Last night I discovered that James Harris Gallery—one of the leading galleries in Seattle, and one of the most distinctive spaces—is moving to a space twice its size. (Thank you!)

And the show that will open this new space on April 3?

Conceptual video master Gary Hill and young photographer/video artist Margot Quan Knight.

I saw the new space in its raw state last night: It’s 1,800 square feet and has three separate zones, but Harris and gallery director Carrie E. A. Scott said they’ve taken care to make sure the place still “feels like Jim’s,” she said.

“It will seem like my gallery,” he said, “but more polished.”

The gallery that Harris has run for almost nine years at 309 Third Avenue South is small, quiet, and gorgeous. The walls are white and the floor creaking wood. The light is bright, and the artworks are few.

In the new gallery, only a block away at 312 Second Avenue South, the brick walls are still exposed, but soon they’ll be covered over in drywall and painted white. The exterior of the building is brick and stone—it’s one of those great Pioneer Square buildings—and the entryway is tiled.

At one side of the entrance is a glassed-in office, and at the other, a window seat. (The addition of seating is a plus.) Behind the reception area is the main room of the gallery, with two 25-foot walls, a 14-foot wall, and a 12-foot wall. It’s the same size as the main room in the other gallery, though it feels a little larger because the ceiling, with exposed ductwork, is higher. It’s too soon to say yet what it will really feel like to be inside the finished gallery, but the white decorative-tiled ceiling in the old space appears to be the only known loss in the upgrade.

Behind the main space is a closed room that can be used for video. Again, that room is the same size as the one it replaces—the back room of the current gallery—but it’s free of the storage and flat-file cabinets that crowd the current back room.

Farther back still is where there’ll be storage, a hall with a long wall that may be used to show multiples, and a public restroom that smells pungently like the Vietnamese restaurant next door. (The restaurant, Cafe Hue, like Harris’s soon-to-be-former neighbor, Salumi, comes recommended.)

One other bonus: This gallery has A/C. In theory, summer heat at James Harris Gallery was charming; in practice, it was just summer heat trapped in a small container.

Harris notified his artists about the move in October. The gallery increasingly intends to mix artists based around the world with the regionally based artists it represents. “Message in a Bottle,” the current show (more on that coming), is a demonstration, with artists from London, Seattle, New York, and San Francisco.

“We’re trying to step up to the plate a little bit,” Harris said. “We’ve talked to all our artist about stepping up and I think it’s going to be exciting for the Seattle artists.”

Harris said he was flattered that Hill’s longtime dealer, the legendary Donald Young, agreed to let Harris show Hill’s work at the opening. On view will be four video pieces from 2005.

Will Harris come to represent Hill in Seattle, his home city?

“If things go well, we’re hoping four years from now we’ll get a whole show of new work by him,” Harris said.