A blues musician pulls colors from artist's palette to start a new gallery

Frank Latorre knows all too well that starting any new business—let alone an art gallery—in a challenging economic climate is risky. Still, the 55-year-old artist and musician believes that art is vital to human existence and may be needed even more in the worst of times.

“It is a very bold move in this economy to take on a new business,” said the Mastic resident, who recently took over ownership of Art & Soul Gallery in Eastport. “But art is eternal. Art has been around through world wars. It’s the type of thing that no matter what the disaster or what’s going on in the world, art has been there and covered it.”

Brookhaven artist Mary Samuels first opened the Art & Soul Gallery on Montauk Highway roughly four years ago. Mr. Latorre had been a prominent portrait artist represented by Ms. Samuels and is already familiar with the day-to-day workings of running the gallery.

Ms. Samuels, now 65, said she enjoyed owning the gallery but was simply ready to retire. The grandmother of six wants to spend more time with her husband, Harold, who is also retiring, and the rest of her family.

“I’m not giving up my art career; I’ll still work out of my own home studio,” the painter said. “But at my age I feel it’s time to relax a little. The gallery was a great thing, I loved it while I had it and the community was wonderful, but it’s just time and I think Frank has the energy and the talent to bring a whole new element to it.”

The gallery officially reopens its doors on Sunday, December 20. A small reception will be held from 1 to 6 p.m.

Much like Ms. Samuels, Mr. Latorre will feature works by Long Island artists and will host a number of art classes. Mr. Latorre and fellow artist Larry Johnson will be offering painting classes in various mediums including oil, acrylic and watercolor, as well as figure drawing courses. Classes, which begin at $125 per one-month course, will be held five to six nights per week from 7 to 9 p.m.

“The classes are offered in four segments, but they’re not drawn-out segments,” Mr. Latorre explained. “People who never painted before will be able to leave at the end of a segment—in most cases—with a finished painting.”

While professing a desire to help local artists, Mr. Latorre noted that he is not restricting his gallery space to Long Island painters and sculptors. The curator said that quality of product is his first priority. He is resolved to carry only the works of professional, lifetime artists. But Mr. Latorre also maintained that he would keep the gallery from becoming “snooty” or high priced.

“Like the artists in my gallery, I’m here to sell my work so I can create more work,” he said, noting that prices for artwork at Art & Soul begin at roughly $125. “This is a professional gallery and there will be no hobbyists on display.”

Professional artists who will be featured at the gallery include Ms. Samuels as well as wood carver Hy Jacobson, photo realist Carlina Valenti and jewelry maker Robin Sokel.

Ms. Sokel, a Westhampton Beach resident, creates handmade jewelry that typically features an antique image in each piece. Delicate and ornate necklaces and pins sport tiny frames that show sepia tone photos of days, and people, from the distant past.

Ms. Sokel notes that her designs make it possible for buyers to replace the images with personal photos. An assemblage and mixed media artist, she also incorporates various antique or vintage pieces of jewelry into each creation.

Materials for her works are found in local flea markets, antiques stores and yard sales. Ms. Sokel said she was thrilled to be chosen by Mr. Latorre as a featured artist in the new gallery.

“I’m excited that Frank has faith enough in me to allow me to show my pieces,” Ms. Sokel said, admitting she has become a pest to Mr. Latorre at times because she enjoys spending so much time at the gallery.

“It’s just amazing all the talent that’s here,” Ms. Sokel added. “Especially Frank, for all the things he can do—painting, sculpture, music—he’s just a Renaissance man, I guess.”

Mr. Latorre admits he enjoys exploring all avenues of art. A self-taught painter, sculptor and guitarist, he has been working as a professional artist for 35 years.

For the past decade, he has made his mark across the East End creating wall murals and fine art on canvas. Mr. Latorre’s impressive works can be seen on the walls of several local businesses, including massive murals at La Casa Restaurant in Manorville and Michelangelo’s Restaurant in Speonk.

Many of his murals employ an art technique known as trompe l’oeil, which involves realistic imagery that makes a two-dimensional painting appear to be three-dimensional. But Mr. Latorre said he likes to push himself artistically and is determined not to be defined by any one style or medium.

“I’m constantly searching and I don’t like being in a safe zone,” Mr. Latorre said. “When you paint in one style you’re safe in that, you’re secure in that and you know what is going to make people ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh,’ but when you take on a different medium or a different subject, it’s like discovering the world for the first time and I like to throw myself into that fire.”

Roughly 50 percent of the artwork now featured at Art & Soul Gallery was created by Mr. Latorre. Works include sculpture, hand painted guitars and a variety of paintings, the most striking of which are two large oils of attractive female faces. Bold slashes of color swirl around each provocative but stark white face.

Only sensuous red lips and alluring smoky eyes offer any suggestion of human pigmentation. The artist explains that the paintings are meant to depict a woman’s sexuality by way of suggestion rather than graphic depiction of the female form.

Mr. Latorre also recaptures his childhood in a surrealistic painting that shows a young boy running along a sunny beach as blue and white waves break on the shore. But the bucolic image is deliberately disrupted by what appear to be rectangular slices that have been cut out of the scene, duplicated and returned, but slightly offset from their original position.

The result is that the young boy seems headed toward a portal or doorway into another stratum of time and space.

“It’s my way of going back in time I guess,” Mr. Latorre said.

But the artist is even more focused on the future. He is particularly looking forward to offering music as well as artwork at the gallery.

Starting in January, the guitarist is planning to feature acoustic bands in the gallery on Sunday afternoons. Among those performing will be Mr. Latorre and his all original blues band, the King Bees.

The band can be heard at the Eastport Luncheonette every Friday night from 7 to 11 p.m. Mr. Latorre and his group recently won the Long Island edition of the International Blues Challenge, which pits local blues bands against one another.

The band heads to Memphis, Tennessee, at the end of January to represent Long Island in a face-off against 400 other blues bands from around the world.

While he is pumped for the blues challenge, Mr. Latorre is more excited about his new gallery and its new musical feature. He feels that original music will be a perfect complement to the original artwork in the gallery.

“Art represents all of humanity,” Mr. Latorre said. “And I’m going to try to have the best examples of that humanity by way of the best artists I can find.”