Richard Colon didn’t set out to open an art gallery in the heart of downtown when he set up a meeting last September with Sean Brooks, Sibley Square’s commercial operations manager.
All he wanted was to rent a space nestled against the east wall of The Mercantile, across from the row of restaurants, for a month-long showcase of photographs by local artists he felt had been overlooked.
“I wanted it to be kind of a star-studded event of a bunch of different artists that were in my inner circle,” Colon said.
But by the end of that conversation, Colon had secured the space as downtown’s newest art venue and a role for himself as a volunteer curator of monthly exhibitions.
Following renovations that transformed the glass-walled space into the Behind the Glass Gallery, the inaugural show opened on January 6, featuring work by Rob Bell from Democrat and Chronicleschool librarian Beth Larter and photographer and videographer Roberto Felipe.
Each of the artists shoots with film, focusing on the people and places of the city. The show is full of images captured at The Public Market, Frontier Field (now Innovative Field), Highland Park, Lamberton Conservatory and many other recognizable locations downtown and elsewhere. Some of the images are captured from such distinctive perspectives that you will see them as if for the first time.
The Rochester theme came as no surprise, given Colon’s unwavering and unabashed cheerleading for that city, which he conveys through his own photos and regularly proclaims on social media.
Colon, 39, is a college counselor at the University of Rochester, a husband and father of four, whose dark photographs capture Rochester’s brutal and magnificent undertones in sometimes humorous, often poignant ways and have earned him a following as a street photographer.
The opening party was packed with art scene enthusiasts eager to embrace the new venue and its mission to give artists a place to show and sell their work.
Colon’s dedication to this mission goes beyond providing the walls—he also offers each artist he features in the gallery help creating a SquareSpace site for their work if they don’t have a website. He also asks them to participate in a podcast episode named after the gallery, which features a lively conversation that provides listeners with further insight into the artists’ work.
Colon is sticking to showing the work of photographers for now, but says he’d like to highlight artists who work in other media in the near future.
February’s featured artists are Narada Riley, Rudy Fabre and Joshua Taylor. An opening reception is scheduled for 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM on February 2nd. The gallery is open for public viewing when The Mercantile is open, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Rebecca Rafferty is CITY’s Life Editor. She can be reached at [email protected].
