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Ybor Gallery Has Last Major Exhibit Before It Leases Space

Brad Cooper Gallery

Figure & Landscape,” a 1982 watercolor by William Pachner, is part of the show of his work at Brad Cooper Gallery in Ybor City.

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By ESTHER HAMMER

Tribune Correspondent

Published: February 25, 2009

Brad Cooper Gallery in Ybor City is exhibiting a selection of oil paintings, brush and ink paintings, and watercolors by William Pachner through March 7.

This will be the last exhibit in the larger of the two gallery spaces at 1714 E. Seventh Ave.

"We're splitting the building in half and we're going to lease out that half the building," said gallery owner Brad Cooper. "That will give us the ability to spend more time in Greece."

"Time in Greece" means Cooper and his wife, Elizabeth, have committed to spending the months from Easter through September on the island of Naxos, in Greece, a spot the couple discovered during a three-month stay last year. Elizabeth Cooper makes jewelry and markets it in the gallery and on her Web site, www.ellegreece.com.

"We opened primarily a jewelry store over there, although we did have a few pieces of works on paper," Cooper said. "It was a trial to see how it went and if that was where we wanted to keep on working."

It was. The couple plans to return this year, although they are looking for a different spot for their store.

"We'll probably be showing some local artists there," Cooper said. "A lot of Europeans are on the island working. And there's a lot of activity on the neighboring islands. Another thing we hope to get started over there is artist's workshops."

So the pair will become traditional snowbirds, spending Tampa's hottest months elsewhere.

"But we'll continue to represent the artists we have," Cooper said. "We won't really be able to do major shows like we did in the past - wall space will be more limited - but the work by our artists will be available for purchase."

And Pachner, who has been exhibiting at Brad Cooper Gallery since 1985, has the honor of being the last major exhibit. It seems appropriate, considering the breadth and depth of Pachner's artistic contributions.

Now 93 and residing in California with his son, the artist had a good eye for color in his early works before he began losing his eyesight in the 1980s. That was when his art began to take on the more muted tones available to him with his limited vision.

The paintings in the exhibit, which date from 1945, include those early visions of colors swirling around each other like a quilt gone wild, as well as the later, more monochromatic, ponderous pieces that seem to reflect the artist's progressing blindness.

One early painting called "Woodstock Landscape" shows the town in New York when it was known as an artist's enclave, before it gained notoriety as the scene of a revolutionary rock festival.

With color or without, Pachner has made his mark in the art world with an abstract style that boasts occasional touches of realism.

"Typically he uses the same themes that realists would use - still life, landscapes - so he's connected to that tradition, but he's more contemporary," Cooper said. "His style is really based on eastern European ideas of place. He participated in the abstract expressionist movement in New York in the '50s and '60s. But he would hate to be identified with any of those groups."

Cooper has been exhibiting major artists in Tampa for the past 25 years, and at his Ybor location since 1990.

"We've made a major investment and contribution to doing exhibitions for artists in the area and we've brought in artists from out of the state and out of the country. We've worked very hard to help the market develop here," Cooper said. "Now it's time for someone else to take over that work."

For hours or information, call Cooper at (813) 248-6098.

Correspondent Esther Hammer can be reached at (813) 835-2108 or ehammer@tampatrib.com.

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