Photo by Kelsey Freeman
Upon entering the gallery space at Ground Floor
Contemporary, one is immediately struck by a sense of openness and light. Just
about every surface from floor to ceiling in the cavernous room is a clean
pearl white, highlighting each of the pieces hung on its walls.
Located in the space formerly occupied by
Space One Eleven, Ground Floor Contemporary grew out of a somewhat storied
collective of artists, known as 21st Street Studios. The group has been led
(remotely until now) by painter and installation artist Sara Garden Armstrong,
who, for the past 35 years, has lived and worked in New York City, where she
made her name as an artist. Originally from Birmingham, New York became her
home away from home because of a certain spirit, a passionate engagement.
"New York for me is a lot of
interesting conversations and thought," Armstrong says. "So I think
it's very exciting that there's this mixed range of ages and ideas and an
energy, and that's really important to me."
Armstrong, along with fellow artists and
21st Street Studios members Rae Trimmier and Tara Lee, created Ground Floor
Contemporary with those same values in mind. They wanted it to be a place where
anyone in the community could go to see art, but also hear real people having
real conversations about real life.
In July of this year, Ground Floor Contemporary held its
grand opening and first exhibition. The show featured an impressive range of
all-female talent--Madeline Evans, Elizabeth Marie Farr, Ashley Wingo, Barbara
Hirschowitz, and Rae Trimmier, all Alabama artists. It was a rainy Thursday
evening--so rainy, in fact, that Armstrong, Trimmier, and Lee were uncertain
whether anyone would be interested enough to brave a summer thunderstorm for
their sake.
The exhibition ended up bringing out more
than 150 people. It was a shocking response from the community, a relative
groundswell of support for a gallery holding its entree exhibition in an area
of town not typically known for its art galleries.
"I think we've got the artists,"
Armstrong says. "We've got the group. What we want to be is really
important to you as an artist. That's the biggie--that is important."
Armstrong's deep care for the artists
themselves, as well as the family they are forming within the walls of the
gallery, is what makes GFC a treasure in Birmingham's arts scene. Ground Floor
Contemporary isn't a place to simply come and buy decorations or gifts, nor is
it lost in a hermetic concern for art-with-a-capital-A. These artists have
christened an open space; it just so happens to be one eminently concerned with
art and its ability to touch the community.
As Lee says of Armstrong, "Sara encourages us to go beyond our comfort
zone, to experiment, because we do say that this is a safe place for us to do
things that we wouldn't necessarily do."
Birmingham Magazine - December issue
Birmingham Magazine - December issue
