Germantown artist opens ‘Culture Shock’ gallery in Brewerytown

 Culture Shock opens Saturday at 2940 W. Thompson St. (Courtesy of Timothy Walkiewicz)

Culture Shock opens Saturday at 2940 W. Thompson St. (Courtesy of Timothy Walkiewicz)

Brewerytown will welcome another new business on Saturday night with the launch of Culture Shock, a counter-culture art gallery and store located at 2940 W. Thompson St.

Two years ago, Germantown artist Timothy Walkiewicz hoped to bring a similar vision to Coulter Street but didn’t get the support he needed from the business community.

After a friend encouraged him to consider Brewerytown, he learned about a low-rent availability in a multi-use creative space. The neighborhood, Walkiewicz says, has been “very supportive of everything I’ve wanted to do.”

Walkiewicz envisions Culture Shock as operating “almost like a showroom.” Half of the wall space is blank, reserved for gallery exhibits, and the rest of the small store is dedicated to counter-culture lifestyle goods — mainly books, but also a sampling of vintage and contemporary items and clothes that cater to bike, ski, skate and surf enthusiasts.

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The store will open during monthly exhibitions and by appointment.

“I don’t see myself as making a large amount of money,” said Walkiewicz.

The artist’s mission is to serve fellow artists whose work has fallen “in the neutral space between mainstream and underground art.”

Walkiewicz intends for Culture Shock to bridge this gap. “I want to give these people a place to show their work.”

An opening reception on Saturday will start at 7 p.m. and features the East Coast release of Trepes – Las Cochinadas, a photography book that shows the evolution of graffiti bombing on Tijuana rooftops over the past 20 years.

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