Contemporary artist and gallery owner Gino Belassen has been a pivotal player in downtown Phoenix’s art scene since 2018, when he opened his first gallery, BELHAUS.

A staple for local contemporary creatives, BELHAUS soon outgrew its historic Bragg’s Pie Factory home on Grand Ave., leading Belassan to open a second location in Uptown Phoenix earlier this year. After the big move, the gallery’s first location was reimagined as the Aftermarket, a café/gallery hybrid and creative social hub.

Thanks to its expanded size, BELHAUS 2.0 enabled the gallerist to share art from even more handpicked contemporary artists, including a wide array of established, emerging, local, national and international artists, whose work hangs alongside Belassen’s own signature minimalist creations.

Q&A With BELHAUS Owner Gino Belassen

How long have you been painting?

I’ve been a career artist full-time since 2017. For a while, I was balancing freelance graphic design gigs and projects but broke away when I felt I could be more expressive elsewhere.

How did you learn to paint?

A: My single mother, Sherri Belassen raised me in an art home. She made art possible for me, but it was never forced upon me—only encouraged. I’ve had no formal training as a painter, only as a designer. Design taught me composition, color theory, how the eye moves, typography and right from wrong. There is such a thing. Much of my design influence filters through into my painting, especially in my pursuit of connecting typography with subject and in telling a story. Treating my early works, which usually were 1×1 format, as ‘album artwork’ was the catalyst for connecting my structured design mind with my abstract painting hand. Early on, my work caught the eye of music producers, which led to working with musical artists such as Nghtmre, A$ap Rocky and more.

What do you hope to say with your art, and what do you hope your art says about you?

I hope to tell a story, convey a message, be honest and true to myself. Nothing more. My paintings are a cryptic peek into my life and sometimes represent moments in it.

It’s always a bonus when the audience can relate and connect with the work. It’s not always the case with my paintings, as they’re not always spelled out for the viewer. But my ‘essentials’ list concept bridged that gap.

What’s your creative process like?

Loud music, messy studio, lots of notes, tentative titles and no real plan.

What made you decide to open an art gallery?

The decision stemmed from a basic human desire to connect with the community and, more importantly, a creative community. I had that living in California in my early 20s but struggled to find my people in Phoenix upon moving back in 2017. I’d just come off a near sell-out show in Melbourne, Australia when my mom moved into the downtown studio, now called the Aftermarket. It was a rash decision, but I was living in Los Angeles at the time of the Australia show and decided to move home, jump full-time into painting, and share that studio space with my mom. I spent the first summer back creating a new body of work for my forthcoming London show and began considering local representation for my work, should some of the work return to Phoenix. Feeling that no existing galleries were compatible with what I sought in an artist-gallery relationship, I decided to take matters into my own hands. That’s when BELHAUS was born.

Why did you decide to move BELHAUS to Uptown Phoenix?

A: The gallery was outgrowing its downtown setup and needed a change of scenery—not as a replacement, but as its own independent headquarters. I’d considered opening one up in Los Angeles while living there through the pandemic but never found the right space. I moved back to Phoenix in 2022 and looked for commercial spaces to buy as a live/work space but fell in love with a midcentury home in Sunnyslope instead. Shortly after, Christy Kimball, the owner of Framed Ewe Optical, invited me to pop up in the vacant space next to them for three months to close out the year and try out the neighborhood. It was the easiest ‘yes’ and I’m so grateful for this partnership. Christy has been an avid supporter of the art and BELHAUS since I opened the After-Afterparty solo show in 2019 in their Shortcut Gallery. We’ve since extended our lease and we will be here for the foreseeable future.

How is the second BELHAUS location different from Aftermarket?

My favorite way to explain how the spaces work in tandem is to parallel their relationship to that of a museum and the museum gift shop and café. BELHAUS uptown acts as the ‘museum’ and Aftermarket is our ‘museum gift shop and café.’ The Aftermarket serves as an extension of the gallery and a way to see the artwork we’re curating in a more casual, unpretentious atmosphere.

How has BELHAUS changed since it first opened in 2018?

Downtown Phoenix has evolved drastically since we first opened in 2018, but two things have remained a constant—myself and Anthony Fiorelli of Caffio Espresso. Together, we have continued to evolve the space and are carving out opportunities for artists, baristas and now chefs to join in. Moving our primary gallery operations uptown has allowed for the birth of new opportunities downtown.

How would you describe the gallery’s interior design/aesthetic?

Brutalist. Industrial. Chic. Imperfect, unpolished, but always intentional. The downtown Aftermarket lends itself more to that, as you enter through a garage door, and uptown will have more of that vibe of post-summer edits.

How do you select the artists and works featured in the gallery?

By trusting my intuition and my eye and then fostering meaningful and trustworthy relationships. I’m one of the artists too, and creating a culture of trust, respect and admiration is paramount. This is how and where BELHAUS has been able to connect with other like-minded artists and creatives.

What’s next on the horizon?

I’ll be working on a new body of work this summer, while BELHAUS and the Aftermarket will be undergoing renovations. Aftermarket is paving the way for expanded offerings, involving incorporating food and reactivating our after-hours. BELHAUS will switch sides with Framed Ewe Optical (located adjacent to the gallery) as they undergo a redesign by Los Angeles-based interior designer Adi Goodrich.

For more information, go to belhaus.co