Now through Sept. 29, “Enduring Vision,” a selection from the Perception Gallery based in Grand Rapids, Michigan is on display in Hillsdale’s Daughtrey Gallery in the Sage Center for the Arts. The Perception Gallery is owned by Kim Smith, a Grand Rapids resident who has been working with art since the 70s.
Smith moved to Grand Rapids in October of 1975 as an antique dealer. He was introduced to the art business a few months later with a one-time paint stripping job at local Hefner’s Art Gallery, an art and framing company which has since closed. He started doing more small jobs for the gallery, and soon became a full-time employee.
Working at the gallery, Smith began to learn more and more about art. He read books laying around the shop about art and artists, and learned from the expertise of the gallery’s owner, Frank Vander Mark.
“What is education in general?” said Smith, “In the end, self-education. I’m a firm believer in a lot of self-education. So you just, so you keep reading. You start looking, you start thinking, and because Heffner’s had been around since 1913 there was a fair amount of historic stuff.”
With this artistic education, Smith went on to open the Perception Gallery in Grand Rapids. The gallery features mainly 19th and 20th century American and English art.
Smith says that he deals in this specific art because much of it still has margins for profit, and there is an established market for it currently. He personally enjoys many of his paintings for the stories behind them. In both style and content, many of the pieces in the gallery are influenced by their historical context.
“Witness #4,” prominently placed on the wall facing the entrance of the collection in the Sage Center, is an example of this. The painting attempts to convey the spirit of the Nuremberg war trials after World War II. Smith believes that the Nazis’ trials affected Friedensohn, the painter, in a profound way.
“Between [Adolf] Eichmann and the whole thing, suddenly something emerged out of it that you saw, because his other work isn’t really quite like this at all, so this is pretty unique compared to his other output,” Smith said. “Apparently it was on TV here and there. So you could actually watch these people and listen to them. Now he was in New York City, of course he was of Jewish descent so you could see how all that stuff could really mean something.”
In addition to his knowledge of art itself, Smith has learned much about the art of framing. Much of what goes into the presentation of his art is the selection or construction of frames for his pieces, or of works of art that are brought into his gallery to be framed, which fit the time period and style of the piece.
“We’re really trying to create a little bit of this feeling that [the painter] had, so there’s a relationship,” Smith said. “I like the idea of echoing something that’s in the image into the frame if you can, so it’s nice to have something that kind of pulls them together.”
Smith’s experience in art and framing can be seen in the way the collection in Sage holds together aesthetically. Those interested in art or in these time periods should find the exhibit worth their time. Whatever your level of interest, Smith thinks you could get something out of looking at art.
- “Do you have to buy to be interested? I don’t think you do,” he said, “Do you have to collect? No. I think you will, if you’re interested enough, you know it’s going to be something that you’ll have on your wall just because you go hey, it feeds my soul every day. Whatever it is that does that. But no, I think anybody can enjoy art.”
