Matt Shepherd
What's the deal with this tiny gallery?
Well, I love this neighbourhood, and art (although I don't have a lick of talent myself), and wanted to showcase some local artists while doing something to add to the cool little libraries and gardens you find around here. So I thought it'd be fun to make a single-piece, frequent-rotation gallery to showcase Kingston, or at least Canadian, artists.
This is, to my knowledge, the smallest art gallery on Earth. I can't say I've done a lot of research on it. There are other publicly funded, curated "public art" projects out there that have put art into public spaces on an ad hoc basis in the past, but if there's a smaller dedicated gallery space in the world, I'm not aware of it.
Do you only show local, original art?
Well, I prefer to show original pieces by local artists, but I buy prints from local "real" galleries, and have even been known to buy Canadian art books on the cheap to pull prints out of.
How large can gallery pieces be?
The gallery is built to (ideally) accommodate up to an 8.5 x 11 inch piece in "portrait" orientation, but anything smaller works, as do slightly larger pieces. I've been able to do some sculpture and other things in the box as well. Having hanging hardware in the back of the piece already is helpful.
Why, I have art to display, or know an artist who would love to be in the Tiniest Gallery!
That's not a question, but I see where you're going with this. Email me at this here address. I can't guarantee anything -- I have some things booked months in advance, and reserve the right to choose what goes in there without further comment.
It's very important to understand that this is an unsupervised, public-facing gallery that has already been vandalized once, and probably will be again. Art makes some people super mad. I can't figure it out. Anyway, I cannot guarantee that submitted work won't be subject to human, weather-related or architectural disasters. I certainly will do my best to keep works safe, but this ain't the Louvre.
How do I get in touch about media stuff?
See the email address above. I gotta say that I'm kind of digging having people discover this through word of mouth and stumbling across it, so I'm not actively seeking any broad attention at this point.