A painting featured in Rua’s new gallery space.

WARSAW —  Warsaw’s popular restaurant Rua hosted an opening artist reception in its new gallery space Tuesday, Dec. 19.

Ten local artists currently have items on display in the Brennan Room at Rua. The inaugural exhibit will run through Dec. 30.

The ten artists featured are Jason Rowland, Stephanie McDairmant, Zack Kattaka, Kevin Carter, Scott Holladay, Annie Carter, Jay Holladay, Leo Dean Jansen, Austin Williams and Aida Calderon.

Rua, located at 108 E. Market St., is in its second year of operation, offering a unique menu of internationally inspired street food.

Kevin Carter and his daughter, Annie Carter, are two of the artists who have their work displayed currently in Rua’s art gallery. Annie, a junior at WCHS, works as a hostess/food runner at Rua.

“All of the artists featured tonight have some sort of connection to the restaurant,” Scott Holladay, director of design, stated. “Kevin loves to eat here. Annie works here,” said Holladay. “Some of the artwork featured was done by one of our original line cooks.”

While much of the featured artwork is available for purchase, other pieces are from personal collections and displayed for viewing only.

“The gallery helps to expose the artists to the people coming in and helps provide traffic to the restaurant,”  Holladay explained. “It’s a sort of symbiotic relationship that builds on each other.”

“I think the concept is the connection of the visual art in the gallery and the culinary art in the restaurant,” added Kevin Carter.

According to Holladay, the opening artist reception was a hit.

“We had a great response,” said Holladay. “We were very pleased with the turnout and received a lot of encouraging feedback. People said they are looking forward to future shows.”