From white walls to an explosion of colour, the Pearl Ellis Gallery will feature Mark Isfeld Secondary School鈥檚 art on its walls at its Comox location from June 1 to 20.

School art students will be showcasing their work at the gallery, with the opening reception set to take place June 2 from 7-9 p.m.

This is a great opportunity to see some refreshing new work from some of the Valley鈥檚 finest young artists.

This year, the art is big, bold and dramatic in nature. Students have been igniting their creativity, and, as a result, the show is a hotbed of unique pieces.

According to art teacher Gary Aylward, 鈥淲e鈥檝e encouraged students to visually express the unique qualities of their contemporary, fast-paced world. As a result, many works incorporate unconventional materials and techniques to create high-impact, vibrant works of art.鈥�

Visitors to the show will be dazzled with some exceptional paintings, photography, screenprints and mixed media work.

We鈥檝e attempted to remove the constraints of scale from the students' designs, and, as a result, many of the smaller traditional works expected from a high school program are contrasted by large-scale constructions intended for public spaces within our school.

This show marks the sixth year that the Pearl Ellis Gallery will be showcasing our local high school students鈥� art.

The show not only displays the work of young artists, but all donations that are collected from January to the end of this show go directly towards supporting the Pearl Ellis Gallery high school bursary program. This program gives a graduating art student from each of the high schools a $500 bursary to be used towards furthering their education in a visual arts-related program. As of this year, the gallery has given out $7,500.

Come down and check out the work by the young artists in your community. Many of the artists will be in attendance during the opening reception Thursday evening 鈥� see you there.

The gallery is located at 1729 Comox Ave. on the lower level.

This will be the last high school show in our current location, as the gallery will move upstairs sometime this year, thanks to the recent decision by the Town of Comox. The town decided to grant the request by the gallery and Comox Archives Museum to share the space upstairs where the library used to be.

The gallery is open from 1-4 p.m. every day, including Sunday.  Admission is free, and more information can be obtained by visiting our website at www.pearlellisgallery.com or phoning the gallery at 250-339-2822.

New members are always welcome, and membership fees are only $20 a year. Membership fees help support the gallery programs. A large number of our members are not artists themselves but rather are enthusiastic supporters of art. With a membership, all purchases of art at the opening reception are reduced by 10 per cent.

鈥� Pearl Ellis Gallery