Canary Gallery aims to add to city’s cultural growth

When artist Libby Pantazis decided to open a gallery, she knew it had to be in downtown Birmingham, at least in part due to the area’s increased pedestrian traffic and what she calls “the energy and excitement” of the people who live there.

“I never even thought about anywhere else,” she said.

Pantazis, a retired attorney, wants the Canary Gallery, which is scheduled to open in November, to contribute to this excitement. “I want to make an impact on the city (and) create a venue the city will be proud of,” she said.

The Canary Gallery — named for one of the bright colors that Pantazis, an avid oil painter, loves — will occupy about 2,400 square feet on the first floor of the historic Wheelock building on Second Avenue North and will feature a variety of work, including painting, printmaking, photography and ceramics.

Pantazis said she wants her gallery to be a friendly, welcoming place, not a holy temple of art. “It will not be stuffy,” she said. “It will be very inviting and very engaging.” 

One afternoon in mid-August, Pantazis — dressed in a bright yellow jacket and yellow-framed sunglasses — gave a tour of her space still under construction. The gallery is a corner storefront blessed with high ceilings and a lot of windows that let in natural light.

Pantazis said she believes the gallery, which will have a liquor license and room to host other events, will be a special venue and will contribute to the growing activity downtown at nights and on weekends. 

The gallery will take advantage of this activity by keeping evening hours, unlike most galleries, and will host classes and workshops, Pantazis said. 

She said she also hopes local artists will see the gallery as a good place to visit, have a drink and share ideas. “What excites me is the camaraderie that I will enjoy with the other creatives,” Pantazis said.

Her artists will include painters Sam Collins and Amy Collins, sculptor Eric Johnson and printmaker Debra Riffe, all from Birmingham, and Orlando painter Victor Bokas. Her artists, she said, will be “very diverse, very different,” adding she believes Canary Gallery can become a popular event venue. “I think a lot of people are interested in a medium-sized venue,” she said. “For a small, intimate setting, what’s better than a gallery?”

An Alaska native, Pantazis moved to Birmingham in 1981 with her husband, Dennis, also an attorney. Their law firm, Wiggins Childs Pantazis Fisher & Goldfarb, is in the old S.H. Kress building downtown. Pantazis became a painter in 2007 and retired in 2010. 

The Canary Gallery is at 2201 Second Ave. N. For more information, call 240-0428 or go to canarygalleryllc.com.