an almost 40-feet long, and 8-feet tall, new art exhibition opened at the Kelowna International Airport (YLW) this week.
The inaugural art installation is an immersive new body of work titled Kate and Molly by Lake Country-based artist Wanda Lock. It was selected by the Kelowna Art Gallery, who will be organizing and curating the art space.
“We’re absolutely thrilled with the opportunities this new dedicated exhibition space provides,” says Nataley Nagy, Executive Director at the Kelowna Art Gallery. “Plus, it’s hard to miss.”
The artist’s four massive mixed media paintings are front and center, located above the airline check-in area, greeting travelers as they enter the airport. Lock has woven literary and cultural references into the atmospheric paintings, inviting viewers to revel in the images of romance and fantasy they conjure up.
The work’s title, Kate and Molly, references a classic soliloquy involving Molly Bloom — a fictional character from James Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses — and singer and songwriter Kate Bush’s 1989 song, The Sensual World. They both intersect upon an iconic seed cake, which Lock has rendered in her characteristic painterly language. By coincidence, Kate Bush has recently made headlines again, topping the music charts 30 years later, after her music was featured on the Netflix TV series Stranger Things.
The art installation will stay at YLW until June of 2023.