PATTY AANDE TO CLOSE SHOWCASE GALLERY

One of the city’s top commercial art galleries announced this week that it will close Aug. 31 for financial reasons.

Gallery owner Patty Aande cited a need for “more financial stability” in deciding to fold the highly regarded art showcase at 960 9th Ave.

Known for its stable of emerging, sophisticated Southern California artists--and especially female artists--the Patty Aande Gallery became recognized in Los Angeles and San Diego art circles for the uniformly high caliber of the artists it exhibited since opening in 1983.

Aande, however, said she has lived on “a month-to-month basis” since dropping a part-time job and devoting herself full time to the business in 1986. She said she needs “something more secure.”

“I have absolutely no complaints,” Aande said Friday, despite the paucity of local art collectors that kept her gallery on a shoestring budget. “People have been very kind to me.”

Among the diverse art styles she has presented are the neo-expressionist paintings of Angeleno Roger Herman, San Diegan Wick Alexander’s thought-provoking work on the U.S.-Mexican border and Lari Pittman’s ominous “ugly” paintings that caused viewers to reevaluate attitudes toward art.

One of the gallery’s most significant contributions has been as a marketplace for female artists. Aande has presented the whimsical papier-mache sculptures of Amanda Farber, the surreal paintings of Renee Petropoulos and the exotic, almost mystical suburban images of Astrid Preston.

The current exhibit of works by Astrid Preston, which closes July 11, will be the last show. Aande will keep the gallery open for appointments through August.