WE ARE CLOSED

IT HAS BEEN A PLEASURE

Gallery History

Nestled in the heart of the oldest Chinatown in Canada, fortune gallery established itself as a focal point of the Victoria arts community in 2007. The making of this unique space began in the late 1800s when the building was constructed to serve as a general store. As records of ownership in Chinatown are hard to find and harder still to interpret, the building has relied on a collection of personal memories to carry its story through the years.

The centuries-old bricks of the gallery are imbued with these memories; narratives of oppression, of reclaimed culture, and of tumultuous living within the “Forbidden City.” Summed up by the discovery of a handgun in a recent renovation of the gallery—its 125-year-old barrel wrapped in old newspaper and gambling tabs—life in Chinatown was set against a backdrop of gambling dens, opium lairs, brothels, and sputtering woks of fresh noodles. Despite the hardships inherent in an immigrant enclave, Chinese Canadians carved a legacy of refuge, dignity, expression, and community into a few city blocks; tenets that would similarly draw struggling artists in the mid-1900s. 

Today, the gallery door is still open to former residents, their stories and the space colliding in a continuation of history; of the vibrant, bustling Chinatown streets they grew up on, and the incredible humanity of its residents, then and now.

The multi award-winning fortune gallery is proud to call the diverse, quirky, and historic neighbourhood its home, offering artists of all modalities a space to share their creativity, spark dialogue, and incite inspiration for anyone walking within the gallery walls.