4th S.D. Gallery to Close Due to Lagging Sales

Citing a lack of sales, Anuska Galerie will close Dec. 24, the final day of its current exhibit of cubist relief paintings by Marjorie Nodelman, gallery owner Anuska Smith said Friday.

Anuska is the fourth contemporary art gallery to fold this year in San Diego.

“I don’t have the financial support any more,” Smith said. “I have to pay my rent. I don’t have the money, and I can not put myself deeper in debt.” Smith said she is looking to sublease the space for the remainder of her lease, which runs through June.

A native of Yugoslavia, Smith opened the gallery two years ago this month in The Studio, a compound of artists’ studios at 2400 Kettner Blvd. Her gallery exhibited a combination of established Yugoslavian artists, such as Ismar Mujezinovic and Nives Kavuric Kurtovic, and emerging San Diego artists, such as Deborah Small, Margaret Honda and Daniel Britton.

This summer the Patty Aande Gallery, the Mark Quint Gallery and the Natalie Bush Gallery, also critically acknowledged for exhibiting local artists, closed because of insufficient sales.

“I think with the other people closing, it did something to San Diego,” Smith said of the previous closures. “The excitement wasn’t there anymore.”

Smith took “great satisfaction” from running the gallery and hopes to deal privately with her artists and “possibly organize shows in the future.”