Two of the most recent protagonists in this continuing drama, a pair of galleries committed to showing contemporary art, have settled in locations at the city's geographic extremes. Industry is in the old urban center, in a renovated auto showroom in the Warehouse District, while Arte Spazio occupies an anonymous commercial space at River and Oracle roads on Tucson's sprawling edge. But four months in the biz have taught her to trust her own instincts. Still, it's important to find a balance between emotionally charged artwork and solid business sense. We have passed on some artists we love, whose work would be hard for people to buy and live with.
Industry deliberately goes for a mix of artists, from Tucson and from out of town.
We keep a variety of artists on the roster, but it's all non-Southwestern art. Industry staked out a space in a corner of the old Firestone building at Sixth Avenue and Sixth Street at the edge of downtown. Like its neighbors, the Davis Dominguez, Raices Taller 222 and Watercolor galleries, Industry occupies a former industrial building. The current show's raw color abstractions, by Tucson painter Jeffrey Jonczyk, are a perfect match for the urban scene outside the big plate glass windows. Black and white photos by Philadelphia photographer Jenny Lynn make up the show's other half.