2008 Woodie Awards
Local gallery goes beneath the surface
David Boerner
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Verve
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It's painted gleaming white from floor to ceiling and lined with water pipes reminiscent of "the modern mechanized human existence." All the people are chic.
And the art is entirely aspen tree-free.
But, far from being the work of pretentious curators, the Gallery Underground was opened last November as a reaction to a Fort Collins art culture that the creators feel marginalizes original artists.
Open until 12 a.m. Friday, as part of the First Friday Gallery Walk, the Gallery Underground offers what no other venue in town can.
The three owners, photographer Darren Mahuron, ceramic artist Erin Mortensen, and painter Jacquelynn Woodley are all artists, and have all witnessed the Fort Collins gallery scene's tendency to show less-than-cutting-edge work.
"I saw a lot of my friends have to hang their artwork in coffee shops because it doesn't fit in with what the galleries are showing," Mahuron said. "Artists have to make their work more mainstream to get it into local galleries."
Woodley agrees.
"There are artists in Fort Collins that feel like they have to show in a different city," he said, "or move to a different city."
Mahuron, who has co-owned and operated the successful Summit Studios with his wife since 2005, had been planning to open a gallery that kept Fort Collins local artists. Last year, he went to Portland, Ore., to to see how their galleries looked and ran.
Mortensen, a Colorado native, was living in Portland at the time. The two, acquainted by a mutual friend, met to discuss galleries.
Mortensen had been considering moving back to Colorado anyway, and they decided to open up a gallery in Fort Collins.
Mahuron was very deliberate about wanting to work with artists of different mediums, and both agreed that they needed enough people involved to not have to worry about compromising to pay the bills.
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