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Seekin'
Hide
You’ll find The Hide concealed around a bend in the road on Front Street, in a hundred-year-old warehouse that most recently sheltered a taxi depot. Some know the neighborhood as an area to drive through on the way to West Cliff, rather than a place to stop and look around. But that didn’t stop more than a hundred art lovers from seeking out The Hide for the unpublicized, soft opening of what may one day be one of Santa Cruz’s grandest galleries. “The old end of downtown is going to be the new end of downtown,” says Tim Armstrong, one of the Hide’s partners, speaking above the din of the elbow-to-elbow crowd. “Once people come down here to see the space, they’ll be back.” Step through the vertical rolling doors of The Hide, and Armstrong’s claim won’t sound like hype. The wooden ceiling and beams must reach three stories high, like an airy canvas full of possibility. Plans are to hang 3-D art by pulleys from the rafters, lifting patrons’ gazes upward. Tonight, however, eyes are fixed upon the walls—and on the works of local artist Kelley Richardson, whose life-sized canvases and wood panels frame a series of colorful skeletons rendered in acrylics, charcoal, chalk and collage. Surrounded by hearts, angel wings and Madonnas, the skeletons evoke a spirituality wrapped in the frailties of being human—at least for some viewers. Richardson, like all good artists, keeps her interpretations to herself, for the most part. “To me, we’re all the same on the inside, and everything else is simply experience,” says Richardson. “So my paintings are just that—I mean, that’s the core of me, coupled with whatever experience I was basically drawn to put on wood or canvas or whatever material I’m working on.” Richardson, owner of ~strange angel studios~, stands at the Hide’s entrance, greeting guest after guest after guest (after guest), as they step inside for their first look around. Above the conversations there’s a soft hiss-hiss that, along with wine and cheese, draws guests to the back of the gallery, where local artist Clay .. is airbrushing a scene on the wall to reflect the energy of the crowd. Graffitiesque and urban, Chollar’s performance art appeals to the back room’s edgier quality. The plan for the Hide is to be more than a place to hang art. Up front, locally made furniture, jewelry and clothing are all for sale, showing off Santa Cruz’s homegrown craftsmanship. One wall is covered with T-shirts by local designers like 7 Sins, 831 and SCAM. There’s also space to display CDs by local bands. In the back, where a hydraulic lift once hefted taxis in need of repair, is space for performance art and seating for lectures or other events. Back in front, Isabella Pitco, who is practically 9 and a half years old, is inspecting one hand-painted cap after another, while Armstrong tells her father how durable and washing-machine safe they are. “There’s too many choices,” Pitco says. She ultimately counts out some bills from a red purse, where her allowance money is kept, and purchases a locally created camouflaged cap with the letters “SC” painted above the bill. “Because it’s pretty,” she says, “and I love camo.” Thus, Pitco became one of the Hide’s first patrons. “Whatever,” she says. The Hide is owned by five partners, four of whom—Armstrong, Joe Hencke, Jennifer Pond and Adrian Rasmussen—ran the ? Gallery on Cathcart Street in downtown Santa Cruz, which closed last year after about eight months. The fifth partner is The Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Arts, which will have offices in the same complex, next to the Children’s Learning Museum. The Mill Complex, as it is called, is owned by Joe Quigg, owner of The Attic and a major supporter of the arts in Santa Cruz. The
Grand opening for The Hide Gallery and Low End Artique, 131-B Front
St., Santa Cruz, is Friday, March 3, 6:30 p.m. to around midnight. The
show, “Art Enemies,” is a collaboration by Aptos father
and son Noah and Marc Gould. |