Galleries as works of art: some artist-run galleries take their creative owners' artistic inclinations and run with them

Art Business News, May, 2004 by Beth Bingham

When the Artstream Nomadic Gallery made its East Coast debut in the fall of 2002, it created a stir that rippled through the streets of New York. Housed in a gleaming, 1967 Airstream trailer, which was parked in front of Greenwich House Pottery, it drew gaggles of viewers and buyers right off the sidewalk.

"People in New York, you know, they've seen everything--but not anything like this," said Allegheny Meadows, the Carbondale, Colo.--based ceramic artist who created this innovative gallery in 2001. Since then, Meadows and his gallery have traveled across the country with the mission of bringing contemporary, utilitarian pottery to the street--literally. Though many of the artists exhibited in the trailer, including Meadows, already have commercial gallery representation, they, like most passers by, are drawn by the fresh approach Meadows has taken with the Nomadic project.

Changing Environments

There is a vast and sterile quality to the atmospheres of many contemporary art galleries. Frequently, they are vacant spaces surrounded by stark, white walls that induce those inside to speak in serious, often whispered, tones. In a traditional gallery, artwork is often presented as something to be revered--and certainly not to be touched. Likewise, the artists represented there can seem inaccessible, cordoned off by the wall of commerce.

Of course, there are many exceptions to the norm. Some visionary artists have dismantled the formal and exclusive gallery model and rebuilt it according to their own, more creative blueprints.

Still, the artist-owned gallery is first and foremost a business, and the most challenging obstacle for the owner is getting people in the door. Some go to extremes to create new and radical art environments to draw in patrons. This technique is particularly useful when one is courting the atypical buyer.

The following is a look at three artists who have used their creative, often eccentric, artistic sensibilities to create galleries that serve as unique and nontraditional artistic environments.

Redefining the Gallery

Meadows' Artstream Gallery is a self-contained and mobile space dedicated to exhibiting and selling the work of contemporary potters. According to Meadows, the glinting, silver exterior of the Artstream is one of its most striking features. With the Airstream, "What you see is a polished, shiny icon of American inventiveness," he said.

The interior is meticulously designed with inviting hardwood floors and curving wooden counters reflecting the rounded ceiling of the curvilinear trailer.

For the interior decor, Meadows strove to recreate the warmth of a domestic space--particularly a great kitchen--to complement the exhibition of the pots. The counters and shelves display a wide variety of household objects, from austere plates and bowls to urbane vases, pitchers and teapots.

The distinct variety of the artwork represented is deliberate. Acting as curator, Meadows has sought work that is unusual, attempting to represent all the different methods used to create contemporary pots. The project, now in its third year, uses a core of eight ceramic artists who are joined by additional potters, some established and others just emerging.

Meadows plans to mount at least one major Nomadic tour each year, opting to arrange the travel around an event or a hosting institution. For example, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Mo., recently hosted the trailer, despite the fact that the museum's collection does not contain a single piece of utilitarian pottery. When not on the road, the Artstream can be found every weekend at the Aspen Saturday Market in Aspen, Colo.

Next up for Meadows is a curbside tour of Texas, where he's been invited to park the Artstream in front of the Contemporary Art Museum of Dallas. He'll also be anchoring the Artstream at Austin's Continental Club, a famous hipster music venue.

"I really like the play back and forth of being hosted at important museums and, later, [being] set up somewhere on the street," he said, adding that even well-established artists want their work shown in the gallery since, to them, the concept is just as refreshing as it is to the general public.

"Public response has been incredible, even from the overly educated," Meadows said. While those well versed in the ceramic arts may have more access to exhibitions, like most people, they may not have access to touching, purchasing and bringing home ceramic art, Meadows said.

Redefining "Art"

A renovated vintage gas station functions as the gateway to the unique art environment of Abita Springs, La.--based painter, inventor and curator John Preble.

The station is part of a complex of buildings that house the UCM (You See 'Em) Museum, as well as Preble's studio. The UCM is a depository for Preble's beloved collection of more than 50,000 found and recycled objects, a collection that includes old postcards, barbed wire, paint-by-numbers paintings, arcade games and what Preble refers to as "what-all."

The UCM Museum frequently entices residents of New Orleans to take the 45-minute-long trek over Lake Pontchartrain for a look at what Preble has created in Abita Springs. Indeed, even John Bullard, director of the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), has described the UCM as, "the most provocative and intriguing museum in Louisiana: