YJ Contemporary Fine Art

Beautiful new gallery with some great work from a variety of artists.

Super cool art supply store in East Greenwich!

Beautiful space in Greenwich Mills

We had the opportunity to attend the "Grand Opening" last week and were very pleasantly surprised! From CT it's a convenient, straight shot right up I-95 of about 80 minutes. The gallery itself is located in an old brick industrial building (just on the edge of the "main drag") which is a perfect setting for contemporary art. In the "main" gallery there are no sterile white walls it's just brick. The art in the main gallery is lit very thoughtfully which is an extremely important aspect of gallery display. We've been to many "professional" and well known galleries where the lighting on the art left you scratching your head wondering if the installer/curator had a hangover or visual impairment.

The diversity of artists is refreshing as the styles vary greatly with a mix of media which includes photography. No artist competes for attention with another here. All the works are unique and worthy of equal attention.

We were greatly impressed with the reproduction methods used to create the "prints" from original art. The fidelity of color and sharpness was so precise that in certain instances we had to take a parallel look for brush strokes. Speaking of brush strokes. Blazing Editions (who own the gallery) employs a process what they define as embellishment which renders the final print almost indistinguishable from the original, brush strokes and all. We must admit to being fooled on a couple of occasions.

The photography reproductions were spot on and the selected substrates were gorgeous. Photographically speaking, the dye sub aluminums depth was breathtaking.

The building that the gallery is housed in also contains other business on 3/4 floors. The walls of those corridors are also filled with art albeit not displayed with the same attention as the main areas. The "additional" displays were not as well lit, lacked a "description" and (for some) the viewing distance was minimally inadequate (way too close) which, for us, greatly detracted from the work and intended impact of the artist. A "simple" addition of lighting, description and change in print size (for a few works) are certainly needed to bring it up to the standard set by the main gallery area(s). It might have been better for us to start on the top floor and work our way down to the main gallery(?).

We were much looking forward to having a few minutes "face time" with the owners or some representative of YJ/Blazing to "talk shop" but expectedly and unfortunately there were no opportunities because it was after all their "Grand Opening".

Final analysis: Everything is compelling about YJ. From the art itself right down to the reproduction methods. The one minor gripe we personally have is the lack of information about each print. We just needed a bit more information.

If your in the area, and even if your not, we highly recommend stopping by. If you do, be prepared to spend several hours to truly appreciate not only the art, but the absolutely amazing reproduction techniques employed by Blazing Editions. You won't be disappointed!