The Mahler: New Fine Art Gallery Opens Downtown

Wide Open Space

The Mahler, a new fine art gallery at 228 Fayetteville Street, has opened. The project is another collaboration between Megg Rader, former Executive Director of Artspace, and Rory Parnell, former Director of Raleigh Contemporary Gallery. Rory and Megg also co-own The Collectors Gallery in City Market, which will continue to shift its focus to high craft as the Mahler fills the role of a fine art venue. In addition to being a venue, The Mahler will “provide art consulting (residential and corporate), art appraisals, private re-sales, lectures and informational events on contemporary artists, art collecting, and the art market.” Additionally, the gallery will be available to the public for a rental fee. The wide open space is complimented by a full kitchen in the back, making it ideal for special events and receptions.

The Mahler takes its name from the family that owned the building in the 1880’s. The Mahler family ran a silversmith shop on the ground level and lived upstairs. Architect Meg McLaurin, AIA and contractor Greg Paul have renovated this historic low rise with a historic sensitivity, preserving the facade and incorporating areas of exposed plaster on the interior. The second floor has two commercial offices to be occupied by Carter Worthy and Tom Hester. Two apartments are on the third floor where the Mahler family once lived. Pictures of the offices and apartments can be seen at Goodnight, Raleigh!.

The first exhibit features photographs by singer-songwriter Tift Merritt, who began her successful music career in the Triangle. Sarah Powers, director of Visual Art Exchange, helped curate the show after discussing photography with Tift over coffee.

Tift began taking pictures as an antidote for tour loneliness, and fell in love with the quietness, which felt very much like writing.  While living alone in France, Tift’s photography and songwriting coalesced into one process. “When I had pushed a song as far as was productive, I would take walks with my camera. When I got home, I would return to writing by recounting the small details of the pictures I did not take.”  In pictures and at piano, feeling like another country herself, Tift’s work held fast to the idea that the distance between people – even just two people – is hard enough to translate that we are all like other countries unto ourselves.
In conjunction with the opening of Other Countries at The Mahler on May 1st, Tift will also perform an intimate solo concert at the Fletcher Auditorium that same night.  The concert will follow Raleigh’s “First Fridays,” featuring public gallery openings throughout downtown.  The show will be an evening with Tift Merritt. 

Opening Reception: First Friday, May 1, 6-9 p.m.
Concert:  Friday, May 1, 8 p.m., Fletcher Opera Theater, Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts

 

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