Photography art dealer Jennifer DeCarlo hadn’t planned to move to the Oregon Coast, but when a job in the hospitality industry beckoned her husband north from California, DeCarlo packed up her contemporary art gallery in San Diego and moved with him. She’s opened a new gallery specializing in photography, jdc Fine Art, in the Marketplace at Salishan. DeCarlo calls it an “offbeat spot” for art, but not without its unique merits — sort of like the “Hamptons of the Pacific Northwest,” she said. I talked with DeCarlo about art, her move, and her future in Gleneden Beach.

How difficult is it to move an art gallery?

No doubt it is challenging to uproot, especially considering how the typical gallery model is anchored to place. I’m trying to see the positives and benefits of these family moves. With the advent of the internet and rise of art fairs, the desire of reaching everyone, everywhere has never been more true, or more difficult. There is so much intangibility and noise, contact without connection.

Though atypical, I’m trying to see our transience more like ephemerality. Here or there, I’m always working, and these moves put me in a unique position to make more connections and more discoveries. I have the unique opportunity to engage new communities in meaningful ways, find new patrons and artists, and carry and cross-pollinate contacts.

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What distinguishes jdc Fine Art gallery?

I love narrative figurative work. I like contemporary issues. I see art as something that has a purpose that is not just decorating my wall. This is supposed to be doing something in society. It can act as a siren or mark our time… My artists deal with contemporary issues such as climate change, the American condition, equality, psychology of place... Art lets us move outside of ourselves. We can see things from a different vantage point.

Excerpt of OR ARTSWATCH feature.