Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The space soon to be a gallery and center point of the local art scene still smells of fresh paint and sawdust.

Contemporary Gallery 27 is a work in progress -- physically and conceptually -- that will be ready for its unveiling tonight.

The gallery is the brainchild of local artist Susan Schiesser. Until recently, she was the artistic director at TEI Contemporary Modern Gallery across the street in Ski Time Square. In her year with TEI, she worked to showcase local contemporary artists alongside similar work by regional and national artists.

Her new gallery will take that concept to the next level.

Tonight's show will feature works by 23 artists -- local and national -- and will give viewers a look into what is happening in the world of contemporary, nonrepresentational art.

"Artists are really pushing the art of medium -- what it is and what it can be," Kimberly Conrad said. "It's so exciting to me. It's so dynamic."

To help her with this new venture, Schiesser hired Conrad as the gallery's assistant director. Conrad moved to Steamboat Springs during the summer from Richmond, Va., where worked as the assistant director of Reynolds Gallery and received a master of arts degree from the Virginia Commonwealth University. As part of her graduate work, she completed an internship at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Both women have a vision to create a well-established center in Northwest Colorado, known for contemporary art.

"We are featuring mid-career artists who have developed their craft, whose work is an expression their life, but who are not famous yet because they have been underexposed," Schiesser said.

Schiesser and Conrad are also encouraging artists to make giclee -- high quality digital -- prints of their work for people who are just starting to build art collections and may not be able to afford originals.

"We want to encourage people to sit, look at art and talk about art," Schiesser said. "We are trying to create a comfortable environment with chairs and coffee."