Infini Gallery puts up downtown creative space
—Photo by DAVID GUNTER Kris Dills, owner of the Infini Gallery in downtown Sandpoint, stands in a space that serves as both gallery and teaching studio.
SANDPOINT — A wealth of local artists has been a boon for one downtown gallery, providing it with fresh talent and a seemingly unending flow of new work to display.
Infini Gallery opened at the beginning of this year and already has hung its seventh showing of artwork — a feat made possible by the quicker-than-average rotation schedule adopted by owner Kris Dills.
“We’re a modern art gallery showing local, regional and international artists,” said Dills, whose gallery focuses primarily on painters. “And we’ve had no shortage of artists — we have work scheduled through September,”
At Infini, exhibitions change every 30 days, explained Dills, an artist who moved to Sandpoint in 2001 and worked as a construction contractor before opening the gallery this January.
“Last fall, I got to a point in my career where the kids were getting a little older and I had the opportunity to go in a different direction,” he said. “Once I found this place, I thought, ‘It’s too big for me — how about I use it and share it with the community?’”
At the time, Dills had a backlog of 15 examples of his own work waiting to be hung. Those pieces will be rolled out and put on display in August as part of the Artists’ Studio Tour.
His connection with area talent was formed as the owner made plans for his new gallery earlier this year. Artists, keen on seeing another location added to the gallery family, began stopping in to offer their expertise.
“When I started this project, as I was setting up the gallery and studio space, I didn’t know how to put all the puzzle pieces in place,” said Dills, who listed Sandra Deutschman, Holly Walker, Carver Kearney, Lisa V. Maus and Steve Gibbs as local and regional influences.
Artists’ input also helped create the dynamic at Infini, which sparks with creative energy thanks to its combined approach of having a gallery space and working art studio within the same four walls.
As a studio, Infini Gallery hosts Wine & Canvas parties as a socially interactive introduction to painting, as well as an impressive roster of classes taught by regional artists. Throughout the week, the class schedule includes sessions such as sculpture with Steve Gevurtz; figure drawing, illustration and animé with Alison Barrows-Young; print-making with Alexandra Isob; and watercolor classes taught by Sally Dennison.
Other class offerings include pencil and charcoal drawing, acrylic on canvas, digital photography and computer design, the owner listed.
“It’s an open studio with space for up to 20 people to come in and work — all ages, all day,” he said, adding that class participants regularly use the studio to work on their own projects apart from class time. “It’s a creative space where you get to mingle with other artists and be influenced by their work in a professional environment.”
And if people often turn the name of Infini Gallery into “infinity,” they can be forgiven for accidentally making that translation from one language to another and inadvertently capturing the gallery’s inspiration in the process.
“Infini is a French word that means infinity,” Dills said. “Traditionally, a lot of our painters’ influence was from France.”
Infini Gallery is open Wednesday-Sunday from 11 a.m.-7 p.m., at 214 Cedar St., Sandpoint. For information, examples of artwork, class schedules and a gallery showing calendar, visit online at www.infinigallery.com.