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YORKTON – The local artists reception was held at the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery over the weekend.

The exhibition, which has been running since June 1, showcased the talents of local artists from the area.

"This is important to have a reception – for all of our exhibitions we try to do that, but this one in particular," said Jeff Morton, Director and Curator at the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery.

"The local artist show has been going on here for years – always in the month of June," said Morton, noting that the past two years the local artist exhibitions haven't seen a reception due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Morton said he was happy with the turnout for the event.

"We're back now, to welcoming people," said Morton, adding, "with a show with over 50 local artists, you know, a lot of them have come out."

"We've got a good crowd here and it's really nice to see people talking about their artwork," said Morton.

Morton said he enjoyed seeing all of the local artists get together to talk with each other about their different art works.

"Standing in front of it, pointing at it, sharing ideas – it's a lot of fun," said Morton.

Morton said he was impressed by all the local artwork on display at the gallery.

"I'm drawn to some of the work on fabric – so my own personal taste – I think that's really interesting kind of work for people to work with," said Morton, adding, "there's such a range – I love the Sonic the Hedgehog drawing as much as I love the horse painting as much as I love Jeann Spilak's abstract pieces."

"There's something to love about everything," said Morton.

"Shout out to the bird carvers, it's a local group of retired guys – there work is so detailed," said Morton adding that their work is "scientifically accurate".

"It's really nice to see all their pieces together and to be able to celebrate what they've been doing here for so long," said Morton.

Morton said the exhibition will run until June 30; at which time the gallery will be closed for two days to install the next show.

"There's two exhibitions this summer – one is an augmented reality show – so this is one you walk through the gallery with a tablet that we have here in the gallery for you or you can download the artists app yourself," said Morton.

"Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory," according to Wikipedia on the article of Augmented Reality.

"It's like being inside of a cartoon or a movie," said Morton.

"This is an artist inspired by works on stage, theatre, play writing and Pixar movies," said Morton, adding, "it's going to be a lot of fun for families, for kids I think – really technology heavy kind of show."

Morton said the artist, Andrei Feheregyhazi, developed the smartphone app used in viewing the exhibit, himself.

"[We're] pretty excited to give him that kind of opportunity and to be able to show that kind of work here," said Morton.

The exhibit, 'New Bernard Style', will debut on July 8 at the GDAG.