When, in 1983, Oliver Caldwell opened his first gallery in a brick warehouse in the South of Market district of his native San Francisco, he could not have anticipated the road he was about to travel. "I had no capital to speak of then, no financial resources," he says. He was armed only with a determination to succeed, a strong vision of the artists he wanted to introduce to the world, and several months later, an invaluable business partner, Susan Snyder.

Together, Caldwell and Snyder have taken a highly unusual formula for a gallery and found success. They have done it, almost miraculously, without relying on what Caldwell calls the "big signature" artists whom clients are already primed to collect; without the rapid 'back-room brokering' so common among other art dealers; and without the hype that surrounds the trendiest emerging artists. They have instead discovered a unique niche: presenting the work of little-known, mid-career painters and sculptors, and focusing especially on European and Latin American artists who have a following in their home countries but have yet to find a strong foothold in the U.S.

"It's rare for an art gallery to stick around for 20 years," says Caldwell, "and even more so for a 20-year-old art gallery to remain headquartered in San Francisco. But for a business partnership to last as long and to continue with as much success as ours has is even rarer." It is that kind of endurance, he contends, that has allowed the careers of Caldwell-Snyder's artists to grow remarkably-and that, in turn, has allowed the business to expand from that first warehouse to a much larger, more complex organization with over 30 artists, three locations, and an ambitious in-house publishing division-a considerable undertaking for any art gallery.

After opening a second location in New York City in 1993, Caldwell and Snyder made a bold, risky move: they purchased a property on Sutter Street in San Francisco's Union Square, tore down the existing building, and financed the construction of a new, free-standing art gallery from scratch. The relocation placed them smack in the heart of the downtown art district. They also opened Trajan Gallery in Carmel, California-a highly successful venue that beat out the local museum as Best Visual Arts Venue in Monterey County for two years running.

The path to success has been challenging. "It was rough going," says Snyder of their first years in the business. "It was basically working sixteen-hour days, seven days a week for years to build our clientele and our artist base." Even now, she says, they are constantly refining the aesthetic of the gallery "by finding more and more interesting artists, by continually pushing the envelope." But while advancing the program of the gallery is vital to the business, she points out that such conceptual shifts are extremely difficult to navigate. "If you take too big of an aesthetic leap," Snyder says, "you risk losing everybody. If the current clientele can't relate to it, you're continually forced to go out and find new collectors."

Yet such challenges have never kept Caldwell and Snyder from exhibiting the kind of intriguing work for which they have built a reputation. "The funny thing is," says Caldwell, "that after all these years I feel like I'm just getting started in the art world. We're on the edge of having to redefine ourselves, our aesthetic direction." He is very much looking forward to the next chapter. "If you think about it," he says, "all the great collections started with someone taking a risk on an emerging artist. The art business takes triple courage-the courage of the artist, the dealer, and the collector. A collector who goes against the grain, who says, 'I have my tastes, I like this, I'm going to buy this'-that's amazing. When everyone else in the world is looking at the bottom line, he's not. That courage is what keeps us going."


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