TRR photo by Tom Kane Barbara Braathen is pictured in front of The River Gallery. (Click for larger image)

Braathen opens
‘River Gallery’

By TOM KANE

NARROWSBURG — Barbara Braathen is a professional. She doesn’t dabble in the arts, she makes a living at it.

Last week, Braathen opened an art gallery at 20 Main Street in Narrowsburg. She fits right in.

The gallery, called The River Gallery, is holding its first show entitled “In Sight of Water.” Most of the paintings and photographs are of the Delaware River Valley.

In 1980, Braathen opened her first gallery in lower Manhattan at Broadway and Duane Streets. In 1987 the location moved to Bleecker and Lafayette Streets, what is called NoHo, the area just north of Soho, the prestigious art gallery section of New York City where most of the big galleries were once located.

In 1998, she decided to close her gallery and move up state to the Delaware Valley.

Braathen’s reach in the arts is international.

“I deal art all over the world,” she said. “I handle blue chip artists and emerging artists.”

A blue chip artist is one who has a national and even an international reputation.

“If you have a Warhol painting, you can sell it by telephone,” she said.

At one point in her career, Braathen had a dual show with the famous superart dealer Leo Castelli of Soho. Participating in the show were such luminaries such as Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

Braathen comes here by way of North Dakota where she was born, then to Los Angeles to study Art History at UCLA, and subsequently to New York City.

In between LA and NYC, she taught Art History for two years at Michigan State University.

“When I was walking along Main Street in Narrowsburg last December, I saw the arts center, the other stores, the restaurant and saw how attractive the town was and I got hooked. And when I saw this space, I though it was perfect for a gallery,” she said. “Overnight, I decided to do it.”

The current show contains such well-known local artists as painters Margo Spoerri and Elise Freda, photographers Joyce Baronio, Hank Schneider and Jack Price, and sculptor/painter Dennis Corrigan.

“Location is the best advertising and I have an excellent location—two doors from the bridge,” she said.

Braathen expects to sell here.

“Most people appear to be somehow connected to New York City,” she said. “Some of them are probably art collectors.”

Braathen said that in the four days she has been open, she got as many leads as she would have gotten in Manhattan.

“I’m hoping to acquire a group of local artists and I’m really interested in getting scenes of the area, whether painting or photographs,” she said. “We have a few current local geniuses already, one of which is Margo Spoerri, and I hope to get more.”

Most of the work in the current show is figurative and representational.

“A show in the future will probably be an abstract show because there are many abstract painters here,” she said. “A subject I’m also very interested in is the spiritual and art work so oriented.”

Strewn over the gallery floor are numerous old boxes and trunks that could be called antiques. The gallery is going to be fine art and fun furnishings and these are fun, she said.

The River Gallery’s hours are: Thursday thru Sunday, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The gallery can be reached at 845/252-3230.