GALLERY INTERRUPTED
C AT C H I N G U P W I T H A R T I S T A N D C U R AT O R A U N I A K A H N O N T H E
C O N T E M P O R A R Y P L I G H T O F T H E A R T G A L L E R Y By Meerah Powell
16
October 6, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
AUNIA KAHN AT THE FORMER
ALEXI ERA GALLERY SPACE ON
8TH AVENUE
PHOTO: TRASK BEDORTHA
E
ugene has an artistic reputation. At least, that’s
what Aunia Kahn found when she was researching
where to relocate her St. Louis gallery. Kahn had
always wanted to live on the West Coast, she says,
and after months of research she decided Eugene
would be the rightful home of the Alexi Era Gallery.
“After being in the Midwest for an extended period of
time, I felt that there was no way to expand myself without
being in a little bit more of a progressive area,” Kahn says.
“Eugene was an area that wasn’t overpopulated, it wasn’t
oversaturated and it’s up-and-coming, and it seemed very
loving and accepting. That’s why I chose Eugene.”
Kahn started a Kickstarter campaign and — after
raising more than $24,000 from artists, art collectors,
friends and family — the gallery made the move to
Eugene in May.
Alexi Era Gallery, which mostly features pop surrealist
art, opened at 245 W. 8th Avenue, just a few doors down
from WOW Hall.
This September, Kahn had to close the gallery’s brick-
and-mortar location, but Kahn says the gallery is not
closed, per se, as she will continue to curate art online and
host pop-up shows around town.
The gallery is facing the same questions confronting
galleries around the nation, says Kahn: “How can we stay
alive when people come to our space, they want to see the
art, they want to see the paint strokes, they want to have
the experience, but they’re not buying?”
Countless galleries, from Seattle’s beloved Roq La Rue,
one of the nation’s foremost pop surrealism galleries run by
a friend of Kahn’s, to The New Zone Gallery and Jacob’s
Gallery here in Eugene, have closed their doors recently.
Though it might seem tempting to give up the dream
of keeping Alexi Era open in the face of such obstacles,
Kahn says she is passionate about the power of art, as she
is not only a gallery-owner but an artist herself.
Born and raised in Detroit, Kahn moved to St. Louis in
2001, around the time a series of truly unfortunate events
began to unravel.
“My mom got cancer and, within a very short period
of time, my health started to decline,” Kahn says. “I was
bedridden and needed a caregiver for the next 11-and-a-
half years.”
Kahn doesn’t like to discuss the details of her illness,
though she does say she’s mostly recovered now. During
her time of bed rest, Kahn began creating art through
photography and eventually digital painting. “I didn’t really
have an outlet and so I started to do creative stuff to occupy
my mind and express the pain that I was going through.”
Kahn also used this time to explore the ever-growing art
world of the internet. She built her career by showcasing art
online and connecting with other artists, gallery owners and
collectors. Although helpful to artists, that same digital tool
has also become an obstacle to galleries across the globe.
“The internet, as much as it’s a great connection, is
changing the artist, gallery and collective relationship,”
Kahn says. Galleries used to be the first point of contact for
artist and collector, but the internet has made it so artists
sell work directly to buyers without having to cut galleries
any money for exhibiting and selling their pieces.
“It’s changed so dramatically that we have almost
become [competitors] with the people we’re showing,”
Kahn says of the gallery. “I’m looking at this thinking,
‘I don’t want to go into debt and I always want to pay my
artists. How can I do this without struggling?’”
The struggle with gallery spaces parallels other
community businesses competing in the digital age, like
record stores, bookstores and mom-and-pop boutiques.
A strategy some galleries have adopted is running dual
businesses: galleries that are also coffee shops or retail
stores, for example. Kahn says this is never something
she’s wanted to do; with so many mid-level galleries
closing around the U.S., she says it’s especially important
to hold onto these full gallery spaces.
“If you look at art-walk night here, there’s not a lot
of full galleries,” Kahn says. “There are places willing
to showcase art, which is fantastic, but how many just
galleries do we have here? Not many.”
Though it may seem as though the light is growing dim
on the future of the art gallery as we know it, Kahn says
there’s still hope. “The only way that it’s going to change is if
the community stands up and works together and is willing
to invest in their local mom-and-pop business,” she says.
As a consumer, Kahn says she realizes it’s not
financially feasible for a lot of people to buy locally instead
of online or from other big retailers that can afford to sell
art for cheap; she does stress, however, that there are other
ways to support community businesses rather than pulling
out your pocketbook.
Although the digital age has made it tougher for
galleries to sustain themselves, Kahn says, the internet
can provide support.
“We have the internet. Check in. Write a Yelp review.
Write a Facebook review. Go and take a picture of the
space. Say you were there. Talk about how good it was,”
she says.
For Kahn, even though the fight for art galleries may
seem impossible, it’s still worth fighting.
“Art kept me alive,” she says.
To follow Alexi Era Gallery, visit alexieragallery.com or find it on
Facebook. To follow the art of Aunia Kahn, visit auniakahn.com or find
her artist page on Facebook.