GLEAMING FROM THE GALLERY

You said you needed space; well, here it is

By MICHAEL BRODEUR + JULIA REISCHEL

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LAMONTAGNE GALLERY
According to lore, there was a massive army of Ann Taylor types and their mountain-biking boyfriends who besieged Fort Point and drove out all of the artists with flaming spears from IKEA and throw pillows they'd actually throw. Of course, that's not completely true. Those pillows were way too nice to be thrown, and there is definitely still art happening in the Fort.

Take LaMontagne, which just sprouted up at the mouth of Melcher upon A Street. Perched just above street level, with a wide-swinging door letting plenty of air (and curious eyes) in, it's a classic loft-style storefront space just a few blocks from the ICA-a feature that partners Russell LaMontagne and Emily Isenberg hope to take advantage of. For their part, the programming is a short walk of sorts from the ICA-featuring younger, more conceptually bent (take that how you like) artists in the emerging stages of their careers (read: they can't afford Williamsburg yet).

But while that might sound like an old line from a million small galleries, LaMontagne's approach is fresh and inviting-witness their program this Thursday featuring video art about the 19th-century American frontier, augmented with live music from Pale Hoarse. An upcoming show on portraiture will feature Nan Goldin, Catherine Opie, Alice Neel and Philip-Lorca diCorcia.

[LaMontagne Gallery, 51 Melcher St., Boston. 617.482.8400. Open Wed-Sat 11am-6pm. lamontagnegallery.com]

STONYBROOK FINE ARTS
In April, Morris Norvin, who has taught sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts since 2002, opened his own sculpture studio in JP. "Being in the MFA, we don't have anything on fire, or anything like that," Norvin says. "Over the years, a lot of my students have expressed an interest in doing their own casting work, and so I thought, 'There's a possibility here in taking people to the next level in making art.' "

Norvin and a team of artists that includes his fiancée, Anne Sasser, spent two years transforming a dilapidated building into a state-of-the-art foundry. When they were done, they had invented several new machines, including a large kiln for heating molds and an environmentally friendly "boil-out" unit for melting wax molds. (Most foundries burn the wax out; Norvin got the idea to boil during a stint making dentures at BU's dental department.)

Stonybrook works with the MFA to offer classes in welding, ceramics, jewelry, live figure sculpture and casting, and functions as a space for artists to work on commissions and occasionally showcase their work.

[Stonybrook Fine Arts, 24 Porter St., Jamaica Plain. 617.522.3331. Open 8am-5pm, by appointment only. stonybrookfinearts.com]

RED DOT GALLERY
Tucked into a residential neighborhood on the edges of Mattapan, Dorchester and Milton, the Red Dot isn't owned and run by tender young wunderkinds of the type who are colonizing the South End. Instead, it's the extracurricular project of a group of neighbors who run a handful of other local businesses, including the Flat Black Coffee Co., a local one-woman design company and the Dark Horse Antiques store down the block.

"We wanted to do something like this 15 years ago on Newbury Street," says Jeff Chatlos, one of Red Dot's four co-founders. "When this space became available, we thought, 'Wouldn't it be great to do a gallery that would showcase local artists?' "

Last summer, they hoisted a giant red dot over the doorway and opened for foot-traffic business on Saturdays and Sundays, right across from the Spukies'n Pizza. In the past year, they've shown a diverse selection of work ranging from hand-blocked flapper hats, to blown glass, to enormous pieces of rusted metal and weathered boards welded into the shapes of sharks, turtles and sea creatures. Equally enthusiastic about Ina Nenorortas (a Lithuanian who stitches impressionistic quilt art) and Thomas Savard (a "photo-impressionist" who tweaks and saturates the colors of candid shots with racy themes), the Red Dot is a grab bag of Dorchester's surprisingly vibrant art community.

[Red Dot Gallery, 1162 Washington St., Lower Mills, Dorchester. 617.696.3333. Open Sat-Sun noon-4pm (or by appointment). reddotgallery.org]

PROOF
After a year of curating the Second Gallery in the heart of the Distillery, South Boston's artist protectorate high-rise, 23-year-old Rebecca Gordon is leaving to get her master's in Chicago. Gordon has been getting a great deal-because her father owns the building and she pays no rent, she's been free to show risky and potentially unprofitable art all year. Now that she's leaving, she can pass that good deal onto someone else.

"I wanted to pick something that would continue with the Second Gallery's mission of installations and visual art, and with being a resource for the community in ways that are more than just shows," Gordon says. After a nationwide search, Gordon settled on Julia Hechtman, a visual artist from Chicago who works with photographs and videos, and Kara Braciale, a Worcester-based sculptor. Hechtman and Braciale have named their incarnation of the gallery Proof, and its first show in September will feature Jeff DeGolier, a Brooklyn-based artist who specializes in building and photographing "eccentric kinetic sculptures of landscapes."

Says Braciale: "We are really excited about showing Jeff's work for our inaugural exhibition, as it's both conceptually compelling and aesthetically fresh, and typifies the kind of artistic vision and production we're invested in."

[Proof, 516 East 2nd St., South Boston. 617.413.9395. secondgallery.org]