Orlando Gallery Wins Thankful Following of Artists, Collectors

The Orlando Gallery has done something unique among Valley art galleries.

It has endured.

Other Valley venues have come and gone, but the Orlando Gallery has been a presence on Ventura Boulevard (albeit at two other locations in Encino) for more than four decades.

Established in 1958 by Robert Gino and the late Philip Orlando, the gallery has done something even more important. It has proved that the San Fernando Valley is a hospitable place for showing--and selling--high-quality works of art.

Starting Oct. 18, the Orlando Gallery will be honored by Cal State Northridge with a monthlong exhibit in the campus Art Dome. Titled “Orlando,” the show will feature the work of 24 artists, including CSUN students and faculty, who have shown their work at the gallery.

“A tribute is long overdue,” said Louise Lewis, director of the CSUN art galleries, who described Orlando as “the longest lived, most recognizable and most prestigious private art gallery” in the Valley and one of the finest in the Los Angeles area.

Since its founding, the gallery has exhibited the work of more than 1,000 painters, sculptors and other artists.

“I started when there were no freeways in the Valley,” Gino recalled during a recent interview amid the eclectic mix of paintings, drawings, sculptures and other works that fill the 1,800-square-foot space. “It was still orange and lemon groves over here.”

Gino and his partner, who died in 1992, got into the art business just as their earlier enterprise--a dance studio--went into decline as a result of the inexorable onslaught of rock ‘n’ roll.

Like so many other Los Angeles-area businesses, the dance studio was decorated with autographed celebrity photos, until artist friends asked if they could display their work on the walls. When visitors started to ask if they could buy the original art work, Gino and Orlando began to wonder if selling art might not provide them with a more secure future than teaching dance to such clients as a very young Sally Field.

Both men were artists themselves, and from the beginning, they were interested in forward-looking work, art with a fresh viewpoint and an edge. Initially, they went to college and university shows, searching for artists they could represent.

The days of having to scramble for talent are long over, according to Gino.

“Now I’m inundated,” he said. “Now professors send me their finer students.”

Artist Don Lagerberg, an art professor at Cal State Fullerton, is one of those who refers gifted students to the Orlando Gallery, in part because he remembers how well Gino and Orlando treated him.

“Getting paintings sold there was a major part of my income when I was starting out,” Lagerberg recalled in 1992 after organizing a memorial show for Orlando at the gallery. “Phil and Bob were more to me than just gallery owners. Sometimes I would be hurting, trying to work as an artist and keep a young family together. When I needed a few bucks, they came through.”

Gino continues the tradition of supporting young artists. Even when he believes an artist is not ready to display his or her work, Gino offers the artist advice based on years of experience in the business. Often, he said, the fledgling artist has the requisite techniques down pat but lacks focus and a clear, original vision.

Although some of the gallery’s artists are quite young, some have been with Gino for decades. He represents some artists in their 70s. “They never do a bad painting,” Gino said of these veterans. “Age is not a barrier for me.” Instead, he looks for artists who continue to grow and take risks, whatever their age.

Gino and Orlando wanted to start their gallery in the Valley because this is where they lived. But it was never easy. Many Angelenos suffer from the misconception that Valley culture is an oxymoron. To this day, Gino said, even some Valley-based collectors have greater esteem for pieces bought elsewhere.

When the gallery first opened, Gino recalled, local art critics stayed away in droves, apparently convinced that serious art could exist only on the Westside.

“It was hard for us to get reviewed at the time because we were not part of the scene,” he said. “It was all on the other side.”

The Orlando Gallery got its first review in the Los Angeles Times after a senior editor bought a piece at the gallery for his private collection, Gino recalled.

Declining to say how much the gallery takes in annually, Gino described its current financial state as “adequate.”

“We’re surviving,” he said.

Sales are relatively slow right now, he said, but that is always true of the summer months, and he expects business to pick up by late September.

Like most galleries, Orlando usually splits sales 50/50 with the artist.

One way Gino and current partner Don Grant (Philip Orlando’s nephew) keep the business growing is by cultivating potential collectors. In addition to its ongoing commitment to African art, the gallery has always concentrated on the art of California. This is a diverse body of work, and Gino constantly sings its praises.

“I stress that California artists are as important as any artists in the world,” he said.

“He’s taught me to be a better collector,” Denis Bettencourt said of Gino. A chiropractor in North Hollywood, Bettencourt likes the eclectic blend of work shown in the gallery, and he also appreciates the relatively modest prices.

“You can come in here and buy a wonderful original for what you’d pay for a lithograph in another gallery,” Bettencourt said, as he checked out the new offerings on a recent afternoon. He said he also likes to engage Gino and Grant in discussions of art theory, as well as the merits of a particular piece.

Gino said that he was tempted to move the gallery to the Westside on several occasions, but decided to stick it out.

“No,” he told himself, “I still feel somebody’s going to respond some day to having a fine gallery here.”

And as the upcoming Northridge honor indicates, somebody has.