{"id":17388,"date":"2005-05-03T13:44:14","date_gmt":"2005-05-03T19:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=17388"},"modified":"2020-03-31T12:30:41","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T18:30:41","slug":"a-bigger-presence-michael-berry-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/a-bigger-presence-michael-berry-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bigger Presence: Michael Berry Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Berry Gallery hasn\u2019t always been a gallery. In fact, two years ago, Berry\u2019s framing business took place in a small 600 square foot room in the back of his, now 2500 square foot operation on 754 E. South Temple. When the floral shop that previously occupied the majority of the space moved out earlier this year, Berry decided to expand his business and turn the front into exhibit space. I asked him if he\u2019s wanted to do this for a while, and surprisingly, he responded, \u201cNo. I don\u2019t remember ever wanting to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berry claims his friends will tell you a different story, but the truth of the matter is that his loyal clientele of artists have been talking about it longer than he has.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Berry began his framing career working downtown for a photographer for about four years. Not long after, he branched out on his own, running a frame shop out of his house for 15 years. \u201cI imagined my clientele would be collectors, but then I met Pilar Pobil, Willamarie Huelskamp, Kindra Fehr and Rebecca Livermore and they became my major clientele.\u201d The same artists have come to Berry ever since. Naturally, these artists were featured in the first show to kick off the new exhibition space in March 2005.<\/p>\n

Berry is an artist himself, but doesn\u2019t have the time for his art he used to have. \u201cI had a short, wonderful art career that came to an end when I moved in here. I have a lot more volume now that people can find me.\u201d His creative outlet now is making boxes out of frame scraps. Visitors can spot these boxes, happily placed about the gallery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The gallery itself is a work in progress. Looking around, I asked what his plans for improvement were and he answered, \u201cthe floors, the ceilings and the walls.\u201d But Berry isn\u2019t too concerned about what the gallery looks like; he\u2019s more interested in the artwork. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s so important for things to be slick. If things are slick, I start worrying about what someone\u2019s trying to sell me.\u201d He just takes each month at a time, improving what he can as funds allow. As for now, the portable grids work for walls, and fortunately, track lighting was already there for him. \u201cI think this used to be an art gallery a long time ago. I found an ancient framing tool when I moved in, but I don\u2019t know where it is. My employees run the business and they don\u2019t always take my sentimental feelings into account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berry has two employees on staff: Valerie and Ryan. Ryan is in charge of all the \u201ctechnological stuff\u201d such as email and mailing lists. \u201cHe is a young man who goes to the University and knows all about email. He has a laptop and is very current, but he doesn\u2019t understand my equipment.\u201d Berry\u2019s equipment sits idly in a back room, and might be as old as that ancient framing tool he was talking about.<\/p>\n

The frame shop and gallery is currently the only business in the building. \u201cI\u2019m just dying for another business to go back there.\u201d The Italian restaurant in the back moved out after a long residence, and the real estate agency upstairs recently moved out. I proposed the idea that he should just buy the whole building and turn it into a huge gallery. He just stared out the window and sighed, \u201cYeah, wouldn\u2019t that be something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Berry still loves his old 600 square foot \u201cgrotto\u201d for the frame building |4|<\/b>, but enjoys having a bigger presence than before. He is currently exhibiting his second show, \u201cThe Magic of Pilar,\u201d featuring a small selection of paintings, sculptures, painted furniture, etc. by Salt Lake City artist Pilar Pobil. He has no formal application process for exhibiting in his space. He simply invites the artists he likes to have a show. \u201cThe openings have been the most fun, meeting all the new people and seeing them enjoy and talk about the art. I have a dream of meeting a lot of new artists.\u201d He\u2019s already scheduled the gallery for one year, but he plans on keeping July and August open for a wacky idea \u2013 an idea so wacky that I\u2019m not allowed to talk about it until he\u2019s worked out all the kinks.<\/p>\n

Because Berry recognizes this article is his \u201c15 Bytes of fame,\u201d he has a bit of wisdom to share with artists while he has the chance: \u201cIf the intent of your art is beauty, it will usually lead to fashion. But if the intent of your art is truth, then it will truly be beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Berry Gallery and Framing is located at 754 E. South Temple in Salt Lake City.<\/i><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the May 2oo5 edition of 15 Bytes<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Berry Gallery hasn\u2019t always been a gallery. In fact, two years ago, Berry\u2019s framing business took place in a small 600 square foot room in the back of his, now 2500 square foot operation on 754 E. South Temple. When the floral shop that previously occupied the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":17389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[669],"class_list":["post-17388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gallery_spotlights","category-visual_arts","tag-michael-berry-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/MichaelBerryexterior.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 15:29:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17388"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53254,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17388\/revisions\/53254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}