As we get ready to start our ninth year in Georgetown and our third year in Bethesda, we reach a major milestone with our 100th exhibition opening tonite Friday, December 12 in our Bethesda gallery as part of the Bethesda Art Walk.

When we opened our first gallery in Georgetown, a well-known local art critic visited us within the first week and we discussed our goals, experience and focus with him. “I give you six months,” he said as he left.

He said this because we had started a gallery financed by Visa and MasterCard, without a collector’s mailing list stolen from another gallery, without recognized, well-known artists (in fact without any artists other than us), without “silent partners,” and with a focus on contemporary realism, and thus a decision to largely ignore trendy “art” designed to cause temporary interest through shock or gimmick, but lacking the legs to stand the test of time. We also decided to exhibit art that we liked – that was and is the litmus test for Fraser Gallery artists – rather than exhibit second-rate art by well-known artists, vanity shows subsidized by Washington embassies, signed reproductions by major artists, or any artwork that we would not hang in our own home. We also made it an unbreakable rule to run the gallery with the highest of professional ethics designed to protect not only our artists but also our collectors.

Our success since then is due to staying the course of our focus and because of the brilliant talent of our represented artists.

Thus, our 100th show is a “thank you show” to the many artists that we now represent and to the success that they have given our galleries through their talent, trust and friendship. In the past 99 shows, between our solo, group shows and annual competitions, we have exhibited the work of nearly 1000 artists, many of whom had never exhibited before in the Washington area, and many, many young area artists who received their first gallery exposure though our annual student shows and other invitational shows.

The many artists in our 100th show reflect an incredible change from our artist-less beginnings in Georgetown. Our artists are now represented in the permanent collections of nearly 100 museums worldwide, from MoMA in New York to MALBA in Buenos Aires, have had nearly 1000 secondary art market auction lot records, have had nearly 30 books published about their artwork, and are in private and public collections all over the world.

Thank you.