artist under the age of 40.

The Gallery has quickly attracted other high-ranking artists since it opened in March with a small booklet made by Calgary artist Jade Rude. The booklet, titled My Name Is, documents Rude's vinyl lettering graffiti which uses the nametag phrase as a street tag. In May, Alex Snukal has been commissioned to make a new work, and Hamilton plans exhibit Daniel Olson, Alexander Irving and Marla Hlady, all of whom have substantial art careers. Even AGO staffer Janna Graham wants to take the gallery on tour and act as animateur, giving a little schpele on each artist's background and concepts.

"I don't want to get too serious about this," says Hamilton. "I'm not documenting the shows or building a website or anything. It's pretty casual." In fact, to see the show you have run into Anitra at a gallery opening and request a viewing. The effect of Satchel Gallery is all in the social transaction it sparks. - Catherine Osborne

For more info, email anitra.hamilton@sympatico.ca. Germaine Koh's Placebo can be purchased online at Art Metropole and weework.