When you first walk into SmithKlein Gallery on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, the initial art you’ll see is made using brushstrokes or bronze. Works from nationally renowned artists like Mark Lague, Deladier Almeida, and Benjamin Anderson take center stage.
But if you look closely, you’ll see an entire second art form on display. Take, for example, the artful presentation of a bronze sculpture of foxes playing together placed strategically beneath a painting of a landscape, framed using hand-selected glass to highlight specific colors within the work.
“It's really about using different mediums to enhance one another,” explains owner Ann Klein regarding her husband and co-owner Nathan’s approach to curation. Together, the couple have owned the gallery for the last 10 years. “He's using bronze and glass to paint a picture with the painting. We believe that, on a subconscious level, the intentional curating of this space has a real impact on the viewer.”
Since purchasing the gallery ten years ago from Nathan’s mother, Deborah Smith-Klein, who founded it in 1984, Ann and Nathan have applied this same level of care and attention to every aspect of the business, from shipping and logistics to marketing and client relations to rearranging the gallery space on a monthly, if not weekly, schedule. Meticulous in their management, the Kleins curate and manage the gallery with a level of care that is both science and art. This has helped the gallery achieve its 40-year legacy.
“People never see that part of the business,” says Nathan. “They just get to see everything nicely curated on the walls and on the pedestals… But that's such a big part of our business because, without all of those logistics, none of this would happen.”
That level of care extends beyond the gallery’s four walls into clients’ homes and into the relationships the Kleins maintain with artists and clients alike. Ann provides digital compositions free of charge for anyone who wants to preview an art piece in their space. Nathan delivers and installs art to clients in the metropolitan and mountain areas.
“Whether it's the artists that we work with or the clients that we work with, the relationship is such an important part,” says Nathan. “So many of these people have become our good friends; they’re people that we’ve known for years. And we believe that the better we know the artists, the better we can convey their art to the clients.”
To wit, the Kleins are able to showcase large works by Canadian artist Mark Lague that other U.S. galleries could not because Nathan professionally stretches the large-scale canvases in the gallery. “That helps with international shipping for Mark,” Ann explains. “Other galleries don’t stretch them, but otherwise, it'd be too expensive to ship internationally to the States.”
Mark shares that this has helped create a market for those large pieces: “In the 20 years I’ve been represented by Smith Klein Gallery, I’ve always enjoyed working with them. They’ve done very well in establishing a client base that responds and connects with my large works."
What’s ahead? With 40 years in the rearview mirror and a decade of ownership under their belt, the second-generation owners have no plans of changing course: “We’re going to keep working hard, believing in what we do, believing in our artists and trying to be the best people we can be to our clients,” says Ann.
Visit SmithKlein Gallery at 1116 Pearl Street. Learn more at SmithKlein.com.