Displaying your art in restaurants and cafes may feel like a fringe move, but it’s been a viable alternative to gallery representation for a long time.
St. Pete painter Richard Seidel has paintings in The Annex on Beach Drive. He remembers as a teenager in 1968 painting daisies onto weathered, wooden plaques at the Daisy, a coffee shop in Columbus, OH. People often bought them when he was finished, or they’d hang them up on the walls.
“It was normal to have your work up in Italian restaurants around Columbus,” Seidel said. “An artist named Burkhart, and he’s a well-known artist now — he’s dead but they promoted him. That’s how he got his start was through Persutti’s Restaurant. They’d accidentally burn it down every 10 years and rebuild it. The fourth time, the insurance company didn’t pay.”
Today St. Pete has lots of food spots doubling as gallery walls, like Pom Pom’s Sandwiches, Cider Press Cafe, Kahwa Coffee south, The Bends, Emerald Bar, Bar @548, Blue Goose, The Annex, 400 Beach Drive Seafood & Tap House, Black Crow, Genaro’s Coffee, Creative Soul Studio & Cafe and Rococo Steak House. In Tampa, Cafe Hey is a classic, and Ulele opens their doors to local artists, too. Before all these spots were open, the iconic Globe Coffee House in the ‘Burg hosted art shows, giving Josh Sullivan a social place to launch his zine empire, and I’ll always remember realizing what a great artist Ricky Seelbach from Reality Asylum was with his black-and-white paintings. (Now the Globe is Angelo’s, where they don’t rotate local art.)
Back when Bar @548 was Sake Bomb, the artist Aurailieus Artist and some friends began meeting up on Wednesday to paint, drink and smoke outside the bar, which attracted customers and other artists in the community. Art Meet Up still happens every Wednesday at 8 p.m.
“It all started out because we couldn’t get an art show anywhere, a long time ago before the 600 Block had any art galleries,” he said. “We had art in weird places. Like coffee shops, St. Pete’s Finest. We had four art shows there — they had no hanging system and they wouldn’t let us put holes in the walls. We hung our art with fishing line from the rafters.”
The late Bill “Woo” Correira, whose big-hearted inclusiveness helped rejuvenate the 600 Block for artists before its recent surrender to a more “civilized” crowd, has his paintings hanging posthumously at 400 Beach Seafood & Tap House, along with work by Clayton Swartz and glass art throughout the restaurant. I remember Steve Westphal’s heartfelt teary-eyed eulogy at Woo’s memorial at the MFA about what a joy it was to be Woo’s friend, and the way Woo’s paintings transformed the restaurant. Today they’re part of 400 Beach’s permanent collection and not for sale.
Today Aurailieus curates art shows with artist Brook Lyn around St. Pete at spots such as Blue Goose, Iberian Rooster, Bar@548 and bimonthly at Pom-Pom’s. John Gascot, who curates for Cider Press Cafe, used to also do Pom Pom’s until he got too busy and handed the task over to Aurailieus.
“I was like ‘that could be cool,’” Aurailieus said. “Me and Brook Lyn were trying to focus on not necessarily new artists but artists that aren’t everywhere all the time for that, just to give — you know — just get some new people in there.”
Cider Press Cafe is a good spot to see new work — manager Samm Boyle said they show eclectic art from people in their teens up to in their 80s, as well as work from successful artists like Margaret Juul Amaan. They’ve been rotating artists’ shows for the past two years and they switch the theme every three months. They have a separate curator (John Gascot) aside from the cafe staff who manages the wall space for them and they’re booked about a year in advance, although sometimes a show will fall through; that’s when a prepared artist with a body of work would be able to save the day. Otherwise, get on these restaurant’s lists as early as possible. Boyle said a couple of big pieces have sold, but generally smaller pieces under $100 sell the fastest.
“We did a Pride show and this show now is women-based, but the themes aren’t seasonal,” Boyle said. “We’re going to have a show next spring by people who come in here or work here; there’s a girl who works here and is an artist, this guy Evan comes here and paints, sets up his big pad and draws. We participate in Second Saturday. We had this guy typing poems outside,” Boyle said.
That would be Gio Cerro, who has recently decided to throw chance to the wind and do what he loves — writing public poetry on a typewriter. Keep your eye out for Gio around town these hot summer evenings.
According to Aurailieus, none of the places ask for a commission.
“Some of them want art shows, they understand it brings in more people, people that wouldn’t normally go there,” he said. “Especially places where we do opening events. Like Bar @548, they give me money on certain shows. If we come and it’s a really good show and they make over a certain amount of money at the bar then they give the organizers some of that, a percentage of the alcohol sales after a set amount.”
Aurailieus said every brewery does it now.
“Every brewery has some kind of art in it,” he said. “There’s Fringe Collective — Teri Navajo, that’s her business, that’s what she does. She goes around, gets places, puts up art shows there. And I did a couple art shows with them and they didn’t charge me anything either.”
However it works, people are doing it, and the dynamic seems win-win.
“Coffee shops are a good way to show your work, and someone who owns a gallery may see the work and put it in their gallery,” Seidel said. “Exposure is good any place, it doesn’t matter.”
This article appears in Aug 16-23, 2018.
