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$content = "<p>When you first step in front of a David Spriggs piece, you might not believe your eyes.</p>
<p><img alt="<who>Photo Credit: David Spriggs</who> David Spriggs' "First Wave" installation in Japan" src="/files/files/images/First%20Wave%20installation%20at%20Oku-NotoTriennale%2C%20Japan.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></p>
<p>How can such a thing exist in the real world?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Yet it does. And this Friday night, Spriggs, a world-renowned artist who's shown his wild visions in global hot spots such as New York, Brisbane, Beijing and even Paris' esteemed Louvre Museum, brings one of his largest – and most breathtaking – works to the Penticton Art Gallery.</p>
<p><img alt="<who>Photo Credit: Gord Goble</who> David Spriggs at the Penticton Art Gallery" src="/files/files/images/david%20spriggs%20in%20the%20PAG%20main%20gallery%20before%20installing%20First%20Wave.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></p>
<p>Named simply "First Wave," the exhibit furthers the Gallery's recent history of top-notch summer shows. In 2020, it was Bob Ross. In 2021, Buffy Sainte-Marie. Last year it was Robert Bateman, live and in person.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In Spriggs, the Gallery doesn’t have a household name on that level. But it does have a guy who's currently at the peak of his career, a guy who's jetting off next week to Kansas City to begin a permanent installation.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A guy hot enough that prog rock icon Peter Gabriel (yes, *that* Peter Gabriel) sought him out for artwork to accompany both his stage show and his 2023 opus "Panopticom."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Spriggs, who hails from the UK but recently settled in little old Nanaimo, BC because he thinks "it's a beautiful place to create art," is jazzed to be in Penticton for the first time since he was a kid.</p>
<p><img alt="<who>Photo Credit: Gord Goble</who> David Spriggs (centre) with father (left) survey the scene with PAG curator Paul Crawford" src="/files/files/images/from%20left%20to%20right%2C%20David%20Spriggs'%20father%2C%20David%20Spriggs%2C%20Paul%20Crawford.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></p>
<p>But he's more psyched about this Friday's opening night gala, kicking off at 7 PM, when he unveils the namesake of his Penticton show, a gargantuan concoction known as "First Wave."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's the first time a domestic audience will get to experience it. And that's quite a coup for Gallery curator Paul Crawford.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But it's also the only piece of art that'll reside in the Gallery's main room this entire summer.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What makes it so rarified? Its colossal size, for starters. First Wave is gargantuan at nearly 32 feet long, more than 13 feet high and eight feet deep.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But there's far more going on here than size. First Wave is multi-dimensional. It’s freaky. It appears to float in space.</p>
<p><img alt="<who>Photo Credit: Gord Goble</who> Installation of "First Wave" begins at PAG" src="/files/files/images/First%20Wave%20install%2C%20with%20Paul%20Crawford%20directing%20traffic.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></p>
<p>Is it alive? Is it a virtual animation of some sort? A projection?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>No, no and no.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Back in 1999 I started thinking about how I could start taking painting into a new space," said the soft-spoken Spriggs this week as he settled into his Penticton stay.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"I wondered if there was a way to paint through space. If you think of the history of creating space in paintings, you get the linear perspective – a vanishing point with lines going toward a receding space. And that creates a sense of depth.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"And I thought maybe you could take painting to a space beyond the linear perspective."</p>
<p><img alt="<who>Photo Credit: Gord Goble</who> David Spriggs (left) and PAG crew position "Paradox of Power"" src="/files/files/images/david%20spriggs%20on%20left%20and%20PAG%20crew%20position%20Paradox%20of%20Power.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></p>
<p>In First Wave, concocted just prior to COVID for a Japanese-based art festival but never seen publically due to that country's severe lockdown measures, Spriggs has done just that.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The piece is composed of 90 sheets of transparent film, painstaking hung side by side and, like layers, back to front.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"I saw this layering as a way to capture this kind of painting through space," said Spriggs. "So I started spraying on Plexiglas sheets and it started looking atmospheric.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"I'd layer the Plexiglas back and on each sheet I'd paint part of the image. So if it was a cloud, I'd paint a small part of one sheet, a bigger piece behind that, and bigger the further you go."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Crawford believes First Wave guests may well have a "cathartic" experience.</p>
<p><img alt="<who>Photo Credit: Gord Goble</who> David Spriggs" src="/files/files/images/20250630-279628.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" /></p>
<p>"They'll come in from a hot day," he said. "It'll be dark and cool in here. And there's this massive force just looming at the end of the room for them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"I've never seen anything quite like it."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Also featured in the exhibit is another large-scale Spriggs piece, Paradox of Power, in the Project Room, and a small assortment of "regular" paintings from his younger years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The show runs from July 4 through Oct. 25. First night attendees can expect light snacks, beer and wine, non-alcoholic alternatives and a chance to meet and chat with the artist.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Admission is by donation at the Gallery, 199 Marina Way.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>David Spriggs will also do a talk and tour the next day, Saturday, July 5th, at 1 PM.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>For more info, hit up the <a href="https://www.pentictonartgallery.com/upcoming-exhibitions">event page here</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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