Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993 TAG: 9303300234
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That's the lesson Vic Huggins learned about art galleries.
For years the 56-year-old Virginia Tech art professor knew what he wanted to see in an art gallery, but it seemed that nobody else in Southwest Virginia was on his wavelength.
Which is why last October he opened the Victor Huggins Gallery at 125 Campbell Ave. in the City Market area of downtown Roanoke. In the long, narrow space, lined with whitewall and ancient weathered brick, Huggins and his daughter, Jill - who is the gallery director - are creating the kind of gallery they say the area has lacked till now.
"I don't mean this to reflect in any way at all negatively on the other galleries, but one of the nicest compliments we've had is from customers who've said it's so nice that Roanoke finally has a real art gallery," said Huggins.
The artist said he wants the new space to resemble the galleries he admires the most in Europe and in major American cities.
It's not merely that father and daughter plan to show lots of local artists - many other galleries exhibit Virginia artists.
Vic Huggins believes that good art shouldn't be crowded frame-to-frame as it is in some galleries.
"One of the things we do is spread the work out so it doesn't get cluttered. The work has breathing space, and we try to design the installation so that the work really does take on the kind of significance that you'd expect to find in a professional art gallery.
"We feel each work should be seen as a very important object as compared to having the show so crowded," said the elder Huggins.
Jill Huggins, who graduated from the Atlanta College of Art last year, says another distinguishing feature of her gallery is that during the announced dates of a show, only the work of the featured artists will be exhibited.
In the recently closed show "Art by Architects," the only work on view was by architect/artists Jim Yeatts, Carlton Abbott, Adam Cohen, Dennis Kilper and David Walters. In the current one-man show "Notes from Sybaris," only works by Louis St. Lewis are displayed.
Jill Huggins also says the new gallery will not feature what she referred to as "outsider art" or middle-brow artists such as P. Buckley Moss.
Huggins defines outsider art as "Art done by people who don't necessarily consider themselves artists and are not doing it with the intention of exhibiting it, but for their own pleasure or for therapeutic reasons.
"It's suddenly become very popular in the last couple of years, with professional artists imitating that style."
The younger Huggins, along with her mixed-breed dog Rainey, is in the gallery from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and till 9 p.m. on Friday nights. She says the best thing about the job is meeting new artists and viewing their work.
"But what I don't particularly like is writing bills and doing the bookkeeping and balancing the checkbook. I was trained in art, but now I feel like I should have been taking business classes," she said.
The Victor Huggins Gallery is about 80 feet long and about 20 feet wide. A striking exhibit area is the bare brick wall to the right as you walk in, though Vic Huggins says the weathered brick is suitable as a backdrop only for certain pictures.
On a recent visit during the closing days of the "Art by Architects" show the gallery had an airy spaciousness that underscored the generous room allotted to the pictures and sculpture. Track lighting and natural light make a well-lit space.
Chapel Hill artist Louis St. Lewis' show "Notes from Sybaris," which opened March 8, is "rather decadent, very witty and intelligent, and contains lots of mythic references that are an art history buff's dream," Jill Huggins said.
The collage and mixed-media works feature bright color and whimsical juxtapositions. The late Andy Warhol characterized St. Lewis' work as "Hieronymus Bosch meets MTV." The Atlanta-based journal "Art Papers" describes St. Lewis as "easily one of the most talented artists to arise from that moss-covered, gothic chrysalis called the South."
The show runs through April 10.
Vic Huggins says St. Lewis is typical of the new gallery's emphasis on "the visual resources of the area. We're looking for work that is in one way or another influenced by the artist's having been in this area."
That description fits Huggins' own work as well. "My paintings are influenced by the landscape of this region. I've tried to capture the deep space and the vista we have, with the light and the way the mountains change so dramatically depending on the time of day and the light conditions," said Huggins.
The artist says passers-by shouldn't be reluctant to come in even if they can't afford to buy.
"I look at this as a cultural resource for the community, the kind of thing I took advantage of during my time in New York City and in Europe," Huggins said. "It's not just a place for artists to sell their work - 99 percent of the people come in here just to look at the work and not to buy."
by CNB