It’s strange how some spaces have a serenity about them that owes nothing to their surroundings. Café 69 on Jl Arjuna (that’s Jalan Double Six to most of us) is one such location, offering a delicious menu of food in a laid back atmosphere, while people go about their hectic lives outside.

Just behind the café is Gallery at Studio 66, which last Friday 21 May celebrated its opening to the public by exhibiting works by German artist and long term Bali resident Brigitte Kopp.

To break it down a little, the gallery space – a high-roofed atrium and walled garden set back from the main road – is part of Kopp’s home which she has decided to dedicate to the arts. There is no shortage of galleries in an around Seminyak and Legian, but what was really striking about Gallery 66 was the sense of community that pervaded it last Friday night.

Filled with children and grandparents, bright young things and confirmed hippies, there was an easy camaraderie in the air as old friends chewed the fat and new acquaintances were made. Later in the evening a small group of children from the Sunrise school in Kerobokan gave an impromptu dance performance happily throwing in a couple of encores at the request of the crowd. As for Brigitte’s art, it is deeply involving – she spends months painstakingly filling her canvases with medleys of psychedelic colour that vary in levels of abstraction.

Figures merge with swirls and shards of colour – the Hindu God Ganesha can be discerned and other less immediately recognizable shapes. Brigitte’s sees her art as straddling the interface between the seen and unseen worlds, what the Balinese call Sekala and Niskala, a theme that seems to resonate with many artists out here. The Gallery will be open to the public between 2-4 monday to friday and will also host special events in the future.