PHAETON GALLERY

CONNECTING ARTISTS AND COMMUNITY

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CARRIAGE WORKS STUDIOS

STUDIOS AND WORKSHOPS

Phaeton Gallery Celebrates Five Years of Art, Connection and Community in Charlottesville

Anniversary celebration begins First Friday, November 6, with the opening of Charlottesville artist Karen Blair’s New Works

Five years after opening its doors as a community-centered art space on Old Preston Avenue, Phaeton Gallery is celebrating a milestone anniversary with a return to its roots. The gallery will mark its fifth anniversary on First Friday, November 6, with the opening of Karen Blair: New Works, featuring the Charlottesville artist whose work launched Phaeton’s exhibition program in 2021.

When Patricia Frischkorn and Lisa Hogan opened Phaeton Gallery in 2021, their vision was to create more than a traditional gallery. They imagined a welcoming space for exhibitions, conversations and arts events, as well as a home for eight studio artists to create and share their work. From the beginning, the gallery was conceived as a place where art could bring people together and where relationships could grow alongside the work on the walls.

It is fitting that Karen Blair, the artist featured in Phaeton’s inaugural exhibition, returns to help celebrate the gallery’s fifth year. Her new exhibition reflects both the gallery’s beginnings and its continuing commitment to Charlottesville’s vibrant arts community.

Over the past five years, Phaeton has sold hundreds of original paintings, photographs and mixed-media works, with a focus on local artists alongside guest artists from around the country. Throughout that time, the gallery has remained dedicated to building meaningful connections between artists and collectors, designers and clients, and artists with one another.

That sense of connection is especially important to the Phaeton family of artists, formally known as Carriage Works Studios. The community of artists working together under this umbrella has been central to the gallery’s identity, fostering creative exchange, collaboration and opportunities for artists to share their work with new audiences.

The celebrations will continue through the end of the year. On December 4, the annual Carriage Works Studios group exhibition will open, bringing together the work of this talented community of artists for a collective celebration of creativity and collaboration.

Looking ahead, Phaeton has an exciting 2027 exhibition season planned. The year will begin with a collaboration involving Steven Francis Coates of Steven Francis Fine Art in Lynchburg and Laura Wooten, a local artist and instructor whose Phaeton Painting School is also celebrating its fifth year. The juried exhibition will feature work by more than 60 of Wooten’s students from the Charlottesville area, highlighting the breadth of artistic talent and the importance of arts education in the region.

Education and creative exploration remain important parts of Phaeton’s mission. In addition to exhibitions and studio space, the gallery offers a variety of workshops with artist-in-residence Lindsey Luna Tucker. Her popular three-day Expanding Scale workshop invites participants to explore their work in new ways, and a new workshop focused on composition is planned for this spring.

The gallery’s anniversary season also offers visitors an opportunity to experience two exhibitions currently on view. Karen Blair: New Works runs through November 29, celebrating the artist who helped inaugurate Phaeton’s exhibition program five years ago. Also on view is Two x Two, a new presentation by returning artist Hope Olson, marking her third appearance at the gallery. The exhibition explores the beauty of vases presented in pairs, offering a thoughtful look at form, relationship and the visual conversation between objects.

As Phaeton Gallery enters its sixth year, its founders remain committed to the ideas that shaped the space from the start: supporting artists, encouraging discovery and creating opportunities for art to connect people across the community.

The fifth-anniversary celebration begins on First Friday, November 6, with the opening of Karen Blair: New Works. Visitors are invited to stop by, meet the gallery’s artists, explore the exhibitions and celebrate five years of art and community on Old Preston Avenue.