A Different Path Gallery closed.  New gallery to open???

   ​   The owner, Katherine Weston, closed A Different Path Gallery, sold the building and relocated to Vermont this past summer. A Different Path Gallery was an art fixture for nearly a decade on the west side of Monroe County within walking distance of the SUNY Brockport campus and shouting distance to Lift Bridge Book Shop, Java Junction Coffee and The Strand movie theater among other business institutions along Main Street in the Village of Brockport.

   The gallery was a hotbed of creative expression for those makers whose base of daily activity tended to hug the western edge of Monroe County. Rooms above the gallery housed one or more artist studios. A charming boutique gift shop with many artisanal and handmade items was located adjacent to the gallery space through an open threshold.
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                                                                       STAY TUNED...
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   Our sources tell us that an artist has purchased the building and may open a new gallery in that space before too long. Our fingers are crossed!

Axom Gallery moved.

   Late in the Fall of 2019 Axom Gallery in conjunction with with the gallery's partner business, Axom Home, moved to a new location at 661 South Avenue. They were previously located for many years on Anderson Avenue near Good Luck restaurant, Anderson Alley and the Village Gate. The move returns them to their home territory in the South Wedge neighborhood where the owners, Robin & Rick Muto, have lived and started their businesses decades ago.

   When you visit the new location you'll immediately see the benefits of their new first floor storefront location and their dramatically larger retail space for walk-in customers. The artwork on exhibition is integrated throughout the retail area of the business. I'm told by Rick Muto, Axom Gallery's co-owner/curator, a more defined exhibition space will be developed over time. Still, very often the art will be shown in the context of their design offerings since most art buyers  install the art they buy inside of their homes and offices.

Cad Red opened.

   Cad Red opened their doors at in the Village of Pittsford at 34 South Main Street in the fall of 2019 with their first exhibition in October. The owner opened the gallery as a compliment to her beautifully curated antique and housewares business immediately next door but due to the quick success of the gallery she has decided to focus her entrepreneurial efforts on art rather than antiques.

   This lovely, intimate new gallery is located in a recently restored historic building nestled between other active businesses and where foot traffic is high. Two large storefront windows draw in light as well as passersby.  Convenient parking is available immediately outside the front entrance to the gallery. 
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   Cad Red will host solo exhibitions as well as small group shows. The work will mostly feature living regional artists in most media including but not limited to photography and works on canvas. The gallery may also include artists working outside of the Rochester/Finger Lakes area on occasion. 

Fleuron Gallery closed.

   Fleuron opened their doors at in the center of the Village of Honeoye Falls at 10 North Main Street in June, 2018. That new retail venture was set in a charming early twentieth century storefront with big windows. Fleuron was what we call a "hybrid" commercial art gallery. In this instance the fine art gallery was nestled between a botanical boutique at the front of the shop and a small graphic design work space tucked away behind the gallery, up a small flight of stairs. Sadly, this sweet little village gallery closed in sometime during the winter of 2019.

Gallery 74 has transformed into WOC ART Collaborative

   Over the years Ralph Thompson developed and nurtured a powerful artistic studio space called Gallery 74 that became a magnet attracting creativity in all forms. Although the gallery was used as a studio and exhibition space for his own creative purposes he welcomed other artists in all media as well as dancers, actors, musicians, community groups and more. Exhibitions and performances were regular elements of the gallery's operation. Thompson didn't apply for grants or solicit outside donations. He just opened the doors and the community he cherished found a home. In 2019 he decided to retire but that's not the end of his or this story!

   One very important measure of a successful life is the new growth that springs from the legacy of that life. In 2017-2018 Ralph Thompson welcomed Rachel Y. DeGuzman when she was looking for a place to host a series of "Long Table Discussions" around race, intersectionality and community in Rochester. Coming out of those discussions and others in January, 2019 WOC ART Collaborative began planning their future in a generous space adjacent to and carved out of Galley 74.

   Since that time DeGuzman has built a multi-generational collective of Black women & women of color creators in Rochester committed to bringing the power of their individual accomplishments, visions, and social justice practices to create an institution rooted in intersectional equity for women, femme, gender-variant and non-binary artists of color. WOC ART Collaborative was born in cradle of Ralph Thompson’s Gallery 74.

  Founding WOC ART Collaborative members include Rachel Y. DeGuzman, N’Jelle Gage-Thorne, Reenah Golden, W. Michelle Harris, Delores Jackson-Radney, Tianna Mañón, Rachel McKibbens, Nydia Padilla-Rodriguez, Danielle Ponder, and KaeLyn Rich. Many more creatives have been drawn to the cause and joined the organization as affiliate members. Expect to see some significant activity from WOC ART Collaborative in 2020.

   After a year of careful plannning WOC ART Collaborative now fully occupies the same space as the former Gallery 74 including the entire the third floor of the the Kee Lox building at 215 Tremont Street in Cornhill. There are two very large rooms and two smaller rooms which will eventually be reorganized as five rooms with three smaller rooms for storage, studio arts and podcasting and the remaining two larger rooms for administration, exhibition, meeting, social gathering and performances.

Gallery 384 closed.

   This past spring Gallery 384 closed but not because the it wasn't succeeding. It was! Gallery 384 was what we call a "hybrid" venue. In this case the gallery was a mutually beneficial collaboration between gallery operator,Howard Koft, and the owners of the East Avenue Inn; located on the corner of East Avenue and Alexander Street. Artworks by local artists were allowed to exhibit in the motel lobby area, restaurant and hallways on the first floor. While the gallery organizer did not take a share of the sale proceeds a small portion of each sale contributed to a local charity. Gallery 384 had been in active operation exhibiting and selling artwork for about four years before it closed due to the sale of the motel which was demolished soon after the deal closed in the summer of 2019.

Kristen Campo Fine Art & Design opened a retail location.

   Kristen Campo, owner of Kristen Campo Fine Art & Design took an important step in the Fall of 2019 when she opened a bricks-and-mortar location for her gallery at 3025 Monroe Avenue in Pittsford. Her brand new retail gallery is strategically placed on a high traffic stretch of Monroe Avenue across from Jewelers between Pittsford Wegmans and what may someday be the new Whole Foods. This stretch of Monroe Avenue has to be the hottest, most successful, high end retail stretch in all of Monroe County.
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    Campo has combined over 20 years of creative expertise as an art dealer and interior designer in the greater Rochester area. She grew up in a family of artists and worked towards a BFA at Nazareth College. She gained her knowledge working in local art galleries for 17 years before obtaining her LLC in 2017 and branching out as Kristen Campo Fine Art & Design. In less than two months, her fledgling gallery headed to Miami to exhibit for its first time in Pinta Miami 2017, during Art Basel week. In 2019 she organized and promoted a large scale "artfare" in Rochester's  Strathallan Hotel.

Norchar's gallery space is on hiatus.

   Norchar has hosted bimonthly art exhibitions on the first floor of their office on Park Avenue for the past few years. The exhibitions were distinctive in that they were beautifully curated and expertly installed; not usually the case when artists exhbit in spaces where the artwork is not the focus of the environment. In addition, Norchar hosted well attended opening parties to celebrate the exhibitions and invite the public in for a look. Norchar is poised to expand in 2020. As a result, the owners did not feel like they had the capacity to continue on with the exhibitions for the time being.

   The owners have indicated they will take another look at exhibitions in their Park Avenue location at some point in the future. We hope they decide to take up the project again. In the meantime they will be missed.

Pittsford Fine Art opened.

   ​Pittsford Fine Art opened their doors informally at the four corners in the Village of PIttsford as the curtain was falling on 2019, Their grand opening will be in early January, 2020 but they were already exhibiting and selling art from the get-go in December.

   Pittsford Fine Art is co-owned and operated by ten artist-partners: Kathy Armstrong, Steve BonDurant, Gilbert Jordan, Laurence E. Keefe, Chris Kolupski, Nancy Lane, Chris Manaseri, Rebecca Maynard, Robin McCondichie, Bill Mowson, and Roland (Chip) Stevens III. The gallery will show representative samples from each of the partners in the front of the space plus one artist featured on a more-or-less monthly basis. Visitors will be able to see more works by the partners as they move through the gallery.
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   After January 7, 2020 the gallery will be open Tuesday through Sunday at noon and will remain open on those days until 6:00 pm except on Fridays when they will be open until 8:00 pm. 

Rochester Community Collage emerged.

   In case you haven't noticed collage art is SUPER hot in Rochester at the moment. in 2019 a new group of artists founded Rochester Community Collage. This new group offers studio arts programming as well as exhibition offerings. Rochester Art Collectors has listed this group under "ARTIST STUDIO/GALLERIES, ARTISTS' SPACES & CO-OPS" on our SOURCES page. You won't necessarily find this group in a dedicated gallery space. Instead they host pop-up exhibitions around town. Artist groups and coops help make the Rochester arts scene vibrant and interesting. One thing we can tell you for certain is there's never a dull moment around the Rochester Community Collage group!

   Rochester Art Collectors agrees. We think Western New York needs deeper and more frequent public conversations about the art that is exhibited in our midst.

   Last fall in conjunction with Current Scene, the Small Venue Biennial developed by Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo), Rochester Art Collectors co-sponsored a panel discussion titled "The State of Art Writing In Rochester" with panelists Rebecca Rafferty of City Newspaper; Colin Dabkowski, former arts critic for The Buffalo News; noted author, Robin L. Flanigan; Karen vanMeenen, former editor of the media arts journal Afterimage (currently at Writers & Books); and panel moderator, Sarah Webb, active in the Rochester art community over twenty-five years as an independent curator, educator, writer and artist. The panel discussed the need for more coverage of the arts as well as more critical conversations about art itself. Audience participation at the end of the presentation clearly indicated strong support for both.

   It so happened that just a few weeks before Current Scene opened Cornelia Magazine, produced by The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, published it's inaugural issue and launched it's website in August. The timing of Cornelia’s first issue was an ideal backdrop for the panel discussion. The founders and editors, Emily Ebba Reynolds and Nando Alvarez-Perez (who also happen to be married), came to the discussion at RoCo and offered their views on the topic at hand.

   We read the first issue of Cornelia cover-to-cover as soon as we got our hands on a hard copy the night of the panel at RoCo and loved it! The second issue was published in December. We read all of Issue #2 online and it didn’t disappoint. We picked up a hard copy just recently at RoCo. Why bother with the hard copy? Because we’re collectors, dammit!
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   As you might expect, Cornelia focuses mostly on art exhibitions in the Greater Buffalo area and looks longingly northward towards the metropolis of Toronto. Why not? Buffalo and Toronto are the dominant artistic powerhouses in our region. And it must be said we love Buffalo's and Toronto's art scenes. Bringing solid information about those scenes to a Rochester audience is a huge benefit.
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   While Rochester isn't a focus Reynolds and Alvarez-Perez have gone out of their way to include writers and exhibitions from our area. In their second issue they devote quite a lot of ink to Current Scene, for example. They’re writer, Dana Tyrrel, not only offered a summary and description of that ambitious program he also offered observations on how to improve next time around. I'm not sure we agree with his assessment but we sure appreciated his point of view and the fact he had a forum to offer his point of view. That's what this is all about: a healthy, respectful conversation. We look forward to reading issue #3!

   Most people know the Art Museum of Rochester either by its acronym, AMoR, or its distinctive logo rather than the business name itself. The logo sports a cherry red heart nestled atop the M. The logo says a lot about the place: friendly, informal, chiiillll.  Just take on look at the owner's picture next to this post. He's a super-nice guy and it shows whenever you're around him.
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   AMoR is definitely NOT your run-of-the-mill art gallery. It's a hybrid space that offers billiards and booze alongside the art.

   Just in case you're not convinced about how hip this place is you can walk from the art gallery area directly into a tattoo parlor.  As if that's not enough proof, we've been there on at least one occasion when a group 8-10 gamers were playing Super Smash Bros. in the front room more or less in the middle of an art exhibition. True story.

   Let's face it, running a business on art sales alone is tough. Hybrids are one way to make the numbers work. AMoR has found a way do more than just pay bills and to do so for many years running. To be perfectly honest, we seriously doubt Scott Napier run his gallery any other way.

 How is this venue listed on the Rochester Art Collector's SOURCES ​page?
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"Commercial Art Galleries & Venues That Function Like Commercial Art Galleries"

General Description/Business Model:
AMoR is a "bricks-and-mortar" business. We consider AMoR a "hybrid commercial gallery" because when you consider the art components on their own AMoR meets many of the criteria of a traditional gallery. The art is not an afterthought. The owner has a strong personal interest in the work and thinks of himself as a gallerist. 

​AMoR operates on the consignment model with proceeds of all sales shared by the gallery and the selling artist. AMoR does not represent artists outside of their exhibitions except as described below or on an ad-hoc basis.

​Description of the Exhibition Schedule:

   AMoR rotates its exhibitions regularly. While they may not hit the once per month exhibition pace found at commercial galleries they usually have around eight exhibitions in a calendar year. Exhibitions run three to six weeks long.

   Exhibitions usually kick off with an opening party. Some exhibitions include a closing party as well. 

Hours of operation:
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   AMoR is open to the public during regular business hours but their business hours aren't what you might expect of an art gallery. They're open from 5:00 pm to midnight Monday through Saturday and Sundays from noon to 6:00 pm.  Visits to the gallery may also be made by appointment.

Description of the Exhibition Environment:

   AMoR is located in a building what was built as a home and later converted & adapted to a retail “boutique” application. As a result the layout feels a lot like a large home when you walk through.

   There's a vestibule entry that leads into a large front room that may have been an enclosed porch. Step up from the front room into what was probably the living room when this home was first built. A brick fireplace is on the far wall. Walk through a central hallway past stairs towards the back of the building into a large open space that may have been the original dining room and kitchen. A well used pool table breaks up the space takes up about 1/3 of this area. You may find yourself navigating around players in order to see works installed in proximity to the pool table. There's a small public powder room off to one side. The tattoo parlor is in a large addition near the powder room.

   Art is exhibited for sale in all these areas of the first floor with the exception of the tattoo parlor where you'll see lots of art owned by the folks that want to decorate your skin. In addition, there are display cases for small artworks/collectables and racks for t-shirts as well as other AMoR related merch & ephemera.

    AMoR is not a white cube. Art work hangs on every vertical space including a couple of niche areas on the first floor and all the way up the open stairwell to the second floor. Most of the walls are plaster or drywall. One large wall is finished with corrugated aluminum giving the space a distinctive aesthetic.

   Although in some areas the ambient lighting is dim the artwork is hung and displayed respectfully and with appropriate lighting. Mostly the work is hung gallery style; each piece set on it's own with room for the work to “breathe”.  However, we've seen work hung salon style, floort-to-ceiling, more than once at AMoR. Most of the work that is exhibited for sale is installed on the first floor.

   As a side note, due to the nature of some of the art on exhibit, there are times when the work is not presented framed. In those cases the artwork is literally tacked or otherwise affixed to the wall. Much of that sort of work is made from cardboard, paper, mixed media, or odd materials including everything from appropriated traffic signs to miniature railroad cars. If you want "precious," there are some shows that probably aren't for you.

​   Once you reach the top the stairs you won't see much artwork from the regular exhibitions. Oh, there's art upstairs but as far as we can tell it's mostly permanently installed. The second floor is about pool, drinks and, if you insist, coffee or tea.

How is the venue staffed?

   The owner or a paid staff member is always present when the venue is open to the public.  Just like the owner, the paid staff is very friendly and more than willing to chat but, with respect to the art, they are only helpful to a point. Unless you talk to the owner you won't learn much about the artists or the artwork. on the other hand, we’ve had more than one interaction with patrons who were fairly knowledgeable about the work displayed as well as the artists who made it. 

​Information About The Type of Work Exhibited:

   AMoR shows current or recent work made by living artists and created in nearly all media and in a variety of styles with an emphasis on two dimensional work. The gallery seems to prefer group exhibitions over exhibitions that feature only one artist. Nearly all the artists who show at AMoR are either resident in Rochester or connected to Rochester.

   There is a special emphasis on emerging artists and artists who depict urban settings or are influenced by an urban vibe. Works by "street" artists - muralists and those that come from a graffiti and public art background - are common. Still, we've also seen artists there who don't fall into that category at all including some of the most moving abstract works we've seen exhibited anywhere in Rochester.

What information is available about the artists and artwork during an exhibition?

   Typically each artwork has a wall label with the artist's name, title and price. Occasionally, the work is labeled with number and the numbers correspond to the exhibition/price list.

   Unfortunately, AMoR does not usually offer written artist backgrounds, bios, statements or curriculum vitae. However, the owner - who usually acts as curator or co-curator - will be able to talk with collectors about the artists. Staff are usually not be as knowledgeable as the owner. Unless you go to the opening or  you're lucky, you probably won't run into any of the exhibiting artists while you’re in the building. In terms of background info, you're pretty much on your own.

   We have never seen AMoR  host an artist talks/panel during an exhibition.

What is the typical price range for works presented by this venue?

   It's not unusual to find works of art in each exhibition available  for around $100 or less. The average price is typically in the $300-$500 range. On occasion - depdending on the aritst - you may see work at AMoR  priced above $1,000. We've seen at least one show with work priced as high as several thousand dollars.

How does this venue handle sales of art work?

​   AMoR will take payment on site as soon as you are ready. Works are sold on a first-come, first-served basis however the gallery may hold a work of art for a prospective buyer under certain limited circumstances. The gallery will accept cash, credit, debit and personal check. Note: AMoR will also allow installment purchases in many cases. Work that has been purchased in full may be taken by the new owner once the exhibition closes or if the final payment is received after the exhibition closes, then the new owner may pick the work up after the last payment has been received by the gallery.

   AMoR does not maintain a backroom inventory of unsold artwork although you might see work from the last show still on the stairway walls heading to the second floor. The gallery owner may occasionally act as matchmaker with an artist in cases where a collector wants to consider works not included in an current exhibition or works that may still be available from a past exhibition.​
As far as we know, AMoR does not offer delivery. Everything is local pickup.

How does this venue market and promote their exhibitions?

​​​   Mostly word-of-mouth with a touch of social media as well as a website. Facebook is probably your best bet. Please follow AMoR on Instagram and Facebook.

​Does this venue offer any art related services or products besides the artwork itself?
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   No.