Just because you call yourself an art gallery doesn’t mean you are one.
By Robrt L. Pela | Photo composite by Angelina Aragon
An artist friend asked me to come see an exhibit of his latest work. He, an esteemed painter with a long career, was excited by the energy of this new Downtown gallery I’d never heard of.
The work was gorgeous. But the space looked less like an art gallery than it did a groovy café. Because that’s what it was: a coffee shop with really great art on the walls.
I call “foul!” whenever I see a place that isn’t an art gallery claiming to be one. I love that cafés and boutiques and secondhand stores sometimes also offer “exhibits” to artists, because I believe the more local art that’s shown, the better. But I worry that people, already confused about the difference between a gallery and a studio and a museum, are going to think that a place called Olive Oile Shoppe & Gallery is an art space because they sell paintings alongside their EVOO. They’re not.
I care because I hate to see the talent and expertise of gallerists and curators confused with other kinds of talent – like selling olive oil. An art gallery is a specific space, where work by one or more artists has been carefully considered and curated. When I go to see Jeff Falk’s newest collection of paintings, I don’t want to be distracted by a kiosk of Van Halen T-shirts and a display of hand-crafted incense burners.
I stumbled on a big, splashy website for a new Scottsdale “gallery” the other day. There was plenty of information about what was offered if you rented the space, but nothing at all about which artists they show or whether they’re planning any exhibitions. These guys wouldn’t know an art gallery if it punched them in the stomach.
The nice young owner of that place that was showing my friend’s art asked me what I thought of his gallery. I wished he hadn’t. “This is a great space,” I told him. “But it’s not really an art gallery, is it?”
He swore it was. The coffee bar was there, he said, so they could make the rent.
But maybe, I told him, you could afford your rent if you focused on promoting your artists. I’d noticed, I told him, that no one there that day was paying any attention to my friend’s paintings. They’d come for lattes and cappuccinos. They thought of this place as a coffeehouse – because that’s what it was.
Maybe you own a hair salon and you’ve agreed to sell paintings by one of your manicurists, so you add “and Gallery” to your salon’s name. Or your realty office throws open its doors on First Fridays. This doesn’t mean you’re an art gallery. Stop doing this, please. You’re a tattoo parlor, and you’re confusing people about what an art gallery actually is by claiming to be one. Which isn’t helping us grow into a cultural mecca, I promise you.
