Cocco & Salem Gallery

Cocco & Salem has been at 1111 Duval Street since 2009, up at the quieter end of the street where the galleries cluster rather than the bars. What it shows is contemporary original painting, and the core of the roster is local: Jim Salem, who is both a represented artist and half the gallery's name, alongside Marylene Proner, Judith Zabar, Stanley Zabar, Henry Peter, Janis Fitch and Carol Bruno. The Florida Keys Council of the Arts gallery guide lists them among the island's leading painters.

The wider roster reaches further out. Mia Tavonatti shows here, and her credentials travel: she won ArtPrize in 2011, at the time one of the largest-purse art competitions in the world, with a mosaic and stained glass work that was later donated to the Diocese of Grand Rapids. Also on the list are Curtis Erickson, Frank De Pietro, Susan Sykes, Stephen Maffin, Robert Knudsen and Antwan Ramar, so the hang is not a single sensibility and it changes.

It is a straightforward gallery to visit. Open Tuesday through Sunday from mid-morning to late afternoon, closed Mondays, and they will open by appointment if you call or email ahead, which is worth knowing if you are on the island for two days and the one free afternoon is a Monday. Upper Duval has the highest density of galleries in Key West, so this fits into a walk rather than requiring a trip of its own.