Madison Gallery — Attraction in Solana Beach

Five stars for the art, zero stars for the treatment. Visited here a good while back, during a previous Jaehyo-Lee show. The front door was propped wide open. There was no one in the gallery, just a chihuahua skittering around. (We were surprised the gallery would allow a dog unleashed & unsupervised in the space, as the artworks are extremely high-end, and that's an enormous liability.) We strolled around looking at the beautiful work and after a few minutes, a woman came out. To our astonishment, she rushed to us, demanded that we leave, saying, "You can't be in here!" then escorted us rather aggressively out the door, and closed and locked the door right behind us, all while the dog ran around her feet. It was absurdly inappropriate and rude treatment. It's too bad this was my only experience here. I would have liked to have seen Robert Montgomery's work very much, but I couldn't bring myself to go into this...

I walk past Madison Gallery twice a week and decided to stop in last week. I'm always a little leery of going into art galleries because I feel like the staff will be annoyed and or judge-y with me for treating their storefront like a museum. Like going to a car showroom with zero intention of buying, right? But Madison Gallery was both beautifully curated and very welcoming. I chatted with the two ladies at the front desk about the artists and exhibits and they were super kind and friendly and I didn't feel any hint of You Are Wasting Our Time, Youngling from them. MG seems like a high-quality gallery, with pieces being purchased fairly often, so there's always something new to see, especially as they mentioned they have a new featured artist every 6-8 weeks. If you're in the market for art, or even if you're not, I recommend...

Nice team and high quality works. After meeting the people working there today, I don't at all comprehend the negative reviews. They seem quite dedicated, and I liked the space. So much space! The works didn't seem crowded at all. This used to be a large...