WEST TOWN — A gallery that promotes work and different work from lesser-known and growing artists has opened on Chicago Avenue in West City.
Povos, 1541 W. Chicago Ave., is the brainchild of Lucca Colombelli, a painter and burgeoning gallery proprietor who lately organized pop-up gallery exhibits and extra everlasting occasions, together with at an area on the border of Bucktown and Logan Sq..
Colombelli hopes Povos will turn into Chicago’s friendliest area for artists as they navigate a notoriously hostile trade whereas attempting to make a dwelling. The gallery offers 60-70 p.c of every sale to its creator, donates a part of its proceeds to a Chicago nonprofit and gives free authorized assets to artists, Colombelli mentioned.
“In an trade that depends closely on, form of, smoke and mirrors, exclusivity and mysticism, [Povos] is a glass-door gallery with the intentions sort of laid out, which is actually uncommon,” Colombelli mentioned.
Povos took over the previous residence of Mu Gallery, which closed final yr. After a couple of months of renovations and upgrades, Colombelli and his staff launched their first present this month on the new location. The present, “Bloom,” options greater than 30 artists.
The response has been overwhelming, Colombelli mentioned. He estimates about 1,000 folks attended the opening social gathering and mentioned about half of the work on show have been offered.
Credit score: Quinn Myers/Block Membership Chicago
Credit score: Jake Ellerbrake/Block Membership ChicagoColombelli had no plans to run his personal gallery when he moved to Chicago a number of years in the past, he mentioned.
He had devoted his life to portray, a lot in order that he dropped out of the Faculty of the Artwork Institute of Chicago to pursue portray full-time whereas additionally working service trade jobs, he mentioned.
Over the subsequent few years, Colombelli beginning internet hosting pop-up artwork exhibits, first at his studio in Pilsen after which at a townhouse in Bucktown in 2019. The success of that casual present in the end led Colombelli to take the concept of building a gallery extra significantly.
“Afterwards, it was identical to, ‘Whoa, I’m so burnt out and exhausted and bodily sick and I by no means wish to do this ever once more.’ After which the subsequent week, I used to be like, ‘That was the good factor I’ve ever executed,’” he mentioned.
As Colombelli met extra associates and artists in Chicago, he determined to launch Povos in 2020. It was on-line extra out of financial necessity than as a COVID-era precaution.
However the pandemic quickly introduced one other new alternative: low cost hire on a studio and gallery area close to the intersection of Armitage and Milwaukee avenues alongside the Bucktown-Logan Sq. border.
Credit score: Bennett Fuhrman/SuppliedColombelli began internet hosting pop-up exhibits there in 2021, together with a showcase of the work of famed Wicker Park road artist Lajuana Lampkins.
Issues had been robust, with the gallery struggling to interrupt even a lot of the time, Colombelli mentioned. However a remark from a buddy caught with him: The area “had a very good room” for folks to get collectively and see artwork but in addition meet one another and make connections.
“I leaned into this concept that every one congregation is holy. And so having the ability to foster that, particularly post-COVID, is that this actually precious job,” he mentioned. “The true impression will not be the intersection of cash and artwork. It’s concerning the expertise of the assembly place and looking out on the gallery not as like a enterprise however as a gathering place”
Colombelli caught with the gallery and arranged a string of more and more well-received occasions in 2022, resulting in a present in August that includes the work of painter William Schaeuble. Each portray offered out opening evening.
“By opening evening, the whole lot was gone. And in order that was enormous for him. And that was enormous for me,” Colombelli mentioned.
Final fall, the chance got here to take over the Mu Gallery storefront in West City — twice the dimensions of the Bucktown area — and Colombelli jumped at it.
Credit score: Jake Ellerbrake/Block Membership ChicagoPast having more room for work, the brand new Povos location is within the thick of what some have began calling Chicago’s “Gallery District,” close to Chicago and Ashland avenues in West City.
Since 2015, Chicago Truborn, Rhona Hoffman, Catherine Edelman, PATRON, Western Exhibitions, ARC Gallery, Andrew Rafacz, DOCUMENT and others have opened within the space. The West City Chamber of Commerce additionally hosts a month-to-month First Fridays occasion when most of the galleries keep open late the primary Friday of each month.
“I’ve plenty of associates within the West City artwork neighborhood. And that is sort of the strip now for wonderful artwork,” Colombelli mentioned. “Persons are strolling round and really coming right here to see artwork. … There’s a neighborhood round artwork right here that I didn’t really feel” in Bucktown.
Forward of the Povos opening this month, Colombelli began delegating extra work to newly employed gallery supervisor Valeria Terrazas as he balanced operating the gallery whereas representing artists and pursuing his personal portray profession.
On a whiteboard in his workplace, Colombelli has mapped out the exhibits he’s booked by way of June 2024. He ultimately desires to arrange extra occasions within the area and host a mentorship program with Chicago Social Change, the nonprofit he donates a portion of the gallery’s earnings to each quarter.
And whereas Colombelli’s landed notable Chicago names — the gallery’s subsequent present in April is with the collage-maker and painter Tony Fitzpatrick — Colombelli mentioned he’s dedicated to protecting the bar low sufficient for aspiring artists to get a foot within the door.
“Povos is Portuguese, and it means ‘folks.’ So it’s the folks’s gallery,” Colombelli mentioned. “And that ties into the design; that ties into the ethos. … The concept is slowly to make this a extra democratic, extra moral trade, as a result of the ecosystem for artists proper now’s loopy.”
With its new, higher-profile location, Povos has turn into a balancing act for Colombelli: He’s thumbing his nostril on the established gallery scene in Chicago whereas hoping to broaden his personal foothold within the artwork world as a gallerist and a painter.
“I’m not a businessman. I’m an artist pretending to be a businessman. I believe that there’s a necessity for areas which can be pleasant to artists and, past that, supportive of rising artwork in a manner that’s not predatory,” Colombelli mentioned. “Loads of the scene is actually inflexible, and I wish to be the other of that. … Somebody referred to as it a canine park for artists, which I assumed was humorous.”
Povos is open 12-6 p.m. weekends and by appointment in the course of the week.
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