Blue Mountain Gallery, founded in 1980, is located in the heart of New York City’s Chelsea art district. The original mission of the Blue Mountain Gallery was to show the work of strong representational painters and to stimulate the representational tradition of painting which was almost totally absent from New York’s commercial galleries in 1980. Over the years the mission has grown to include both representational and abstract painters. To accomplish this, the members regularly view the slides of artists for inclusion in the gallery, exhibit their work and invite the public to openings of the shows and educational talks. The gallery has held public poetry readings by such notable poets as the late Kenneth Koch, collaborations between poets and painters with the poets reading their work, talks by the late film maker and member, Rudy Burckhardt, and occasional dance recitals. In the last few years it has held an annual juried exhibition as well as an annual small works invitational to encourage larger community involvement for new and emerging artists and has shown artists from Germany and Finland and participated in an exchange show with the Galerie Mani in Berlin.
Over the last 30 years, Blue Mountain Gallery has provided artists a gathering place of ideas where painters can communicate visually and verbally and find the support and inspiration of their peers. The Gallery’s longevity in the ever-changing and chaotic world of New York galleries is witness to its value and to the loyal dedication of its members.
