A.I.R. Gallery

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	11 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	Maxine Henryson’s beautiful, long, accordion-folded photobooks.  Stretched out on a table, they reward much slow, close viewing.

A.I.R. Gallery is more of an art gallery than a museum.  There are several organizations on my list that fall into this fuzzy zone.  Non-profit or not-for-profit, they nonetheless primarily exist to sell art to buyers, rather than display art for improvement and/or entertainment of the masses.  I wrestled with this a bit at the outset of this project, and still don’t have a firm sense of the right call.

But for now I’m including them.

A.I.R. has longevity on it side:  according to its website it was founded in 1972 as the first cooperative art gallery featuring all female artists.

There was no particular theme to the work on view on my visit; rather the gallery showed works by three artists: a photographer, a sculpter, and a conceptualist. 

I really quite liked the photography on show.  The artist, Maxine Henryson, is from the school of “Focus?!  Who needs focus?” Which I’m always skeptical of, and yet sometimes the craft and deliberation is so evident that you can’t help but admire and appreciate the result.

The sculptural and conceptual bits weren’t bad, but equally weren’t my thing and in this case I won’t impose my taste on my sense of the place as an institution.

Should you go?  It wouldn’t be top of my list–it’s pretty small, and depending on what’s on exhibition your edification and entertainment mileage will vary.  Still, it is historically distinguished, and it makes for a quick art break.  Can’t hurt to drop by if you have spare time in the neighborhood.  Finally, A.I.R. Gallery makes a convenient double bill with the similarly nonprofit Art in General, just down the street.  

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