Portraits of everyone at Gallery 321

~Photos by Chelsea Whyte By Chelsea Whyte Tucked away on a residential street near Union Square is Gallery 321 at the Washington Street Art Center, a multi-purpose facility where artists keep studio space upstairs and use the gallery downstairs for exhibitions. Saturday night at Gallery 321 was the opening of a group show called, "Hey I Know That Guy." Over forty artists contributed portraits for the exhibition, which was curated by Snow Project. Snow Project is a duo of artists, Alex Feinstein and Michael Dacey. They created Snow Project in January 2009 when they curated their first group show together at the gallery. Alex is an oil painter and keeps studio space at the Washington Street Art Center, and Michael does letterpress production with Repeat Press in Union Square. They rented the gallery space for the month of January and they've put on two shows this month at the Washington Street Art Center, with "Hey I Know That Guy" as their final show. Saturday's opening reception hosted a large crowd that filled up the intimate setting, and with DJs keeping things upbeat, the show eventually turned into a "bit of a dance party," says Alex with a smile on her face. I spoke with her while she was straightening up the gallery, righting the pictures on their hooks after the raucous night. Along with offerings of food and music, the event also had zines for sale, some by participating artists, and a few made by Repeat Press with prints of the portraits on the walls.

With nearly 100 pieces in the show, including drawings, paintings, photographs, collages, and mixed media pieces, Alex says, "The more the merrier. It's always nice to have so many artists send work for these shows. It's great to have a variety of artists from outside the [Washington Street Art] Center. It gives the show a lot of interest." Alex says that collaborative shows like this fill a need in Somerville for artists to show their work collaboratively.

Taking in the portraits, you start to wonder who these people are, if they're made up or if they sat for this painting or that drawing. The placement of a charcoal drawing of a man in a military suit next to a painting of a guy playing a frying pan like a banjo makes them seem like they could be anybody, a neighbor or a friend. Walking through the space, looking at one of these portraits, you might almost think, "Hey, I know that guy."