Art On Duval Key West, A Procaccini Gallery

Art On Duval Key West sits at 602 Duval, in the thick of the street's busiest stretch, and it is the Key West gallery in photographer Michael Procaccini's small group of three Florida galleries. The roster runs to roughly twenty artists working in painting, photography and photo art, among them Steve Barton, Kreg D. Kelley, Nicole Bedoya, Jenny Lanna, Darina Bratkova, Willard Bond, Christian Bergeron, David Scott Meier, Alexandru Popovski and Elaine Murphy. Subject matter leans toward water: beach life, boats, ocean scenes, and in one corner of the gallery, hand-painted surfboards, which are a more interesting souvenir than most of what Duval is selling.

Procaccini's own work hangs here too, and his path to it is worth a minute. He grew up in a boating family in northern Ohio, started out as a photography student shooting and developing black and white film with Ansel Adams as his reference point, then moved into color, and the thing he has chased since is the way Keys water changes hue with the time of day, the weather and the light. His first Key West gallery was on Greene Street. Art On Duval came after it, and Art on Fifth Avenue in Naples and Art on St. Armands in Sarasota came after that.

The gallery carries original work alongside limited edition giclée and archival prints, which means there is usually something at both ends of the range rather than only the top. They ship, so a large piece does not have to survive your flight home. And through the winter season they host artist shows where the artist is actually in the room, which is a different experience from reading a name card and is the single best reason to check their schedule before you plan your week.

Art On Duval holds a Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice award and currently ranks in the top fifty things to do in Key West on that site, which is a crowded field. The gallery also produces a Meet the Artist video series if you want to know who made something before you walk in.