Zeke’s Gallery is shutting down. Not the blog, the gallery itself. And now Chris “Zeke” Hand is looking for a new job (know anyone hiring?).

The final show is this Friday.

Here’s what he told me:

Back when I started, there was no other ‘underground/alternative’ gallery in town – English or French. Now there are easily half a dozen. My Hero, Red Bird, Monastiraki, Kop Shop, Usine 106U, DGC, L78 and probably some that I am not completely aware of. Back when I started it was a fight to just get in the listings, now spaces like Le Kop Shop and Usine 106U regularly get mainstream press coverage.

While I recognize that it ain’t all my fault – I’d like to think that at the minimum ,the folk running those places thought ‘Hey! If he can do it, I can too! and better as well.’ Which ain’t such a bad legacy if you think about it.

It also is not getting easier competing with 20 year olds in pushing art. The stuff they are doing and showing is quite compelling.

Toss in that I’d gotten tired of fighting to make rent – and to the general public there appeared to be a convenient fall guy, and I figured why not? My previous job had lasted about 10 years. The gallery will have gone 9 years, 3 months, and 18 days. So this wasn’t any out of character moment.

Though it’s not directly a result of recent legal problems, it certainly had an impact.