Coming home

Drew Snyder was living an artist’s fantasy life. He’d recently graduated from Sarah Lawrence, the high-ranked liberal-arts college in New York, where he’d focused on philosophy, literature, painting and French. And he was living in Paris, where he planned to continue his studies.

Then, last July, Snyder got a phone call that upended everything. His older brother Sam was dead. His body had been discovered a mile from his car in the desert near the California border. The official cause was dehydration, but Sam was bipolar and a drug addict so nobody was sure what really happened.

“I bought a roundtrip ticket from Paris, thinking I’d go back in nine days,” Snyder recalls. “I was in a daze. I didn’t have a clue. That was an incredible experience, thinking I had some idea about what I had no idea about. Obviously, I wasn’t going back.”

San Diego isn’t Snyder’s hometown—he grew up in Fort Worth, Texas—but his mom and younger sister moved to Encinitas a couple of years ago. When his brother died, Snyder says his mom—“the coolest human being ever”—was completely destroyed. So he shelved plans for graduate school and settled into his new home.

“I knew nobody,” he says, “only my mom and my sister.”

That was less than a year ago. Today, the 23-year-old artist runs his own space, The Andrews Gallery, on Highway 101 in Leucadia (www.theandrewsgallery.com). Along with his tousled curls and casual Parisian style, Snyder possesses certain qualities—intelligence, persistence and je ne sais quoi—that have made him a growing presence in the local art scene.

Snyder found the space in August, soon after he decided to stay in San Diego with his family. “I thought it would be a great distraction and creation,” he says. “My mom was super-supportive of the whole thing.”

He sunk his savings into the building, as well as a small loan from his family, and he put plenty of elbow grease into fixing the place up, scraping grime off stone flooring and putting in skylights. Location is everything, and Snyder knew that he’d picked a prime spot, right next to Le Papagayo, Leucadia’s popular Cuban eatery.

“There was a huge art walk five days after I got the keys,” he says. “I had paintings covering holes in the walls and nothing else in here except a ‘Leave Your E-mail’ book. We had 80 people come through.”

Snyder decided early on what he wanted to accomplish with his space: something totally different.

“All the sales galleries in North County are geared to a certain style; there’s a monopoly on beach and surf art. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s incredibly hard to do something original.

“There’s also enough money in the area to sustain a real arts community, but no one thinks of it. Or they’ll spend $10K on art because it matches their sofa.”

He pauses for a moment, shaking his head at such a notion. “I want to get the message out there that buying art is a powerful means of sustaining a thriving arts scene.”

Before he could make an impact with his gallery, though, Snyder realized he’d have to become a part of the local arts scene—even though he didn’t know a single soul.

“I started going to any and every thing I could. Little art shows at skateboard shops, shows at museums. A lot of Google searches turned into friends. Since it was all I was doing, I threw all my energy into it and met a lot of people randomly.”

New pals included musician Matt Curreri, whom Snyder met at a show at Whistle Stop Bar in South Park. Curreri’s band, The Exfriends, played the gallery’s soft opening in October, and Curreri will soon headline a five-part series called “Saturdays in May with Matt Curreri.”

Snyder has other musicians lined up, too, like Americana singer John Meeks, and is also planning a poetry night—anything to get people to make the trek to North County.

He plans to show local artists at The Andrews Gallery, as well as intriguing talent from around the country. One recent exhibition featured stunning wood-based sculptures from up-and-coming Alaskan artist Jesse Hensel, and Snyder will also exhibit works by his mentor, Texas painter Ron Tomlinson.

“What it’s really about it showing excellent work, really meaningful, creative work,” Snyder explains. “It doesn’t matter about résumé or things of that nature.”

It’s also about throwing a good party. At an April 10 opening, free-cocktail-swilling hipsters mingled with a beach crowd, family types and high-rolling North Countyites. The vibe was unpretentious. If anything, there was a collective feeling of gratitude: It’s about time Leucadia had a gallery like this.

One artist Snyder doesn’t intend to showcase at Andrews is himself, though half of the space serves as his studio, where he gives art lessons and paints. His darkly expressive, old-soul portraits and street scenes hang on a glossy red wall behind his desk.

He says he’s giving his gallery everything he has until the lease expires in August 2010. If he’s covering his expenses by then, he’ll keep going. He’s already made some solid sales and has been looking into local graduate programs.

“San Diego really doesn’t have an art scene,” he claims. “It’s totally there for the taking. There’s no way in hell that I could have done in 15 years in New York or Paris what I’ve done here in four months.”

If the gallery has engaged Snyder’s inner entrepreneur, it’s also been a cathartic experience.

“This might very well change my life,” he says. “There’s going to be a whole bunch of positive residual effects from this that I’m not even aware of. Ever since my brother died, I’ve been leaning on this concept—and I’ve never been a big fate guy—but that everything happens for a reason.”    

Saturdays in May with Matt Curreri kicks off May 2 with musicians Keli Ross-Ma’u and The Perry Edwards and art by Andre Couturier.