Mini masterpieces: Popular Nova Scotia art show set to return for its 21st year

Amanda Debison gets a preview of the very popular annual "Preshrunk" show at Argyle Fine Art, featuring tiny original works.

A small but mighty art show in downtown Halifax is set to return for its 21st year.

Argyle Fine Art will open its Pre-Shrunk exhibition on Friday, one of its most popular shows of the year.

“All the pieces are 4”x5” – loads and loads of artists. I think this year we’re going to definitely have over 400 pieces as of (Thursday) doing the count and all the photography and all the prep work for this exhibit,” said gallery owner Adriana Afford during an interview with CTV Morning Live Atlantic.

“It’s really exciting and it’s artist from all over Canada”

One of those artists is Matthew Mongraw of Dartmouth, N.S., who was inspired by the geese at Sullivan’s Pond for his small pieces.

“I live right by there and see them often … I was going by one day and saw the light reflecting off them and that is prime painting fodder, so I love them,” he said.

“I got a little too close trying to photograph them as reference and almost got attacked. I made it out.”

Artist Jessica Steele’s tiny pieces are made of hand cut paper.

“I use vintage books and magazines. I look for images that appeal to me and then I layer them to create a story or something that’s really visually interesting,” she said.

“I normally work in a bit larger scale, so it really began with finding that central anchor image that was small enough to fit that 4x5 inch parameter.”

Artist Heidi Holloway was inspired by word play for her Pre-Shrunk pieces.

“They’re my latest series of figure of speech, word punny, imagery that just together combine the best bad dad joke that you’ve ever seen. They are very on the nose,” she said.

One is a play on “Looney Tunes” with a loon wearing headphones. Another features a bird on top of an alarm clock to symbolize “early bird.”

Halloway said she had “so much fun” making her creations.

“Sometimes the images come before the titles, but also when it comes to these word puns sometimes the words come first and then I just kind of find the imagery to go with them,” she explained.

Afford said there are about 133 artists taking part in this year’s show.

“Everybody brings their friends and family and it is a really exciting and uplifting exhibit to start off the year because there’s actually a line up and enthusiasm for artwork, which just makes me so happy,” she said.

“There’s every type of artwork you could possibly think of – every medium, they’re all $175, so they’re great for young collectors or people who have been collecting these for years.”

Pre-Shrunk opens at 7 p.m. Friday and runs until Feb. 25.

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