GALLERY CLOSINGS GET MIXED REVIEW

The recent news that downtown’s two top art galleries will fold this summer has triggered a wave of misgivings and speculation about the future of art in San Diego among artists and gallery owners.

Reactions to the pending closures range from lamentations over the loss of a key element of the San Diego arts scene to the comment that downtown is no longer a desirable environment for art galleries.

There is little question that the Patty Aande and Mark Quint galleries are the two premier showcases here for emerging local and Southern California artists. The art they show generally is not decorative or pretty, but the product of artists with something to say about their world, of artists whose work itself constantly reexamines traditional art techniques and styles.

Though collectors and artists may still benefit from the “eye” of the two gallery directors as they continue to make private sales, the arts community and San Diego at large clearly stands to lose from the closings, artists say.

“They are the only galleries showing serious art,” said Italo Scanga, an artist of national repute on the faculty at UC San Diego. “The artistic community will disintegrate” with the closings.

“They are a place where the artists in the community get together when they celebrate an opening. It’s not only shows, they’re like a museum, too, where you can see the work of unknown artists.”

Scanga said it is important to show his work in his own town. “I live here. This is my town,” he said. “It’s no problem to show in Los Angeles or Detroit or New York, but what good does that do me here? That’s why artists go away--if they don’t show your work (at home).”

Artist Kenneth Capps said, “It was the first time in the history of art in San Diego that a higher standard of quality was set . . . in terms of professional galleries. This is definitely a setback.”

Artist Raul Guerrero called the closings “very negative.” “Aside from money and all that, it gave the opportunity for us to see work that normally you would not see here,” said Guerrero, who has been exhibited in San Diego at the Aande gallery. “From the point of view of bringing artists from outside of the city, it is very beneficial for all of us.”

Indeed, the two galleries have exhibited works by artists such as Lari Pittman and Kim MacConnel, both selected for the Whitney Museum Biennial. MacConnel, who lives in Encinitas, is generally shown in New York. But through his Quint exhibits, San Diegans can see him here.

Though there are other galleries that show emerging artists in San Diego, the Quint and the Aande galleries had the longest track records. Both of the owners opened their first galleries in 1981 at other locations before moving into the 9-G Building at 9th and G streets. Even though both say their sales have increased each year, they said income was not sufficient to remain in business.

The average cost of artworks sold in the two galleries--$500 to $2,500, according to the directors--is much lower than the prices in other galleries.

Quint and Aande were among the first four or five galleries to open downtown, recalled their landlord, Betty Slater, who said now there are 20 downtown galleries.

The reason for that setback is the galleries’ downtown location, according to La Jolla gallery owner Thomas Babeor.

“I am very sorry to see this happen, . . . (but) I do not think that downtown San Diego is the logical area for the center of the gallery community in San Diego,” Babeor said. He described downtown as “predominantly a tourist area--with Seaport Village, Horton Plaza and the Convention Center. (Tourists) don’t buy serious art. They’re interested in buying T-shirts, sunglasses, cotton candy. They give birth to a different kind of gallery.

“This is not the East Coast. We’re Southern California, not a densely populated area where people take taxis. You saw the same thing happen in Los Angeles with the downtown area. After two or three years of novelty, people just don’t go down there. The radical chic stuff is dead. People don’t feel they have to go rub shoulders with the poor anymore to assuage their guilt.

“But people who are buying serious art like to go to places that are pleasant, nice open air restaurants and places they can walk around . . . where they can feel comfortable and not worry about drunks and derelicts.

Robert Walker disagreed with Babeor’s assertion.

“People who really like serious art are more adventuresome than those on the edge of it,” said Walker, who operates the Gallery Store, a downtown framing store, boutique and gallery. “They’re not afraid to venture out. Anyway, Mark’s and Patty’s galleries are not in unsafe areas.”

Collector Doug Simay, who specializes in emerging figurative artists, said the two galleries are victims of the small art market in San Diego. But Simay predicted the closures do not mark the death of the art scene here.