KINGSTON — The Black Fuse Gallery held a grand opening and art show on Sunday night, featuring a number of talented local artists.
Josh Anderson is the owner and tattoo artist at the combination tattoo parlor/art gallery and also one of 10 featured artists in this month’s exhibit, entitled “Broken Hearts.”
“We’ve done the Broken Hearts pre-Valentine’s day show before,” Anderson said.
The shop has actually been open for a little while now, but Anderson and his crew decided to turn Sunday’s art show into an unofficial grand opening as well.
Anderson’s been involved with art for a long time, painting his entire life and tattooing for the last 20 years.
“Art’s good for my self-expression, and it calms me down,” Anderson said.
Anderson’s artwork could be seen all over the walls of the Black Fuse Gallery, along with the rest of the featured artists.
The full list of names includes Anderson, Mike Reznick, Amanda Robinson, Jude Lobasso, Chris Hodges, Billy Brandenburg, Val Lobasso, Melody Zimmerman, Ducky Lee and Joe Thompson.
The artists used various media to create their artworks, ranging from acrylics to pencil-drawn works.
Hodges put his mastery of pencilwork to good use for the gallery, crafting a number of unique pieces all in line with the Broken Hearts theme.
“I like to express some darker emotions in my art,” said Hodges. “I get a lot of my inspiration from horror movies.”
The theme was prevalent throughout everyone’s artwork, with lots of hearts incorporated into the paintings, some intact and others broken and pierced.
Billy Brandenburg used a pen-and-marker technique for his artwork, including a number of smaller pieces scattered among the crowd. Brandenburg met Reznick, the gallery’s curator, through a number of punk rock flea market shows the two did together.
“I know Mike from some old shows, and follow him on social media … He puts out a lot of requests for art,” Brandenburg said.
After dabbling in the arts in his youth, Brandenburg got back into it about five years ago. His kind of work matched up perfectly with the theme of Sunday’s gallery.
“I was working on some hearts already,” he said “This was very convenient.”
Brandenburg and Hodges both saw some of their work be sold during the first hour of the gallery, which ran from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
A number of other paintings were sold early, as well, including an acrylic painting that sold for $750.
The gallery’s next show is set for March 1.
