Artist Kate Remington believes that cooperative galleries are the only way to go. With fewer commercial art galleries, she says, the idea of a group of artists pooling their resources to rent their own exhibition space “just makes sense.”
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Cooperative galleries aren’t new in Chicago; ARC and Artemisia, both in River West, are two successful, long-standing examples. But art co-ops were virtually unknown in Wicker Park’s gallery district when Remington and five other artists opened Gallery 203 in a small room in the Flat Iron Building almost two years ago. Though Gallery 203 proved a success, Remington felt it was time to take a chance on building a larger co-op. “Gallery 203 is a good experiment, but it’s too small,” says Remington. “You can’t have big shows there with lots of variety.”
South of North Gallery opened last week at 1552 N. Milwaukee, on the second floor of the building bearing the big red-neon Libby’s sign. The 3,000-square-foot gallery is the result of a partnership among 18 local and regional artists, each of whom will kick in roughly $100 a month to pay for the space.
–Jeff Huebner
