Greg Kucera Gallery

Profil

"Opening in 1983, the Greg Kucera Gallery made a modest introduction to the Seattle art scene. The only mention of it in the press was a three line paragraph at the end of an arts column in The Seattle Times.

Our first space was a dilapidated storefront of about 2,000 square feet in the Corona Hotel , a Samis Land Company building on Second Avenue. Our rent then was $350 per month! We added another 1,500 square feet a few years later. Within a few years, Gallery Frames, my mate Larry Yocom's business, moved out of our house and into a small space also near Second and James.

The Gallery began with a modest group show of artists which included established NW artists such as Alden Mason, Gene Gentry McMahon, Karin Helmich and John F. Koenig. A number of younger artists were quickly added including Mark Calderon, Michael Ehle, Jody Isaacson, Ross Palmer Beecher, and Ed Wicklander. We then began working with Roger Shimomura, an already established artist who began his career in Seattle. The gallery also soon began to show prints and works on paper by Robert Motherwell , Helen Frankenthaler , Richard Diebenkorn, Jim Dine and artists making prints with ULAE, including Jasper Johns , Robert Rauschenberg , Terry Winters and Elizabeth Murray.

Nationally known artists, dealers and collectors who had become aware of the gallery through art fairs and my business trip travels, now saw the gallery in a less "regional" context. We found that we suddenly had access to a different group of increasingly more important artists.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s we began to work with mid-career nationally known artists such as Deborah Butterfield , John Buck, Jennifer Bartlett , Robert Colescott, Mark Lere and Jane Hammond . Everything changed. Now we were showing a significant roster of well-known artists, emerging artists and local talent, examining the political motivations and cultural attitudes of our world.

In 1998, the gallery acquired a condominium space at Third and Main in the Lofts Building. Purchasing this storefront location of nearly 4,000 square feet had many positive effects. Firstly, it secured the gallery financially by giving us a real estate asset while freeing us from being "rent slaves." The mortgage has turned out to be significantly smaller than the rent would be for this space or a similar space. We also have the advantage of an outdoor sculpture area and a much greater variety of exhibition space and storage room here. David DiMarco designed the space and gave us everything we wanted and needed.

In the last few years we have added mid-career artists such as Sherry Markovitz and Claudia Fitch and emerging talent such as Jeff Simmons, Mark Newport, Katy Stone, Tim Roda, Drew Daly, Jack Daws, Margie Livingston, Chris Engman, Whiting Tennis, Hugo Ludeña, Victoria Haven and Dan Webb. We also showed highly respected artists such as John Waters , William Kentridge and Tim Bavington. rt as the moving target it always is.