Gallery Sub Rosa reopens in new space

The name says it all: secrecy, underground, low-key.

Gallery Sub Rosa had its opening Friday at its new space in Suite 105A at Fountain Square Mall.

“Our gallery is a home for the artists you wouldn’t normally see in a big name gallery,” co-owner Jeremy Sweet said.

The name “Sub Rosa” is Latin for “secret.”

And customers won’t find “high art” there. It’s a place for artists whose work might stray from what’s considered popular to the common eye.

Owned by tattoo artist Colin McClain and printmaker Sweet, the gallery’s walls are littered with tiger masks, tattoo flash art and paintings of gore.

“There’s a visual saturation going on here. The imagery just takes you over,” Sweet said. “There’s a lot of stuff to look at, and your eye is just very engaged.”

He said the network of genres they show, from sculptures and paintings to brooches and jewelry, offers something for everyone.

Customers’ budgets are also considered.

Framed mini-collages of old-fashioned photographs and jewelry start at $20.

Small to large pieces of wall art range from $40 to $700.

Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, went straight from work to the opening.

She’s been a customer since the gallery was still at Fourth and Rogers streets, its previous location.

“It’s a lot of exceptional stuff in a really small space,” she said.

Hung on the wall were two paintings from one of her favorite artists, Sophie McMahan, whose work has also been exhibited in Kinsey shows.

“What I’d really like to take home is Miss Virginia and Indiana,” she said, pointing to a McMahan drawing of two beauty contestants holding up a couple of bloody blue and purple human hearts.

Sweet said unusual work like that is revered as highly as anything else at Sub Rosa.
“Here, tattoo artists are displayed right next to ceramics professors,” he said. “We put every kind of artist on the same playing field.”

And although Sub Rosa has already made a home in its second piece of real estate, the gallery spawned from something a lot less permanent.

“It’s actually based on a one-day show I wanted to put on for me and my friends,” Sweet said. “But I wanted to make it a show people wanted to stay at. Not just an art show but a party.”

After that, he realized he could make the party last a lot longer.

“You add music and food and people find themselves sticking around, and although they think they’re just hanging out, they’re also taking in all the art constantly and almost subconsciously.”

Though the gallery is open to any artists who want to display their work, McClain said the gallery exhibits the best art that’s locally available.

“We try to be selective,” he said. “We put a lot of consideration into who we choose to show, and this is what we think is the best in the region.”

Follow reporter Ashley Jenkins on Twitter @ashmorganj.