Then hurry over to Beekman Street and prepare for a Feast!

Located on the second floor of 142 Grand Ave. in Saratoga Springs, Feast Gallery is a new place for both emerging and established artists to show their work, as well as a state-of-the-art event space suitable for wedding rehearsal dinners, company meetings or private parties.

Roughly 60 people attended Feast Gallery’s grand opening on Saturday, Dec. 1. Leigh Ollman, the Saratoga County Arts Council Regrant Administrator and a resident of Beekman St., said the word she’s heard most people use when describing the gallery has been “elegant.”

Architects Mike Phinney and Jon Haynes of the Phinney Design Group co-own the three story mixed-use building, which in addition to Feast Gallery also houses an office space for their firm and the Local Pub and Teahouse. Amenities of the gallery include cable TV, a multi-disc CD player, an I-port connected to a high-quality surround sound system, a hi-def projector and viewing screen, and an adjacent staging area with a double bay sink, microwave and full-size refrigerator.

“It’s not like any other gallery in the area,” Ollman said. “We’re still forming ideas for how to use the space, we’re just starting out. But, it’s an easy space to do a lot of different things with.”

Aside from being part of Saratoga’s First Saturday Arts Night, Feast Gallery’s grand opening also marked the opening reception for a new exhibition by local fine art photographer Harry Wirtz.

A total of 23 pieces created by Wirtz from 2003 - 2007 will be on display in the gallery from now until Jan. 2. The exhibition is free of charge, and open to the public.

“I thought it was a very good reception. It was well attended, and there was a high level of interest in the work,” Wirtz said.

Born in 1946, Wirtz grew up in Putnam County, and spent as much time as he could outdoors.

Childhood illnesses caused him to miss a great deal of his first three years of elementary school, but also made him a voracious reader.

Wirtz majored in English and minored in Art at the State University of New York at Albany. He graduated in 1969. Since then, he’s worked at various occupations, including 16mm film editor, cinematographer, graphic artist, newspaper photographer, poet and sound recordist.

In 1971, Wirtz won an American Film Festival’s Golden Camera Award for photomation cinematography. Over the years, he has written two books, and since 1974 his fine art photography has been exhibited at various venues in the Hudson Valley and upstate NY.

Wirtz’s work consists mainly of still lifes and landscapes. For the latter, he tends to use a digital camera, and then assemble a piece from a number of overlapping images of various exposures.

“It allows me a level of sharpness I wouldn’t be able to otherwise get,” Wirtz said of the technique. “It also provides a wide tonal range to the work.”

“Harry’s keen eye captures the personality of a workman’s tools while offering an intimate portrait of nature through his series of plant landscape and tool photographs,” Ollman said. “It’s beautiful and detailed, with such great colors. His work makes you want to get up close.”

For additional information regarding Feast Gallery or to rent the space for an event, call 718-344-6310. To learn more about the artist, visit www.harrywirtz.com.