Art pop-up replaces hat shop at unique SLO County development. What’s coming next?
A new pop-up art gallery has replaced a custom hat shop in downtown Atascadero, taking over a small, unique space for a limited time.
Siblings and visual artists Zoya Dixon and Sam Lopata have temporarily moved their art into an unleased space at the Block Shops, a restaurant and retail development built out of repurposed shipping containers located at 6090 El Camino Real that’s also home to a beer garden and ice cream shop.
Their tiny showroom, at a mere 160 square feet, only has enough room to host two paintings at a time, visible from the street and sidewalk to all passersby — but the size is not a problem for the artists.
“I didn’t want to overwhelm the space,” Dixon told The Tribune, calling the display “intentional.”
After moving in last week, the siblings will display their collaborative art on a monthly rotating schedule until the property is permanently leased out.
Dixon said the opportunity is a “win-win” for the artists and the North County real estate company that owns and is advertising the vacant space, Z Villages.
“It draws attention to this empty space and what its potential is, and also, it’s a way for me to showcase our work and get a little acknowledgment out of it,” she said.
Instead of paying rent to the real estate group, the space will operate similar to a gallery where the company will take a small commission of the artists’ sales.
Art is a passion project for the siblings, who both have day jobs, Lopata in creative construction in Los Angeles and Dixon as a tennis coach at the Templeton Tennis Ranch. The pop-up allows them to share their work without leasing out an expensive gallery.
What’s next for the Block Shops?
The Block Shops project was built in 2021 by Z Villages Real Estate. The unique buildings were erected using seven repurposed shipping containers to bring an experiential retail center to downtown Atascadero.
Since its grand opening in 2021, two of the three spaces have been permanently occupied by the Ancient Owl Beer Garden and Negranti Creamery.
The space now hosting the art pop-up was previously occupied by the Stellar + S.U.N. custom hat shop.
The project, inspired by the architecture of Fieldwork Brewing Company in Monterey, was always envisioned as a brewery, Z Villages CEO Max Zappas told The Tribune. The front two retail spaces were added later to create a “nice, synergistic little center,” Zappas said.
“It’s a pretty good location with good exposure,” Zappas said.
The project’s innovative design also allowed for an expedited construction schedule.
“The whole timeline was only about six months,” Zappas said. “That was largely because we had the containers pre-constructed in a factory, and we were able to crane them all in place in one day, and finish them all out from there.”
Zappas said the real estate group has been very involved in the city’s beautification efforts.
Z Villages was behind the neighboring La Plaza project, JonnyBoy’s Bagelry, the new AMSTRDM coffee location on the city’s Sunken Gardens and soon will bring three new businesses into the former Wilkins Printing building at 6405 El Camino Real, next to Sylvester’s.
Though currently hosting the art pop-up, the space is available to be leased. But Zappas said he isn’t in any rush.
“We’re just going to be patient with the space and make sure we get somebody that’s a good fit for kind of all those properties right there, to stay synergistic and work together,” he said.
Zappas said they expect to secure a permanent tenant within a few months.
In the mean time, he is more than happy to host the art pop-up, and said he would do it again.
“I think it’s a good interim use,” Zappas said. “We’re happy to support the art community, and it kind of got the wheels turning for us in the future. If we have any vacancies as a company, we’ll probably put out a call for artists to see if people do want to put art in the windows.”
What is currently on display at the pop-up?
Dixon and Lopata were once strangers to each other.
The siblings grew up in separate homes, living just miles apart from one another in Chicago. They connected later in life after their father passed away and immediately bonded not just over their shared family but also their mutual love for making art.
They have been collaborating ever since.
Their Block Shop pop-up is currently displaying two paired paintings, “ENTROPY” and “CONSTANTS.”
Created around the unveiling of ChatGPT, the paintings explore the power of artificial intelligence to harness human emotion.
The hot-pink-and-white paintings juxtapose each other in aesthetics and meaning, both featuring a background of graffitied ChatGPT responses to compelling questions such as, “what does happiness feel like?” in “CONSTANTS” and “what does sadness feel like?” in “ENTROPY.”
“The graffiti is not meant to be legible, per se,” Dixon said. “The idea isn’t that you read it. Anyone can find that answer, but I think the cool thing is just the abstraction of that idea in art form.”
The graffiti in both works employs Lopata’s background as a graffiti artist, while “ENTROPY” features Dixon’s signature style of textured, abstract sand stacks, which she creates by layering sand, paint and varnish.
“It’s just very different,” she said. “I don’t know of anybody else that’s really doing sand stuff. I kind of took this idea and ran with it.”
Though best paired together, Dixon said, the paintings are sold separately for $4,500 each. They are available for purchase online at ZoyaDixon.com and Dixon is available to meet interested buyers in-person at the pop-up.
More of the siblings’ work will be displayed at the pop-up every month until the space is permanently leased. It will also be shown at MYLR gallery in San Luis Obispo on May 2 for SLO’s Art after Dark.
