Joaquin Salazar is one of those artists who is cursed with excellent entrepreneurial instincts. That makes for a busy artist.
In Salazar’s case, the art is fine art photography, specifically the black-and-white version thereof. With no space in Durango dedicated to that art - Open Shutter does not discriminate between the color and monochromatic worlds – the entrepreneur in Salazar awoke and the result is the new Sub-Stra-Tum Gallery below the sidewalks of Main Avenue.
“We’re showing a more eclectic, harder-to-find type of artwork,” Salazar said of the new venture.
The medium is Salazar’s chosen field. As a fine art photographer who specializes in black and white imagery, Salazar’s motivation to open a gallery specific to that art is not hard to decipher. The Santa Fe native now calls Durango home, and he brought in another sharp business mind with an understanding of the Southwest to manage Sub-Stra-Tum. Gallery director Kristen McKinnon previously owned the well-reputed Wild Rivers Expeditions in Bluff, Utah.
Sub-Stra-Tum will open Friday with the inaugural exhibit “Consonance Earth & Sky” by Salazar. He hopes to set the tone for future visitors to the gallery by bringing in Ace Revel, the jazzy duo version of Hello Dollface featuring Ashley Edwards and Jesse Ogle. There’s also a 1940s vintage upright piano in the gallery and comfortable seating.
“We’re putting art and music together in a place where people can sit and take in the pieces,” Salazar said. “It’s something more than bringing people into a gallery and moving them from one white wall to another.”
Salazar takes the viewer’s perspective to heart in both the gallery’s atmosphere as well as the art itself. His panoramic photography is printed on canvases of his chosen ideal size of 24-by-68 inches, a size that comes as a result of relentless experimentation. The 68-inch width is what Salazar has found to be the limit of a viewer’s peripheral vision when standing 10 feet from the print – anything wider and the viewer must turn his or her head to see everything.
“Earth & Sky” also breaks one of Salazar’s rules right out of the gate. He’ll include a few color images but insists that doesn’t mean that black & white won’t be the chosen medium at Sub-Stra-Tum. The exemption is in deference to Michael Fatali’s “NIGHTS,” which will be one of the upcoming 2014 exhibits at the gallery. Samples of Fatali’s work, also Dr. Ron Ritz, Linda Pampinella and Guy Tal of Torrey, Utah, hang on the wall.
Each will have an exhibit in 2014 and Salazar said he will always display the works of upcoming artists so guests know what to expect and seek out when the exhibits open.
ted@durangoherald.com
If you go
Sub-Stra-Tum Gallery, 1021½ Main Ave., will host an opening reception for Joaquin Salazar’s “Consonance of Earth & Sky” from 6-8 p.m. Friday. Winter gallery hours are 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and by appointment. “Consonance of Earth & Sky” will be on display through December. For information or to schedule an appointment, call 394-0047.
