A shift in priorities lead the owners of galleryDK to close the doors, but the storefront won't be empty for long as a Regina, Sask. photographer plans to open a new gallery at 1332 Queen St. W.
The gallery was owned and operated by the DK Photo Group: Sean Galbraith, Russell Brohier, Steve Jacobs, Laurin Jeffrey and Mathew Merrett. For more than two years, owners of galleryDK said Parkdale was the perfect home for their contemporary urban photography, but decided to shut the doors at the end of June."In the two-plus years that we have been open, the priorities of the five owners had shifted," Galbraith said. "We had always operated it as a labour of love, a place to show our own work and to show the work of other emerging photographers, which was a lot easier to do when we opened."Since opening, members have had children, homes have been purchased and other significant life changes have occurred."Individually, we all had different priorities and really wanted to go back to being just photographers as opposed to being business owners," Galbraith said. "Our own individual work and availability to do photography ourselves had really fallen off almost completely."The time requirements and cost eventually began to clash too much with changing priorities."It just got to the point that it wasn't that fun anymore to run it," Galbraith said.That is not to say the owners didn't enjoy their time running the Parkdale gallery and being part of what Galbraith calls positive change in the area."There have been some notable changes in the businesses that opened up subsequent to when we arrived," Galbraith said. "I think we were sort of a part of an early wave of change in east Parkdale."Parkdale and the space was a perfect fit for the collective for the time they operated the gallery, he said."If anything we are sad that we are getting out, as I see it, early with significant increase in population that the neighbourhood is going to have when the condos across from the Gladstone open up," he said. "I think there is going to be a lot opportunities for businesses in the area."It's an opportunity that Regina photographer Evan Tyler, 25, hopes to take advantage of.Tyler, who calls himself an inter-media artist, recently moved to the Annex and on Oct. 2 said he plans to open a contemporary art gallery for a variety of medium called Gallery West."I like to think of it as a project space for emerging and established artists," Tyler said. "There is an emphasis of bridging a dialogue between Saskatchewan and Toronto and bringing the west coast and the prairies to Toronto."Saskatchewan has a lot of raw, quirky and prolific talent, which, according to Tyler, goes under recognized elsewhere in Canada, and he said he hopes to help bring exposer to these artists.The collective will continue to work and shoot together and galleryDK will continue to exist as an online gallery and members will continue to exhibit in other galleries.