16. Astra Design
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 257-5467
Address: 3110 W. Marshall St.
Description: The studio and gallery for sculptor and metalworker Tom Chenoweth and jeweler Louise Ellis showcases their hand-wrought and exciting work that blends old materials with innovative design. Chenoweth’s large-scale, fantastical sculptural pieces mix with smaller-scale lighting fixtures and functional furniture for indoors and out, including somehow rugged yet whimsical gates and railings. Ellis incorporates gold, silver, gems, antique buttons, and braided horsehair into bangles, rings, necklaces, and earrings of stunning craftsmanship The gallery is open by appointment only.
17. Elegba Folklore Society
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 644-3900
Address: 101 E. Broad St.
Description: Always a part of First Fridays, this cultural center provides African and African-American perspectives with art shows, crafts, wearable art, dance, and drum performances. A truly hands-on place, artists lead art-making workshops on weekends. Gallery tours are available by prearrangement.
18. Eric Schindler Art Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 644-5005
Address: 2305 E. Broad St.
Description: Located in historic Church Hill, this gallery is the oldest commercial fine-arts gallery in Richmond, operating continuously since 1960. It currently has more than twenty artists on its roster, with a specialty in regional painters and ceramic artists such as Lisa Taranto. To catch the traffic downtown, the gallery has opened Schindler Satellite at 8 W. Broad St. for First Fridays. The original gallery is open Wed through Sat and by appointment.
19. 43Rd Street Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 233-1758
Address: 1412 W. 43rd St.
Description: Just off Forest Hill Avenue, this is the go-to place for contemporary crafts from over 50 artists and artisans, including pottery by owner Robin Cage, whose studio is on the premises, work by Lee Hazelgrove and Barbara Dill, and rustic furniture, whimsical accessories, and jewelry by many artists. The gallery is typically closed on Sun and Mon, though holiday hours vary. For almost 20 years, it’s sponsored the 43rd Street Festival of the Arts in Sept.
20. Gallery5
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 644-0005
Address: 200 W. Marshall St.
Description: A typical Gallery5 opening might have fire twirlers, live nudes with paint covering their bodies, or . . . in other words, there is no typical here. Daring and cutting edge (for Richmond at least), it’s the life-of-the party gallery, showcasing art in the oldest firehouse and police station in Virginia. The gallery stages offbeat art, performance, film, and music, engaging the entire community, In 2009 Gallery5 was voted by Richmond Magazine readers the “Gallery with the Most Attitude,” and in 2008 it was awarded the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts as an “Arts Innovator.”
21. Ghostprint Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 344-1557
Address: 220 W. Broad St.
Description: A relative newcomer to the Broad Street scene, this gallery brings to Richmond the work of internationally known artists in all sorts of media, in an attempt to redefine “fine art.” Interested as well in discovering the cutting edge in our own backyard, this gallery showcases high design from Italy one month and emerging illustrators from Richmond another. It’s open Wed through Sat and by appointment.
22. Glave Kocen Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 358-1990
Address: 1620 W. Main St.
Description: Open and casual, this gallery represents more than 30 local and regional artists, including Richmond favorites Steve Hedberg and Laura Loe. Exhibits in their 3,200-square-foot space run the gamut from photography to paintings, to clay, to wood, to mixed media by contemporary American artists. An annual small works show in Jan is well-attended, and online exhibits change frequently. The gallery is closed on Sun and Mon.
23. Page Bond Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 359-3633
Address: 1625 W. Main St.
Description: In this renovated garage in the Fan, you’ll find contemporary art in a wide variety of media, from local artists with emerging national and international reputations to those whose names the world already knows. A recent print exhibit included works by Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, Martin Puryear, and Richard Serra, and both Sally Mann’s and Cy Twombly’s work has been on view here. Supportive of Richmond artists as well, the gallery has mounted shows of acclaimed local artists Andras Bality and Kathleen Markowitz as well. The gallery is open Tues through Sat and by appointment.
24. Quirk Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 644-5450
Address: 311 W. Broad St.
Description: Open Mon through Sat or by appointment, Quirk features a wide array of art for sale, from wearable art to paintings and photography, to ceramics and accessories, all offbeat and at a refreshing range of price points. One recent exhibit featured several of Richmonder Noah Scalin’s skull creations from his Skull-A-Day project, which won him an international following and a book deal. The gallery brings work from all over the world to Richmond and puts on events and exhibits, including an annual guys’ night in Dec, designed to foster the burgeoning Broad Street art scene.
25. Red Door Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 358-0211
Address: 1607 W. Main St.
Description: Specializing in established contemporary painters and sculptors with national reputations, this gallery’s roster includes local talent Ed Trask and Matt Lively, and from farther afield, Jordan Faye Block, Marshall Burns, and Deborah Colter, among many other artists. The gallery is closed on Sun and Mon.
26. Reynolds Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 355-6553
Address: 1514 W. Main St.
Description: This is the crème de la crème of galleries in Richmond. Owner Beverly Reynolds has been bringing the work of artists with national and international reputations—Sally Mann and Jasper Johns, to name two—to her two-level gallery for 30 years. With 15 exhibits a year, a 4,000-square-foot exhibit space, and a top-notch roster of 40 artists, the gallery has a history of supporting local artists and getting many of them national attention. A recent exhibition included a wall installation by 1993 VCU sculpture grad and New York sculptor Teresita Fernández, who has received both MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. The gallery is open Tues through Sat, Sept through May, and Mon through Fri, June through Aug.
27. Richmond Public Library
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 646-4740
Address: 101 E. Franklin St.
Description: The six exhibit spaces of the grand public library offer impressive permanent collections and frequently changing exhibits of paintings, mixed media, photography, and sculpture. A part of First Fridays, it’s an important but sometimes overlooked stop on the evening Art Walk.
28. Sara D. November Gallery
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 545-8659
Address: 5403 Monument Ave.
Description: Open every day but Sat, the gallery is dedicated to preserving and sharing Jewish culture by presenting exhibits that feature the work of Jewish artists and Judaica. Every few months the gallery sponsors juried exhibits for undiscovered artists over the age of 16.
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 319 W. Broad St.
30. Visual Arts Center Of Richmond
City: Richmond, VA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (804) 353-0094
Address: 1812 W. Main St.
Description: Where adults and children go to take classes in a variety of disciplines, the Visual Arts Center hosts frequent art exhibits by teachers and students and houses the True F. Luck Gallery, which mounts curated exhibitions several times a year. The gallery is open Mon through Sun. In addition, near the lobby is the fun and fabulous Art-o-mat, a vending machine that in its former life spit out cigarettes. Now, for a mere $5, anyone can own an original piece of artwork dispensed from the machine. Call it inconspicuous consumption.