NARWHAL

I attended my first solo art exhibit featuring the talented Gary Taxali. Walking in, I had no idea who this «so called very famous artist» was. But as soon as I saw his pieces, I had this feeling of familiarity come over me.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Taxali has this very unique style (check out pics). I had no idea where I recognized his work from but recognizing the fact that I recognize his works speaks volumes. We all know how difficult it is for artists to pave some sort of career in this capitalistic world. Apparently though, Taxali has had some success.
Not realizing until after I left the exhibit is when I found out that Taxali has created illustrations for magazines such as Rolling stones, Newsweek, The New York times, and GQ. Which is why I recognized his illustrations.
I know how «artists» like to ponder about the meaning of each illustration but what I would have liked to have seen was a description of the article, or at least the title of the article so we could put the illustration in context.
GARY TAXALI
I was able to meet Gary Taxali. He wasn’t camera shy at all so we took some pictures, which was a nice souvenir.
One of the things that kind of bothered me was the way he interacted with me and my friend. I understand he was busy greeting all his friends however just imagine if I was a fan, a potential employer, or an interested buyer… taking no interest in me or asking whether I enjoyed the exhibit is poor business sense and poor character. Maybe I just caught him on an off moment. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
FOOD
Taxali paid hommage to his Indian roots by serving samosas. As most of you know, I don’t have a very strong stomach when it comes to bad food. I had one samosa and in about half an hour, I wasn’t feeling to well. I don’t know if the samosa was bad (spoiled ingredients) or whether I’m allergic to something in that particular samosa (i have samosas all the time) but boy did I have to use the bathroom badly. This has no reflection on Taxali. How would he have known that the food was bad? I blame it on his management for not reading Unilocal reviews prior to hiring that caterer!
ENVIRONMENT
The Narwhal Art Project was cozy and chic. The lighting was absolutely perfect highlighting all his pieces.
The place was constantly crowded for the full 2 hours I was present. It was a bit warm to say the least but it just goes to show how the popularity of this artist.
A great first experience and a benchmark for future exhibits. I look forward to attending more art shows

I’m really excited about Narwhal’s new place in the neighborhood. A more formal gallery space, but with the personality of Magic Pony. It’s fantastic to see more Canadian Artists in a space with a lot of character. I’m looking forward to seeing the next exhibit and attending more events at Narwhal. Recently they put together a walk through with some of the artist in the current show. Great idea. Great space. They also have cheese at openings.

Being a fan of the sister store, Magic Pony, I recently attended Narwhal’s grand opening and was really pleased to see all of the whimsy and wonder of the original Magic Pony scaled up to fit this new space. The owners really seem to have stood by their motto that ‘art should be accessible to all’, with some of the most reasonable pricing I have ever seen on original works. Some big names have already been scheduled for exhibitions in the coming year, including Junko Mizuno, Mark Todd and Kozyndan. I predict even bigger things to come from this cheeky little gallery. Stay gold, Pony boys and girls!