Like the owners of any new enterprise, Ashleigh Kay and Joe Bun Keo shared a nervous moment of truth when the doors opened Wednesday at 5 p.m. Their venture was off the ground.
They had used Facebook, free media outlets and word of mouth, but you never know if anyone will show up. It’s a tough economy out there.
They didn’t have to wait long. Quickly, artists flooded the ArtSpace Gallery at 555 Asylum Street in downtown Hartford, hauling in paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture and installations. The patrons, an army of Hartford’s young and youthful creative class, filled the walls of the spacious venue with hundreds of works.
And so Hammered & Nailed explodes on the Hartford scene, simple in concept: a salon-style art exhibition in rent-free space, open to anyone, unjuried, uncensored, at no cost to the artists. Saturday is the opening from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. with music, performance art and food — with no charge to guests, no collection for a charity and no organization pushing an agenda. Click here to read the whole story.
