Arts coverage sponsored by Nikos Constant.
When a drunk driver crashed into Open Gallery on Feb. 24, 2024, everything changed for this Long Beach collective, known for its constant support of the city’s artists, creatives, and visionaries.
The shows, the music, the gift shop. Everything seemed to be lost amid the shattered glass of an SUV now parked in someone’s apartment, after it just narrowly avoided killing a family.
It would take a year of renovations, financial strain, displacement, and challenges for the space to bounce back. Owners Liz Garibaldi and Artos Saucedo launched this dream project in 2019, providing a live-work space for screen printers. Over time, the space would expand to become the multi-unit Open Gallery for musicians to play and artists to both work and live.
Despite the sizable setback of having a car come crashing through their business, Garibaldi and Saucedo continue to focus on providing an outlet for the narrow Long Beach art scene. The owners self-fund Open Gallery through a variety of services including screen printing, art consultation, and an artist-focused and newly renovated gift shop and online store. Community support has grown with help from friends that are visual artists and musicians who increase the gallery's reach.
Since April 2025, the gift shop has been up and running. Programming for the upcoming year has been reworked.
But now, they have a new problem: The building owner wants to sell, a potentially devastating blow for their business. As Saucedo says, "Trying to move forward and [it] just threw a wrench in everything we were doing. Stopped everything and now we have to figure it out again."
Both Garibaldi and Saucedo felt a sense of impending doom as they realized what the space could become when they’re forced to leave. That news has not deterred them from looking for answers, though.
The couple said that they have seen the ups and downs of starting and owning a business—beginning with both seeing their immigrant parents establish their own businesses, then following in their footsteps by founding a clothing brand back in 2013.
Their spirit is keeping them motivated, but they are running on fumes.
Open Gallery’s current exhibition "Physical Memory,” is their first photography exhibition, curated by Matthew “NORDY” Nordman of One Stop Film Lab.
“This exhibition is curated culture that spans a wide variety of genres, techniques and time periods,” Nordy wrote on his Instagram page. “A small piece of the story that is my love letter to photography.”
Walking through the gallery, you can feel the growth of Open Gallery. The theme of community speaks from each photo that was selected for the exhibit. Stories of adolescence, gentrification, despair, light, dark, happiness, joy and culture. Images flicker in your mind like scenes in a View-Master as you press the plunger for the next image.
Moments, places, and feelings that come to you while examining the split seconds these talented photographers captured; those components of Los Angeles that make you a passenger, cruising the streets of Los Angeles exploring the busy corridors of MacArthur Park and somehow ending up on Mulholland Drive with your friends overlooking the downtown skyline. You become the passenger on a journey of more than 50 years of original “reels” of photographic experiences.
As Liz and Anthony dip their toes back into running their business, they are exploring interactive attractions to draw more people of all walks of life into their space. There will also be other events centered around bringing the community into the space, so follow their Instagram page @opengallerylb for dates and details before the exhibition comes to a close.
Despite suffering a tremendous setback, Open Gallery's service to and support of local Long Beach artists is more vital than ever in today's tough political and economic times. In turn, they could use the support of art lovers across Los Angeles. The current exhibit is your chance to come show your love.
Open Art Gallery & Gift Shop ~ 1738 & 1740 E. 7th St. Long Beach, CA 90813
