The evolutionary success of Samuel Owen Gallery has resulted in a retail presence on Greenwich Avenue.
The gallery was founded by Lee and Cindy Milazzo in 2005 as an extension of their Pacific Street Framing in a 5,000-square-foot loft that looks out onto the Harbor Point project in Stamford.
The Milazzos are not the types to just dive into a retail location. They have built a back-end gallery business with custom framing and poster reproduction, have a strong stock of limited and desirable poster prints and deep ties in the art and art dealing communities around the world. Last year, the gallery was able to get a taste as a standalone retail business through a New Canaan-based experiment in commerce.
“It was the pop-up gallery we had in New Canaan that really allowed us to open this,” Milazzo said.
Milazzo and Arnold Karp, principal of Karp Associates in New Canaan, engaged in a barter agreement last year to allow Milazzo to show prints and showcase the space owned by Karp, while he attempted to find an occupant who could handle the location”™s large square footage. The agreement gave birth to a temporary pop up gallery on Elm Street.
“It began as a ten-day experiment,” he said. “That turned into ten months and was a great success. We were able to sell a piece of artwork every day for the first three months we were open. There was a weekend when I sold 23 pieces in one day.”
That says a lot; Milazzo”™s prints can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands with prints by artists like Roberto Dutesco and Andy Warhol. Milazzo has spent his career developing the relationships and trust required to be able to host expensive pieces and hang the art of desired names. The gallery will be hosting events typically with the artists it holds beginning this summer.
“With the New Canaan gallery we were given a chance to develop a fresh mix that we”™ve been able to elevate here,” Milazzo said. “It was half way through that project that we began to look in Greenwich. It took us about three months of closing out in New Canaan and opening in Greenwich.”
Milazzo, who is a Greenwich resident, said it was important for a gallery to have strong foot traffic.
“It was very important to be right where we find ourselves,” Milazzo said. “We wanted some place from the post office down. The goal has always been to open a gallery on the avenue.”
The 378 Greenwich Ave. location was formerly Toc Toc, a high-end urban retail boutique. The space has minimal furnishings and the walls have been painted white in typical gallery fashion to put emphasis on the art. The back end of the shop will soon accommodate Samuel Owen”™s framing portion of the business, which will move out of the poster restoration space in Stamford.
“The idea is that you can buy a Warhol or a Dutesco or get introduced to new and emerging artists, without having to travel much,” Milazzo said.
Congrats Lee !!
Looks great! Much luck and much more money wishes to you!!
Do you hang paintings?? Take a look at my work,let me know if you see
A fit!