DOWNTOWN — A West Town art gallery that’s made a splash in the neighborhood’s vibrant gallery district over the past year is expanding to a second location between Downtown and the West Loop.
Povos Gallery, 1541 W. Chicago Ave., opened last year. Art dealer and painter Lucca Colombelli, who has been hosting DIY art shows since 2019, started Povos online during the pandemic before moving into the gallery.
Povos is meant to be a space to showcase new and emerging artists — plus Chicago art scene veterans and, increasingly, artists from around the world, Colombelli said. Late last year, he decided to partner with gallerist Winston Guo to restructure the company and to take over and rebrand Guo’s Downtown gallery space, 600 W. Van Buren St., formerly known as W. Gallery.
After completing renovations at each location, Povos is opening two shows this week: the inaugural show Friday at Povos Downtown and one Wednesday at the West Town location. Colombelli and Guo will also host a booth at EXPO Chicago, the massive annual art fair that runs April 11-14.
The goal of the partnership is to create a long-term business model that is financially sustainable and more manageable personally, Colombelli said.
“Ultimately, we went for the biggest, most ambitious move, which is two programs, two spaces, construction at both locations, and we’re doing the art fair,” Colombelli said. “In the end, no one does it alone because there are too many moving parts of this business.”
After dropping out of the School of the Art Institute to pursue painting full time, Colombelli fell in love with hosting art shows at his studio and other locations around the city, he said.
That led to him taking over a temporary space a few years ago on Milwaukee Avenue near the Bucktown-Logan Square border, where Colombelli eventually organized a series of increasingly well-received events, including with Wicker Park street artist Lajuana Lampkins and painter William Schaeuble.
When the Chicago Avenue space became available last year, Colombelli jumped at the chance to open in the neighborhood’s “gallery district,” which has sprouted in the surrounding area over the past decade or so.
Povos has since hosted shows with Chicago collage-maker Tony Fitzpatrick, painter Ashkon Haidari and a partnership show with West Town ceramics studio The Digs, among others. Colombelli said he’s started connecting with bigger players in the local art scene and hears from more and more artists who want to show with him.
But Colombelli became burnt out with the “logistical symphony” involved in running the gallery and representing artists as he continued to travel frequently for work while juggling other responsibilities, he said.
After showing some of his own paintings last year at W. Gallery, Colombelli and Guo started talking about a forming a partnership where Colombelli could focus on big-picture vision, sales and events while Guo took on the logistics, finances and other behind-the-scenes work.
The result was a newly structured gallery and an opportunity to provide unique programs at two locations, Colombelli said.
“We ended up kind of scheming a little bit, like, ‘OK, so theoretically, how would this work?’” he said. “I think with the expansion of the team, with this division of labor, to me that will allow us to continue to think ambitiously and pursue really productive and interesting new collaborations.”
Guo and Colombelli have renovated the West Town and Downtown spaces over the past few months. At the Van Buren Street location, they’ve added a swinging wall that can open and close to create a smaller room for installations or open out into the main gallery space for larger exhibitions.
The duo plan to only host about 10 shows per year across both galleries, which will allow them to focus on developing the careers and visions of the artists they work with — and not overwhelming themselves.
“A whole big part of this project is supporting local young artists, and I think that’s not going to change. But we are so interested to branching into … a more international program as well. And we have a long list of [artists] we’d love to work [with],” Colombelli said.
That ethos will be on display with the shows Povos is launching this week.
Titled “Te Diré Quién Eres,” the West Town show runs April 10-May 25 and features work by Puerto Rican painter Isabella Mellado. Friday’s opening at the Downtown location, called “Back To School,” includes paintings and other work from local artists with a range of styles.
One year after laying down roots on Chicago Avenue, Colombelli said he’s now looking ahead to a sustainable version of success that allows him to continue carving out a niche in the Chicago art world.
“It’s been a long, patient road, especially for me, figuring out how this thing works,” he said. “Going from a startup online gallery with no funding to two locations, art fairs — it’s a grassroots gallery gone legit, is what I keep saying.”
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