1+1=1 Gallery > News > What’s With Our Name?

What’s With Our Name?

Visitors ask that question all the time

and we’re glad they do!

Our first pop-up exhibit was titled “1+1=1” 

We are nearing our 5th anniversary of being in business as an art gallery. Yay! Five years ago, Tim and I began a pop-up gallery exhibiting Tim’s finely crafted furniture and my pieces of trees, forests, dreams and water. The show was titled “1+1=1.” One artist plus one artist adds up to one family. One couple. One vision. One exhibit. (photo above is from our very first exhibit)

Our first exhibit in our first gallery space … the popup 1+1=1
That first exhibit, 1+1=1, was so successful, we decided to stay until the building sold a year later

Even after a year, we still weren’t sure we wanted to own a gallery … but … to honor a commitment we had made to six other artists to have an exhibit of their work, we had to find a space for their show!

Big Move. big decisions:

When we moved to our current location at 434 North Last Chance Gulch, the space required so much remodeling we decided, “Well, here we go. Let’s do this for real!” and we opened with six more artists. Today 1+1=1 Gallery represents over 20 artists and 36 additional artists are associated with the gallery.

And. Umm … the name stuck: 

1+1=1. We know. It’s technically wrong but … oh so right!  Over the years we’ve discovered unintentional benefits to having a non-logical name for the gallery. People remember our name because there is a built-in hook. The double-take. The quizzical second look. It’s a good conversation starter. It brings kids into the gallery to tell me my math is “wrong.” It’s short. And so much cooler than 1+1=2.

I have fun thinking of exhibit titles with our gallery name in mind:
  • Six
  • B&W+1
  • 1 Family=3 Visions
  • One-Off
  • 40=4+4d
  • Two@1+1=1 …

There are some drawbacks to having numbers or special characters in a business name. The internet doesn’t like our ‘+’ and ‘=’ so our url has to use ‘plus’ and ‘is.’ Numbers look awkward in certain fonts.

Generally, though, we are glad to be 1+1=1. Our gallery name reminds us every day that Tim and I are a unit of energy, creativity and love. And that our mission is to spread that around wherever we can.

A few throwbacks to our first couple of exhibits: