Hall Spassov Gallery started in 2006 at owners Erik Hall and Amy Spassov’s downtown Bellevue studio. In 2009, they moved into a gallery located on 8th and Bellevue Way, where they stayed until shortly after their daughter was born in 2018. They enjoyed their time at this location as a cultural anchor in Bellevue and were proud of the efforts they made in placing important work into worthy collections. Today, just as it began, their gallery studio is located on their private property in Bellevue. The gallery’s focus is primarily on national art fairs including the Seattle Art Fair. They represent contemporary, non-decorative works by emerging and mid-career artists, from as far away as Barcelona to right here in the Seattle area.
Both owners have a history of creative endeavors that led them to opening their gallery. Erik Hall began his career in art with an exhibit at Kimzey Miller Gallery in 2001. Hall had exhibits each September through 2005 when gallery owner Terry Miller suddenly passed. Having lost his primary representation and wanting to control his own destiny Hall, along with Amy Spassov, opened Hall Spassov Gallery. Amy Spassov began her career in art around 2004 with a series of small exhibitions that included work she produced during her travels around the world. This work was the foundation for nearly all of her work since and has garnered her international recognition. Motivated to provide a steady path for her own work and help other artists on their path, partnering in the gallery was a natural choice.
Bellevue Lifestyle caught up with Amy and Erik to learn more about their studio and what they’ve been working on lately.
What inspired you to build a studio on your property?
A high-rise condo now sits where our downtown studio was once located. Out of desire to not be displaced again we designed our own. In 2017 we built our new studio over a cruel winter. We put in every nail and built and installed every cabinet. Each detail was overseen by us to suit our needs.
How often do you rotate exhibits?
We rotate exhibits less frequently than we used to. Our attention has been on working with corporate clients and participating in art fairs to gain a wider audience while still being able to take care of our great local collectors.
Tell us about the collaborative paintings you’ve been working on.
We believe it was inevitable that we would collaborate on work, it just took us 15 years to hone our individual skills and figure out a direction. We also didn’t want to do it just to do it, it had to have purpose and intention. Quarantining through a pandemic and canceled art fairs certainly gave us an opportunity. We will debut the first piece at Art Market San Francisco and a full suite of works at the Seattle Art Fair in 2022.
Amy and Erik welcome appointments, and you can subscribe to their mailing list at website hallspassov.com. For artist information, find them on Instagram: @artboythirteen @amy_spassov @hallspassov