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Blending art and games

The Games We Play is on display at the Kelowna Art Gallery
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Artist Steve Neu beside his piece Games I Played at the opening reception. - Credit: Contributed

If you’ve ever become bleary-eyed over a Monopoly game, screamed in anguish during charades, or hit every Call Of Duty objective until the zombies got you, you know life is simply better with games.

The fifty artists whose works of art make up The Games We Play, a new exhibition at the Kelowna Art Gallery, can certainly relate.

From CLUE to Carcassonne, Commander Keen to Cat’s Cradle and everything in between, visitors will likely recognize popular games from the past fifty years depicted in the art.

The works come in a variety of shapes, sizes and media. A wall-sized painting measuring more than eight-feet wide and six feet tall, by local artist Wanda Lock, includes a number of classic game references.

Artist Amanda Kadatz constructed four small 3-D-printed player pieces which accompany a fictitious board game for Assassin’s Creed, created to look like a game from the 1970s.

A number of free public events have been scheduled in connection with the show, including a games night at the gallery Thursday, July 20, from 6 to 9 p.m. and an evening of quick talks titled Art and Games Collide, held on Thursday, September 14, from 7 to 9 p.m., which will feature artists and speakers from the local gaming community.

The Games We Play will be on view until Sept. 17, in the front project space of the gallery.