New ET Gallery to open in Whanganui arts precinct

Eli Lamont and Talula Hodder will open their new Guyton St gallery this month. Photo / Stuart Munro

Talula Hodder and Eli Lamont are a busy artistic duo raising a young family and about to open a new Whanganui art gallery.

ET Gallery is scheduled to open in the Guyton St "arts precinct" on June 22 next to Sue Cooke's gallery and downstairs from Inferno Design where Lamont works.

Cooke will be the landlord as well as a neighbour and Hodder says Cooke is wonderfully supportive of the new venture.

The couple hope their new gallery will become a welcome addition to the block which includes art galleries and Paiges Book Gallery as well as a hairdresser, picture framer, photo shop and upstairs studios.

"We want it to be a space where our own children can come to work with us and we want other families with children to enjoy the gallery and feel welcome too," says Hodder.

With three young daughters between them and a new baby due in September, the couple say the gallery idea came about because they wanted space to work away from home.

There will be a studio at the rear of the gallery and they will display their work as well as affordable digital prints and T-shirts with their designs.

Lamont has exhibited his work at several Whanganui galleries and completed a 6m-high psychedelic cat mural in Palmerston North's Berrymans Lane last year.

Hodder completed a Bachelor of Computer Graphic Design in 2017 and published her first children's book Adventures in Lula Land which she designed, wrote and illustrated and followed with a second book Get to Know Your Monsters.

When she is not busy with art and writing, she is the friendly barista at Whanganui Mint Cafe & Bar.

"I have around 10 years' barista experience and I'll be bringing that to the gallery," she says.

Visitors will be able to buy takeaway coffee, made with Volcano blend beans roasted in Ohakune.

The couple, who named the gallery after the first letters of their names, say it is all part of the welcoming atmosphere they want to create at the gallery.