The Alternative Gallery is a nonprofit arts organization that cultivates and preserves outsider art and culture. Our mission is to strengthen local communities through arts and education and build relationships with other communities around the world. Located in Allentown, PA, the Gallery is housed in the Cigar Factory Artist Studios and provides exhibit and performance spaces, more than forty artist studios, retail spaces, classrooms, a coffee shop, printshop, darkroom, film archive, and more. The Alternative Gallery works toward changing the perception of art to something that is accessible in our daily lives.
Artists Featured at Cocktails & Collecting 2022:
Chris P. Jones is an Allentown native who has been creating innovative Pop Art for the last thirty years.
Chris co-founded Eye Candy Studio in Kutztown and Popmart Art Gallery in Bethlehem, where he was curator. His published work includes his Princess Diana Painting in Diana in Art and Only in Holland, Only the Dutch in which he illustrated the entire book.
Chris co-founded Mad Road Artists, a visual and musical troupe that performs/paints live. Chris’s art has been purchased and exhibited across the country and around the world, including in Allentown, New York City, Hoboken, Hollywood, Louisville, and Xiamen, China.
Jay Echevarria is a contemporary figurative visual artist living and working in Allentown. Their work generally consists of portraiture, abstraction, poetry, and human emotion. Their work is a story of their personal life as well as commentary on the human condition.