saper galleries and custom framing

Saper Galleries does a wonderful job in framing every piece I have taken to them. While somewhat pricey their work is excellent. If you want to show off an item I would highly recommend you take it to them.

East Lansing has an astounding lack of decent art galleries, and it is only in this environment that Saper Galleries is even notable. It is fun to wander around for a bit, but leave it at that (or go to the new museum). Saper carries many highly commercialized artists and charges too much money for the art he sells. One exception, or so I thought, was the lithographs of Russell Chatham which when new are absolutely first rate. My first purchase of an original piece of art was a Chatham lithograph, and it was beautiful. But over time it seemed to loose much of its beauty until it became obvious that exposure to indirect ambient lighting in my home had been sufficient to cause some unstable dyes Cjatham uses to fade and other colors to emerge and intensify, notably bluish green, even when using UV protective glass. When I purchased the art Roy Saper used two sales pitches - first that he would always buy back the art at its original price (implying it would increase in value) and second that it was wise to purchase the Chatham lithograph as soon as it was released, since the price would increase as the number of remaining lithographs available diminished (Chatham prices his lithographs this way). All of this seemed reasonable, and I went on to buy and frame several Chatham lithographs at Saper Galleries, and Roy and I were good buddies. Then the issue of fading came to the forefront. First, Saper will not always buy back the art for its original price, at least if it has deteriorated, and he will not even provide a refund for artwork that is defective like the Chatham lithographs. Second, the price of YOUR Chatham lithograph won't go up as the supply diminishes (although a never sold one from Chatham will), because your lithograph has deteriorated due to unstable dyes. I was able to get Chatham to replace a few of the lithographs that had deteriorated, to his credit. Several others were irreplaceable, and Saper would not take these back for a refund, despite his promise. I took one of the lithographs that Chatham replaced to Saper Galleries to have them simply switch out the faded one for the beautiful new one, and upgrade to museum glass. Unbelievably, Saper Galleries had constructed the frame in a manner that the glass could not be removed without destroying the frame. So I had to reframe it, and since I should have been able to use the original frame, I asked if he would do it for cost. Roy responded that he didn't make any profit on framing! So I asked for a modest discount (5% - 10%), and Roy again refused. I ended up paying full price for a new frame, and I have the original one to prove it. Well, sorry for all the detail, but if you have problem with artwork or framing purchased from Saper Galleries, do not expect anything from Roy or you will be disappointed. Apparently he would rather loose a customer of 20 years, and his reputation, than provide a small discount on a frame made necessary from his own incompetence, much less stand behind defective artwork. As long as you are shucking out the money, all is fine with Roy and Saper Galleries, and you will be his best customer and friend. However, when problems arise with the quality of the art he sells or the frames he builds, don't expect any special favors or even reasonable compensation. There are better places to buy better art, including Chatham lithographs (check out eBay).

We have visited Saper Galleries at least once a month during the First Sunday Gallery Walk. The first thing you notice is the welcoming greeting of owner Roy Saper. Then you look around and observe the amazing amount and diversity of the artwork. Original oils, watercolor, photography of every kind. Ceramics adorn the walls, unique wooden boxes and containers hand crafted from cocobola by artists in Costa Rica and an entire wall of Dr. Seuss artwork. I love this place, and urge art lovers to make a visit to this excellent gallery.