Main Street’s newest art purveyor, J Go Gallery, opened earlier this year at 408 Main Street. The full vision of owners Jude Grenney and Curtis Olson, however, is just now coming to fruition.
Grenney, former director of Phoenix Gallery, and Olson, a professional artist, created J Go Gallery to carry high-profile artists not found elsewhere in Park City. They describe the gallery’s theme as “contemporary fine art for the new West.”
That is exemplified by pieces inspired by traditional Western themes like wildlife, hunting trophies, landscapes, stone jewelry and cowboys. Yet these traditional themes are expressed in contemporary, even abstract, styles.
“These are modern Western themes,” Grenney explained. “It’s not cowboys and Indians it’s art for people here made by people here.”
Grenney and Olson have subdivided the gallery into three distinct sections to logically display the pieces.
The paintings and sculptures are J Go Gallery. The art jewelry is also at 408 Main Street, but separately displayed and labeled “Sparkle & Bling.”
The jewelry was designed as art first, accessory second, Grenney explained. Each is a miniature sculpture that can be displayed on a finger, wrist or around a neck. In contrast to designers focused solely on aesthetics, each artist is making a statement with their collection.
The space at 408 which is down a flight of stairs from Main Street but is level with Swede Alley and has a second entrance there is home to a room that used to be a silver vault.
That vault has often been used as a storage room or office space. Grenney and Olson have converted it into the “Wonder Box.”
Wealthy Europeans used to collect oddities and curiosities brought back by world explorers and traders, Olson explained. They would create closets and cabinets full of their treasures to show off to guests. As this trend grew, the spaces became known as “wonder boxes.” The largest collections were converted to museums in the 18th and 19th centuries, he said.
J Go Gallery’s Wonder Box is stocked with artistic curiosities, Olson said.
“It is a treasure trove,” he added. “Full of mysterious, curious art.”
In addition to offering three collections in one gallery, J Go Gallery also has a space inside the Sky Lodge, Grenney said. Labeled, J Go Galley Exhibits, that space will feature frequently changing displays of art.
Right now the home gallery is featuring the art of Nicole Charbonnet who creates pieces reflecting “eroded memories.” The paintings are created in layers to create the effect of peeling wall paper or paint. The peeling reveals new images underneath combining multiple ideas. The result is an eroding image of the dominant subject that is dreamlike, they explained.
Sculptor Danae Miller creates traditional wildlife images using contemporary methods of working the clay. For example, several of the pieces are made with clay slabs instead of molded images.
James Georgopoulis uses a large format camera and traditional film developing to capture images of movie props. Right now the gallery is displaying photographs of the guns used in “The Quick and the Dead.”
J Go Gallery
408 Main Street
435-649-1006