The Kelowna Art Gallery is showing The Rossi Collection: A Circle of Friends.
The private collection of the late Dr. Luigi Rossi is now being revealed to art loves a year after his death.
Nataley Nagy, executive director of the museum met Rossi on several occasions and that she was delighted to see his love for each piece of artwork he owned.
“We originated the show it was all of our idea so we usually are really excited about our ideas and we are delighted that Dr. Rossi’s brother agreed to lend us all those great works,” said Nagy.
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He owned over 170 artworks including paintings by Jack Bush, Rita Letendre, Norval Morrisseau and Jack Shadbolt.
Nagy says that the most exuqisite part of his collection is the amount of Indigenous artists work he collected.
“Collectors or people that collect any kind of artwork have a mission and in his case he was a focused collector and he supported Canadian Indigenous artists before they were famous. He had one of the largest Alex Janvier collections along with pieces from Jackson Beardy and Daphne Odjig.
“The sheer magnitude of it (the collection) and the Janvier (works) it’s a very rare collection and the largest anywhere,” said Nagy.
The Rossi Collection: A Circle of Friends will be on display at the Kelowna Art Gallery until Jan. 20
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