Even though Kuceris loves urban life, she says New York City was just too much (particularly the hour long subway ride from Queens to Chelsea every day). As a result, the 24-year-old packed her bags once again and moved to Portland this summer to set up her own shop. The space, called Four Walls Gallery, opened its doors to a huge crowd for the August First Friday Art Walk.
Her focus is on young, up-and-coming artists. The opening show, up through the end of the month, features the work of seven artists, who are all under 40. The pieces range in price from $– to $12,000.
“I want to help the young artists meet the collectors and help the collectors meet the young artists,” Kuceris says. “Because I know so many young artists, I know who will blow up some day.”
When searching for artists with commercial potential, she says she not only looks for compelling work, but for artists who have tremendous drive and the ability to produce a substantial body of work.
This show includes New York artists and Kuceris’ former classmates from RISD, but she intends to feature more local artists in the future.
Right now the show stealer is Brian Rochefort and his voluptuous ceramic sculptures. Due to the clever treatment with iridescent paint, these pieces look like they’re made of glass, as they undulate into organic shapes.
The influence of video games pops up in two very different bodies of work. Leeanne Williams shows a series of pen and ink drawings of a young women with an orange shock of hair. The artist works in character development for the video game industry and this influence bleeds into her fine art work.
On the opposite wall Michael Medel’s large, grayscale landscapes feature wintery views and mountain vistas. Kuceris says Medel doesn’t paint in the field, instead he works from digital images clipped from video games. His work will be the subject of a solo show opening Sept. 7.
One thing all the works have in common is the exuberant energy of youth coupled with the calculated rendering of fine art.