1928 Telegraph was the site of Oakland Art [dot] com, a gallery, community arts center, entertainment venue and arts marketing facility. Since the location of the Oakland Box and now the Uptown Bar, OA.com was opened in 1998 and housed a digital printing facity, frame shop, photo lab and gallery/exhibition space. OA.com was the site of many events and countless tales.

OA.com was part of the complex that included the Floral Depot, Newberry’s and Sweet’s Ballroom. For a while, my friend Linda Lawrence had full run of the joint which was an amazing time. We hosted shows like Artrotica, where the audience was the show. It featured a video shoot of a photo shoot, body painting and (mostly) tasteful erotic fine art. We also had highly sophisticated shows featuring art faculty from CCAC and the top local artists in the Oakland East Bay Area.

After a few years I closed the gallery to pursue new things, but boy did we have a ball in the meantime.