A year-round venue that’s always in season

By Abby Remer

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“I just had the best summer of my entire life,” Elizabeth Eisenhauer says at the start of our interview. Having established the Eisenhauer Gallery in 2000, it isn’t the 25th anniversary that excites her: “I had an incredible team of women whom I’ve been cultivating for the past few years. They gave me so much trust, courage, and support. It was heaven, because I’d come into the gallery rested, alive, and full of fodder for conversation and the energy to engage with people.”

Eisenhauer’s early years helped pave the way for her career, which landed her on the Vineyard. Born in Connecticut, Eisenhauer was raised in Coconut Grove, Fla., during the 1970s. “It was a very creative, hippie, freethinking community. There was a lot of outdoor music, and most of my friends’ parents were artists. I also had a very creative mother, and my grandmother was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies. I came into a lineage of women who were free spirits.”

Eisenhauer cut her teeth in the gallery business in Taos, N.M., in 1994, working alongside a boss who taught her everything he knew. Three years later, she fell in love with Paul Caval when visiting Block Island, and opened a gallery there. Wanting a better school system for their son, the family moved to the Island in 2000. Although Eisenhauer was running the Block Island gallery from here, she recalls, “I put my son in the Chilmark School, and then said to myself, ‘Oh my gosh. What am I going to do? I have all this time.” Seeing an ad in the paper, Eisenhauer rented and renovated the Edgartown space, opening on Memorial Day weekend.

Although Eisenhauer began by selling rather traditional art — still lifes, landscapes, and figurative paintings in gold frames — she soon transitioned to contemporary, representational art: “I kept adding to the collection from my gut when I saw something that I wanted. I chose from what I found beautiful.” Speaking of her criteria, Eisenhauer explains, “Does the art bring me excitement? Is there a wow factor? Is it so beautiful it tears you up in a quiet sort of way, or does it bring you a big eruption of joy?”

Eisenhauer rotates her collection, which she describes as representational with an edge and a spotlight on African American culture, featuring artists from both the Vineyard and abroad. “I look and see what I have, and put my strongest work on the wall. Then there is always more work to replace what sells. I’ve learned over the years that if I’m happy with the work, that translates into an environment where people are excited.”

Eisenhauer’s artists often work outside the box, offering unexpected approaches to subject matter. She explains, “That could be paintings of Converse shoes or zebras that are actually inside a box. The subjects are not necessarily about Martha’s Vineyard, although I have plenty of art that is about summer and the ocean. I don’t limit myself to what I like because of where I am. When I see something, I don’t say, ‘I can’t sell that because Edgartown won’t respond to it.’ I trust myself and bring in art that is unexpected.”

Unlike many Vineyard galleries, Eisenhauer stays open year-round. However, she remains busy. “I have a shoppable website, so I have collectors who buy art all over the world, whom I’ve never met, but we have these lengthy relationships via email and phone.” Some collectors seek her out, looking for a particular artist she represents. There are also winter visitors to the Island who are vetting wedding venues, or architects and designers working with a new homeowner.

Sometimes residents whose houses are being renovated and are staying at neighboring hotels will stop in. Eisenhauer reflects, “Relationships are different in the winter. You become friendly because everybody has so much time.”

Eisenhauer also offers advisory services, where clients invite her into their homes, whether here on the Vineyard or other locations, to help curate their private collections. It’s possible that they want to expand it, or that their tastes have changed, prompting clients to seek new pieces or blend contemporary ones into an existing collection: “The relationships with these clients are already established, so there’s a lot of trust. It’s really nice to be in community with them.”

During the summer, the gallery hosts live local music every Thursday in the courtyard. Eisenhauer recalls, “I did a lot of dancing in the courtyard this year. Then people come and join, and we engage and laugh. When we had our final music event, I looked around the courtyard, and I was brought to tears because I knew so many of the faces really well. The tourists had gone home, and the locals had come forward. It was like a family. I was absolutely overcome with gratitude.”

At the end of the day, Eisenhauer says, “I want people to walk away from the gallery energized by the interactions they’ve had with our team and by the artwork … and to be surprised and delighted that they found it.”