JAYJAY Show Marks 10 Years
By Suzanne Hurt
Published Jan. 3, 2011
Sacramento Press
The owners of the East Sacramento art gallery JAYJAY will celebrate 10 years Saturday by doing what they do best: introducing Sacramentans to some of the finest works in the region. Partners Beth Jones and Lynda Jolley exhibit a mix of modern and post-modern art, with a lot of abstracts and some figurative/narrative work, mostly from regional artists – rather than the landscapes and other forms of realism that Sacramento and Northern California are known for and many Sacramentans are more comfortable buying. The last two years have been hard on art sales in Sacramento, and especially for galleries that don’t focus on landscapes, they said.
For that reason, it hasn’t been easy for Jones and Jolley to stay true to their vision, showing only what they think people should buy. But that’s how they earned a reputation as “tastemakers” in Sacramento – a description used by David Roth of squarecylinder.com.
“It’s a more risky way to run a business,” Jones said Monday in the gallery as they prepared for the show. “I couldn’t sleep if we ran it any other way,” Jolley said.
The pair first opened “Beth Jones and Lynda Jolley Present” in 2000 in a storefront at 2906 Franklin Blvd., where Gale Hart had run Gallery 8. For six months, the gallery was open only on Saturdays. But the business was such a success they expanded their hours, Jones moved her art consulting business to the gallery and they reopened as JAYJAY in January 2001. In 2002, they relocated to 5520 Elvas Ave. after Jones and her husband, interior designer Steve Jones, bought the building. Jones gutted and redesigned the space to showcase the first floor gallery.
On Saturday, Jones and Jolley are throwing an artists’ reception from 6 – 9 p.m. featuring their anniversary show, “JAYJAY NOW and then.” The show will contain 50 pieces of art – two pieces per artist – to highlight what each of the artists was doing a decade ago and what they’re doing now. An annex will also be open to present other pieces not in the show. Some of JAYJAY’S stable of 26 artists have been creating art for 30 years. They include familiar names like Suzanne Adan, David Wetzl and Linda Day.
About 80 percent of the JAYJAY artists are in the permanent collection at the Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St., with a handful hanging currently – a testimony to the strength of both artists and gallery. Jones and Jolley complement each other in many ways. Jones, 55, is known for her taste for fine things and elegant parties, while Jolley, 45, has an engaging and enthusiastic personality. They have one crucial thing in common: their taste in art. Jones got Jolley hooked on abstracts more than 10 years ago when they began working together in Jones’ art consulting business. Now their aesthetics are nearly identical.
“We have very similar eye,” Jones said. “And that’s very important.”
The show runs through Feb. 19. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Wednesday – Saturday and by appointment.
