A Charleston attorney recently purchased a home in Spartanburg and decided the Upstate would be the best place to pursue his latest venture in the arts.
Mike Ethridge, a photographer and attorney, plans to showcase local artists and connect communities through his new art gallery, Ridge Gallery (146-C E. Main St., Spartanburg) which also houses his photography studio. The art gallery is located on the second floor of the building.
Ridge Gallery held its first exhibition opening on Jan. 5. The exhibit, “City’s Pulse, Nature’s Hush: Contrasts in Urban and Rural Harmony,” was on view through Jan. 10. It featured landscape and nature photography by Ethridge and street photography by Carrie Caldwell, the gallery manager.
The gallery began promoting its opening on social media in October and quickly caught the attention of the local arts community. Ethridge plans to present two shows during a typical month.
“There will be (the shows), and then in addition to that, we’ll have special events — gatherings, lectures. And we’re going to be doing some nonprofit social justice work,” Ethridge said. “We’re doing art galleries in a different way. It’s not all high end, super expensive; we want art to be accessible.”
What is coming next from Ridge Gallery
Their next show, a group show featuring around 30 local artists, including Jeremy Kemp, Catherine Drennan, Kelly Barrett Ferguson, and Grace Hammond, will open during ArtWalk on Jan. 18.
Ethridge, who splits his time between Spartanburg, where he recently purchased a home, and Charleston, where his law practice is located, credits the quick embrace of the gallery in part to its manager. Caldwell is a local photographer who worked at the Artists’ Guild of Spartanburg.
“We hit it off immediately,” Caldwell said of the partnership with Ethridge. “It’s nice to work with another photographer because we do have a similar vision in some ways. You can see our work is pretty different, but there’s still that connection through photography.”
While Ridge Gallery is a business, Ethridge said he intentionally did not set goals around numbers. Building community and raising consciousness around the value of art and the work of local artists is his ultimate goal.
“It’s a business, it’s not a nonprofit, so the goal is to sell art, and I want it to be successful on that front because I want the work of these artists to be sold, for them to make money,” Ethridge said. “But the selling of the art and making money is not driving everything. It’s really creating the space where that can happen. I think, commercially, it will work if we can really create this type of conversation and interest in the work of the artists.”
Ridge Gallery is open Thursday-Saturday from 1-4 p.m. For questions or exhibit proposals, contact the gallery at 864-237-8449 or theridgegallery@gmail.com.
Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her atsswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg.
