Oriel Canfas

Been here loads of times mainly taking part in an art group class on fridays hired privately by a tutor, open for private hire has a group of independant gallery artists studios all hired out to gallery members I think, has a good ground floor gallery space for artists exhibitions lots of natural light. Well worth a visit when there is an exhibition going on, located not far from the well known chapter arts centre in canton side of cardiff city.

Canfas Gallery is a lovely little gallery tucked away behind Chapter. It’s one of the few independent galleries in Cardiff. Many years ago the City Council let the space in the old library building to local artists in Cardiff. The space became available when the library was re-​housed to a new location leaving the listed building with it’s amazing tiled interiors empty. Artists moved into their new home and a thriving little community was born in the heart of the city centre.
Although the space was never meant to be a permanent move the Council agreed to re-​house the artists when they needed to re-​furbish the building. Unfortunately that promise was never fulfilled and the artists had to leave with an uncertain future. The ones who continued working under the banner of Old Library Artist’s finally found a home in Canton. The shows are thought provoking and showed to advantage in an intimate gallery space.

This is a lovely little gallery set in the ground floor of a terraced house in Canton, around the corner from Chapter. Run by the artist’s co-​operative OLA, Oriel Canfas Gallery and Studios was established in 1998 to provide decent, affordable studios and high quality exhibition space. The gallery represents the work of OLA member artists and provides a showcase for a diverse range of contemporary visual art in Wales.
As such, OLA’s house accommodates 10 artists’ studios, a workshop area and the gallery itself. They host 10 per year by artists from Wales and beyond, with all exhibitors nominated by the co-operative’s membership and exhibitions across a variety of media which include painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, photo-​visual works and light installations.
As well as exhibitions the gallery also hosts a number of informal and interesting talks, book launches and arts-​related events.
Bonus points?
1) They are a member of the Collector Plan run by the Arts Council of Wales. This fantastic scheme means that you can buy art by paying in monthly instalments.
2) The staff are always welcoming, and visitors are always welcome.