What happens when you're an artist and you get kicked out of your loft space? Gregory Gaymont asked himself this very question when it happened to him. Instead of moving into someone's closet or leaving town altogether, Gaymont moved into this narrow storefront on Southport and Irving Park. "I thought it would be neat to have a storefront," says Gaymont matter-of-factly. Though he originally started the gallery as a space to show his own work, Gaymont received such a positive response that he opened it up to other artists. Gaymont now shows artists who live as close as next-door to as far away as India and Spain. Oh, and he still displays his own work: Polaroid photos that he manipulates during the development process and then enlarges. Though they depict familiar tourist destinations (e.g. the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy), Gaymont's adds a certain painterly mystique of crisp, blended colors combined with the haze of a memory.
The long space is typical of a gallery: white walls, high ceilings, wooden floors and art hanging at eye-level. "Every artist who has a show here then becomes part of the gallery stable," says Gaymont. While Gaymont primarily works with photos (he's also a commercial photographer, the rest of the work is focused on paintings and sculpture. Artists like Gurnee-based Patricia Rodgers use a wide palette of oil colors to paint interiors and cityscapes. Gaymont's sculptors include Eladio Gonzalez and Chris Newman.
If you want to see the art but can't make it to the gallery proper, stop on by at Deleece Restaurant down the street, where Gaymont's Spanish artist Juan Morante shows paintings, or head downtown to CRU Wine Bar where Jordi Pedrola's work can be found.
Centerstage Reviewer: Alicia Eler
