GALLERY AROUND THE CORNER: Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art

What’s new: The Sarasota art gallery recently moved out of its home on Fifth Street in downtown Sarasota’s Rosemary District to a 3,000-square-foot space on North Palm Avenue, just a few steps from Jolly Espresso Bar. The Palm Avenue space is more than double the size of the old gallery and offers more display room for the 50-plus artists Allyn Gallup represents.

Local artists represented: George Pappas, Jean Blackburn, Tom Carabasi, Vicky Randall, Nancy Hellebrand, Heidi Edwards, Leslie Lerner and Gale Fulton Ross

The gallery’s hottest new artist: George Retkes, a 2010 graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design known for his bronze sculptures. One of Retkes’ pieces was cast from his cut dreadlocks.

The gallery’s most established artists: Santa Fe, N.M., painter Michael Kessler and David Shapiro, whose etchings and paintings can be found in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art.

What the gallery looks for in an artist: “Artists who have a strong language and distinctive art,” Gallup says. “Also, whether or not they’re in any public collections is quite relevant.”

Modern misconceptions: “We are not a cutting-edge gallery,” says Gallup. “In the contemporary-art world we’re pretty conservative. Just because we show non-objective and abstract work doesn’t mean we’re cutting edge.”

The kind of art found in their own home: A large-scale work by Leslie Lerner, which was a wedding gift from the artist to the couple.

Why they’re cut out for this business: “I have a strong collector mentality,” Gallup says. “I’m a materialist to the extent that I like things. If I were wealthy, I’d collect antiques. I’d probably collect cars.”

What makes their job fulfilling: “We help people find art they’re interested in that will become a part of their lives, as opposed to finding something that simply fills a bare space on a wall,” Sheila Gallup says. “It’s especially gratifying to hear from people years later about how much they continue to enjoy a piece,” Gallup adds.

Current show: American transcendentalist painter Linda Ging’s “Color Fields” and Buffalo, N.Y., painter Peter Stephens’ “Homage to Atget,” inspired by the photographs of 19th-century French photographer Eugene Atget, runs through July 10.

Information
Owners: Allyn and Sheila Gallup
Location: 1288 N. Palm Ave.
Year established: 1991
Phone: 366-2454
Summer Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, or by appointment.


Contact Heidi Kurpiela at [email protected].