Five years ago, when Platform Gallery opened in Pioneer Square, it had four owners. Today, Stephen Lyons sent out an email to say he’s the only one left. Blake Haygood has decided to pack it in to focus on his painting.
Last
time I checked, a couple of months earlier, Lyons said the gallery was
not in debt. In five years, it has managed to break even, although it
never turned a profit. That’s five years without salaries from the gallery, as the
owners do not take money out for themselves.
The good news is,
Lyons intends to continue. (If you are a collector who asks for
discounts, think about who you’re asking them from.)
The
gallery’s contributions to Seattle are profound. It has raised the
tone, raised the ambition and made a point of connecting the local with the
global.
The many exhibits I am eternally grateful to have seen include Kelly Mark’s Stupid Love; Jesse Burke’s Dark States; Jaq Chartier’s Blind Sight; Scott Fife’s I Am What I Am and True Grit; Patte Loper’s Let Our Beauty Ease Your Grief and A Peculiar Brightness of the Sky; Adam Satushek’s In Between Days and, of course, everything from Matt Sellars and William Powhida.
I hope this doesn’t read like an obit. But Lyons is heading into the summer (always slow) with an at-best break even proposition in a terrible economy.
As for Haygood, contrary to the title of the painting below (I’m Not Really Sure It Matters from 2006), his work does and is well worth his renewed engagement.
(Click image to enlarge.)
It’s like domino rally out there for galleries. Thank you Platform for sticking it out.