A year after its first pop-up exhibition, Devinci House opens as an established gallery
On February 21, 2024, Talon Hawthorne heard a voice while he was driving.
“It was deeper than an idea,” he says of the voice’s message: “Do an art gallery during Artisphere.”
The 26-year-old recalls how ideas immediately filled his mind, surpassing his previous concepts of a creative project. In just weeks, Hawthorne, whose middle name is Devinci, brought those ideas to life through Devinci House.
Its first pop-up exhibition attracted art lovers to an empty brick-walled storefront in the heart of Greenville’s West End, just steps from Artisphere’s action. Two successful pop-ups followed at the Grand Bohemian Gallery, and Devinci House became a partner gallery with Artsy, a global online art marketplace and collection platform.
This spring, what began as a nomadic art gallery—recognizable by its hand-drawn Scandinavian-style house logo against a purple background—evolved serendipitously into a fixed location “for all people,” the Anderson native says.
Pop-up to Established Gallery
Opening the permanent gallery in the same space as the first pop-up “is the true definition of a full-circle moment. I feel very honored to be able to be in this space,” says Hawthorne, who’s kept a journal of the journey and credits numerous people with helping him along the way. “Getting this started was one of the hardest things I’ve done. It is not easy to just start a gallery. It looks easy from the outside, but there are so many steps involved.
“I have so much emotion in all of this,” he adds. “It’s scary because what if it doesn’t work? But I had to take the risk. In life, you have these moments where you must keep pushing through the challenges to get to the new thing that actually is meant for you.”
Hawthorne founded Devinci House on the belief that “beauty can save the world,” and he’s carrying that out by curating thought-provoking contemporary pieces that resonate with him.
He has filled the walls with work by a growing roster of represented local, regional, and international artists. That includes South Carolina-based artists Jeremiah Wesley Russell, Brooke and Chase Lawrence, and Duvall Winn—some of whom use the space as a studio when it’s not open to the public—as well as Los Angeles-based Thai Mainhard, Nashville-based Melodie Provenzano, Swedish artist Oliver Näslund, and Brazilian artist Tiago Tormin.
“I come alive seeing Duvall come alive or being able to tell Jeremiah at our opening that he sold his first piece. Nothing beats that,” he says.
Yet Devinci House “is more than a gallery,” says Hawthorne, who wants it to feel like a creative hiatus where people feel comfortable and can connect with the work.
“I’ve curated this space to make it feel like you’re walking into someone’s home,” he adds. “One of my favorite things is when people can come in here and hang out, grab a drink from the kitchen, and look at the art.”
Beauty Can Save the World
Adorned on one of its windows, the Devinci House motto, “Beauty Can Save the World,” comes from nineteenth-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1869 novel The Idiot.
Hawthorne first heard it uttered four years ago during a speech. The speaker’s premise, he says, was “what if, as humans, we begin to make things so beautiful that they transcend time? If you consider the Mona Lisa, for example, that piece was executed so well that it has transcended time across generations.
Hawthorne was so moved by the phrase that he vowed to make it part of “whatever I did one day, whether it was a coffee shop, a restaurant. I had no idea at the time what it would be. When I started Devinci House, it was natural to say ‘Beauty Can Save the World.’”
“It will always be a part of Devinci House just like it’s a part of me,” he adds. “But now I say, ‘Beauty has to save me before it can save the world.’ When you think about it, who actually changes the world? It’s us. We’re the ones who enact good or bad, evil or harm.”
Devinci House: Year of Growth
There were four Devinci House pop-up exhibitions in 2024, preceding the opening of its permanent gallery in April and its first-anniversary event in May.
May 10, 2024 – Devinci House’s first pop-up exhibition opens to the public after a Friends and Family event on May 9
July 19, 2024 – Devinci House Vol. 2, Surprised by Joy at the Grand Bohemian Gallery
Nov. 22, 2024 – Devinci House Vol. 3, Beauty Can Save the World at the Grand Bohemian Gallery
Dec. 22, 2024 – Friends and Family Show at Hawthorne’s residence
101A Augusta St., Greenville, open Thursday and Friday noon–7p.m. and Saturday 11a.m.-7p.m. (hours on Monday–Wednesday by appointment only). For the latest gallery updates, visit devincihouse.com or follow @devincihouse on Instagram.
