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Monday, August 17, 2009

Visual Art Garde Rail Is Moving to Austin: Updated

Posted by Jen Graves on Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 3:29 PM

I'm sad. I've loved this place since it was a bunch of art stuffed into a narrow apartment, back in the day.

Garde Rail—home to self-taught artists including John Taylor, Gregory Blackstock, Jennifer Harrison—first opened in June 1998. Its last day in its current Pioneer Square location is this coming Sunday, August 22.

Austin, Texas, you're lucky.

Holly Farrell

More from the owners, Karen Light and Marcus Pina, to come.

UPDATE: "We loooooove Austin," Georgia native Light whispered to me by phone a few minutes ago. That's why they're moving. For the warmth and the sweetness of the city. "It's just getting like Alaska up here. We have some friends who moved down there, and they love it. Other friends down there own a gallery very similar to ours but they're kind of more of a shop, they're called Yard Dog—Yard Dog, Garde Rail—it's almost kind of synonymous. We said, 'We don't want to come down there and get in your way,' and they were like, 'Oh, forget it, just come down and do what you do.'"

Light and Pina have been thinking about this for a while, but they figured Pina wouldn't be able to find a job rivaling his current gig as a creative director at Microsoft's Zune—but then, he did. "He'll be doing something similar but for this place called Dimensional Fund Advisors, they're—if you're a rich mofo with a lot of money invested, you typically know who they are, which typically isn't our friend set, but they're great."

Business was good in Seattle—"pretty dang steady, surprisingly." So, Light says, "I feel like I'm leaving kind of a cultural void. Nobody else is dealing in this stuff [self-taught artists] around here. I want somebody else to open something else like it."

Me, too.

Comments (14) RSS

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Damn, this is sad news.

Posted by Senor Guy on August 17, 2009 at 1:12 PM

Oh glum. I got a nice Mr. Hooper there last month.

Posted by gloomy gus on August 17, 2009 at 1:13 PM

We're not just lucky, little lady...

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000869117

Posted by . on August 17, 2009 at 1:19 PM

'Alaska'?
Is that code for 'cold unfriendly assholes'?

Posted by please spell it out for us on August 17, 2009 at 3:37 PM

uh, why don't they have TWO galleries or find a new partner to run Seattle?

If I had money to invest, I'd do it.

Posted by michael strangeways

on August 17, 2009 at 3:53 PM

What's wrong with Alaska? Have you ever even been there, Ms. Light?

Posted by care bear on August 17, 2009 at 4:08 PM

This does suck. I have always found their name to be a bit cloying, but their art is fantastic. And affordable. Sigh.

Posted by SouthSeattle on August 17, 2009 at 4:08 PM

She thinks Seattle is to much like Alaska but is moving to Texas?

Posted by Holy Roller on August 17, 2009 at 4:18 PM

Thanks Seattle! We'll take good care of them down here. Feel free to come visit! (But maybe wait until it cools down a bit)

78746

Posted by NinjaJohnson on August 17, 2009 at 4:52 PM

not Texas. Austin...

Posted by Postum on August 17, 2009 at 5:12 PM

Couldn't they get Yard Dog to trade for awhile and move to Seattle? Yard Dog is fabulous. Sigh.

Posted by LuisitaPhD on August 17, 2009 at 5:39 PM

Well, I can selfishly say we're very excited for Marcus and Karen to get to Austin. From the sound of it, I hope they get Garde Rail opened here as soon as they can.

Posted by Robert Dintzner on August 17, 2009 at 7:25 PM