Moving countercurrent to a wave of Bay Area art institutions and galleries closing in recent years, a new art space has launched Uptown. Dubbed “The Orchard” and located on 25th Street in Oakland’s Uptown Arts District, the showroom provides an achingly beautiful, 6,000-square-foot, light-filled, new venue for showcasing contemporary art. Along with the exhibition space, The Orchard / Galleries on 25 offers separate studios for up to 12 established artists.
Orchard founder and artist Peter Dreyfuss says the grand opening Nov. 15 had hundreds of people joining the celebration that included live music by the Stephen Dreyfuss Duo and a dance performance by Megan Lowe Dancers. “Someone told me we had about 500 people,” Dreyfuss said. “It was truly amazing. It felt like a wonderfully friendly, interested mob scene.”
The space was energized by the diversity of work from participating artists who included Dreyfuss, Suzy Barnard, Nemo Gould, Lisa Levine, Fernanda Martinez, Yulia Pinkusevich, Fernando Reyes, Meghan Shimek, Simone Simon, Tom White, Anja Ulfeldt and John Wood.
The new gallery is a second iteration of a concept Dreyfuss launched four years ago in a different location. During that studio/gallery’s year-and-a-half existence, he discovered that cross-pollination between the resident artists occurred organically.
“Meghan Shimek doing her bright, colorful weaving and Fernanda Martinez doing her murals of buildings showed occasional and noticeable interplay, for example,” Dreyfuss said. “Notably, cross-influences were beneficial to all parties, even passersby.”
Orchard’s evolution, he expects, will generate similar benefits from a compendium of artists working in different mediums and divergent styles. Add to that the location in the arts district and a space with 22-foot-high ceilings, 10 skylights and enormous wooden trusses he calls “glorious.” Dreyfuss says it is “like a cathedral to art.”
Demagnetizing powerful art centers like Los Angeles and New York while giving local artists more recognition is a powerful motivation for opening the new venue. “With the first show, supported by Gray Loft and its [founder/curator and artist] Jan Watten, we’ve brought together a powerful grouping of Bay Area artists,” Dreyfuss said.
“There are young artists, artists like Tom White who at age 84 is still making new work, and artists like Anja Ulfeldt, who blows in bringing all kinds of new ideas with static electricity and lovely, constructed toolboxes hung on the wall. She makes me sit up and think, ‘Wow, that’s a whole new idea,”’ he added.
Dreyfuss knows well the art scene’s expansions and contractions, and likens them to a sine wave of the economy. “It will take a year or two to truly gauge the effect of the gallery,” he said. “There’s a vacuum of larger exhibit spaces on this side of the Bay. Orchard’s a venue that gives larger works and exhibits air and space to breathe.”
Oakland-based fiber artist Shimek participated in the opening and said she will use the new gallery primarily as an occasional showroom for her largescale woven wall hangings and sculptures. Her studio in a different location is shared.
“When I first started out, I only wanted to work alone,” Shimek said. “Now, I love having people to check in with every day, run things by when I’m stuck or get inspiration for colors. We also announce each other’s shows. It just builds the community up.”
Shimek said that following the pandemic-related ups-and-downs, the arts energy in Oakland remains “diminished.” The economy is a large factor, but in the new space she sensed a fresh vitality. “There were so many people from different walks of life, different ages—a huge mix,” she said. “It was fantastic. It made me hopeful.”
Creating her artwork is intensely physical, and she says using one’s hands to make something is healing. “Especially when you’re going through grief. We’re not good at expressing it—I see people in my workshops helped by connecting to their emotions,” Shimek said. “It can also be about happiness, about shared experiences with friends and family. Finishing something makes people feel a sense of accomplishment.”
Gould’s kinetic sculptures involve an extensive physical creative process that might include salvaging materials from dumpsters and scrapyards, followed by carving, cutting, welding and sometimes discarding.
“I use old cast-aluminum items,” Gould said. “You can’t always tell the metallurgical quality. One piece boiled, bubbled and kind of farted when I went to weld it. It was filled with impurities and simply wouldn’t behave.”
Society also misbehaves, which has not caused Gould to move entirely away from using humor as a salve in his work, but does have him addressing the dark side of topics such as gun violence, racism, obsession with mobile devices and more. Burning Man, he says, has conditioned artists to think only in a narrow context.
“I’m saying something unpopular, but Burning Man has created a gravitational pull toward a once-a-year event held in a harsh environment,” Gould said. “It’s raised ships, but also standardized things and edged out white-wall gallery exhibits of the kind of sculpture I make.”
Reyes is an acclaimed painter with an eclectic, intriguing backstory. Largely self-taught before earning a BFA in 1997 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he first worked as a banker. Project management skills applied to his full-time career as a professional artist make him adept at organization, setting priorities, managing work relationships and more. His recent public art projects in the East Bay have tapped those capabilities and increased his appreciation for collaborative ventures.
“When you see something like Orchard opening, there’s energy that’s still there. It’s a terrific space,” Reyes said. “I see it as a great place for artists to display their work and bring clients to an incredibly structured, professional space. People at the opening were elated.”
The Orchard / Galleries on 25, 489 25th St., Oakland. Open every First Friday in conjunction with the Oakland Art Murmur, and Fri-Sat noon to 5pm, as well as by appointment. Instagram: @the_orchard_galleries_on_25
