8 <strong>JAVA</strong> MAGAZINE Photo: Susan Allred Prosser
Sherri Belassen greets visitors to her gallery and studio with a warm smile and a large, loping Weimaraner named Bizou. Her son Gino, just a few steps behind, has an equally engaging smile. The morning sun is pouring in through the open garage door at Belhaus Gallery, where a select group of minimalist contemporary paintings hang in a space custombuilt to house the art and a gleaming espresso machine. The machine is topped by a collection of espresso and coffee cups sourced from Scandinavia. Artists’ work from all over the globe – from New York to London to Poland then back around to Los Angeles and Phoenix – complete the cosmopolitan vibe at Belhaus. Even the gallery’s name is a mashup of the owners’ last name and the Bauhaus art movement. As we pass behind the espresso machine to duck into a bright, open space containing two studios, Sherri offers a coffee and waves her hand. “This is where we work,” she says. “The coffee and the gallery [up front] help form a sense of community.” “It works very well, too,” Gino adds. “We have people drive in from Chandler, all around really, to come hang out in the gallery and drink Fio’s coffee.” Fio is Anthony Fiorelli, the owner of Caffio Espresso, which operates from Belhaus during gallery hours (Thursday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.) and at various markets and private events from the back of a Vespa Apé truck. “We couldn’t make it here without Fio,” Gino continues. “When he’s here, the gallery is open and we don’t have to worry about anything. We can take care of our own work.” For Gino, that work is varied and wide ranging. He studied design and advertising before earning a BFA from Chapman University in Orange County. He’s working with a friend on building BonesFC (Bones Football Collective), where soccer fandom, apparel, and art meet. Gino’s paintings are minimalist contemporary, like the artists Belhaus represents. “We want to make sure that it all works well together. It has to blend well. All of our work, mine, my mom’s, and our artists’, can hang together cohesively,” he said. But an art career wasn’t Gino’s original plan. As a soccer player at Arcadia High, Gino grew up thinking he’d work in sports. “I was very lucky to play with a creative coach who encouraged me to think improvisationally on the field. I learned quick thinking and had an internal understanding of the game,” he says. “I thought both the boys might be sports agents like their dad,” Sherri said. But that wasn’t to be. An injury in high school sidelined Gino for two years, so he started thinking about what to do while he waited to get back on the field. “I always saw my mom painting, and I saw how hard she worked to make her art and to support us,” he says. “During that two years [spent recuperating], I started thinking about how to channel my creativity into painting.” As a single mother with two boys to support, Sherri never thought about doing anything other than making and selling her art. She didn’t see any reason why Gino should do anything else, either. Sherri had always encouraged him to paint as a child, and Gino didn’t think that being an artist was out of the ordinary. “I’m so lucky,” he says. “I have a lot of friends who want to be artists, and they have to get permission from their parents to study art. It’s always a negotiation with them. My mom just said, ‘Yeah, go be an artist.’” Sherri immediately agrees. “I told him to go paint. If that’s what you want, go and paint.” But she also passed down some practical wisdom from her own mother. “Mom always used to say that if anything is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. I’ve always applied that to my life and to my art,” she says. Photo: Lorenzo Belassen, @lorenzobelassen She came by those heartland values honestly. Sherri was raised in Indiana, and earned a BFA in painting from Indiana University in Bloomington. While she was in college, her parents bought the town of Tortilla Flat, so she came to Arizona after graduation. She soon met a gallerist from Dallas who offered to represent her. That allowed her to get a studio in downtown Phoenix. So for her, finding studio space in the Bragg Pie Factory building is a return to her artistic roots. “I’ve come full circle by working down here again,” she says. Sherri rented the space three years ago during a downsizing period. She wanted a studio that wasn’t in her now-smaller home. The impetus for creating the gallery came from Gino. After college, he applied to an art fair in Australia. The notice that he’d been accepted prompted him to complete about 20 pieces in two and half months. He sold 13 pieces at the fair and realized that he had what it took to create and sell his work. <strong>JAVA</strong> 9 MAGAZINE