Owner Rick Schmitz has designed High Risk Gallery to feel, upon entering, as though you are "walking into your house or a friend's house." He has accomplished just that with this eclectic space a few blocks west of the Red Line Belmont train stop. The walls are a combination of exposed brick and the kind of rich cherry wood found in the dining room of a vintage house.

The walls also are lined with paintings, drawings, silk-screens, and hanging sculptures. Always exhibiting a group show, the exciting array of art varies from abstract to POP to conceptual. High Risk is an eclectic space not just for its art. One week there may be a theater performance, the next a poetry reading, the next a free children's art class. Schmitz and his partner, Chad Fabruada (who is an artist as well), are committed to helping non-profits and unconventional organizations to put on special events. The result is that this gallery functions as all art galleries in a utopian world would -- as a community center. High Risk also opens its doors for many weddings and company parties. Schmitz and Fabruada own their own catering company, Coup de Gras, which nourishes the patrons and partiers at all events, even at gallery openings.

Within the gallery's permanent collection is art that will touch your sole. For the gallery's grand opening four years ago, Schmitz commissioned local artists to paint 48 different 3 x3 inch squares on the floor. Some patrons carefully walk around the imaginative scenes that emerge beneath their shoes, feeling that it would be more respectful gallery behavior to walk on the un-adorned black squares that surround the painted panels. Schmitz encourages them to walk all over it: he has no worries. Four years ago he developed and applied a special glaze to th panels that will protect them for years to come.

The ceilings at High Risk are black as well, by the way. This darkness gives an amazing glow to the artwork, making the paintings' colors pop. It makes you wonder why so many galleries choose the sterile and white motif.

Why the name High Risk you ask? As Schmitz says, "It's a risk to be an artist; it's a risk to open a gallery." Thank god for courageous people.

Centerstage Reviewer: Joanne Hinkel