Single-artwork art show suits Capacity 3
Capacity 3 Gallery doesn’t tend to take itself too seriously. After all, the space itself, described on Facebook as “a recently discovered lost space between the main floor and basement of Boarding House Arts,” is little bigger than a broom closet. It is suited to small works with big senses of humour.
The gallery’s current show, The Pepper, highlights this, featuring only a single work by Canadian artist Gar Smith. The piece, on loan from the Art Gallery of Guelph, is an approximately life-sized lead sculpture of a pepper, displayed in a transparent box. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this humble pepper took me by surprise. Confronted with such a small, yet curvaceous statement, I found myself chuckling, especially given the authority granted it by the name of the show: not “a pepper,” but The Pepper.
The pepper itself is immaculately crafted from the humblest of materials — lead, a metal synonymous with dullness. But despite this, and especially in the intimate space of Capacity 3, the pepper’s curves and ridges possess a sensuous quality, reminiscent of the human form. It is not just a small pepper, and a humble pepper, and a dull pepper. It is also a sexy pepper.
I highly recommend standing in this little room with this little pepper. It certainly brought me a little joy.
The Pepper runs at Capacity 3 Gallery until March 31.
Photo by Will Wellington/The Ontarion