In three short years, Alexander Salazar has become a trailblazer in the San Diego art world, wearing many hats, including those of art collector, gallery owner, art critic and consultant for private collectors and museums. Salazar, a Harvard graduate with more than 15 years of experience as an art dealer, owns 30,000 square feet of dedicated art space downtown, including two art galleries, two artist-in-residency studios and a 20,000-square-foot five-level building to house the gallery’s inventory. Salazar is hoping to launch up-and-coming artists into the realm of living legends by opening his sixth space — Salazar Contemporary Art Exhibits La Jolla, located at 1162 Prospect St., with rotating solo exhibits by emerging local artists each month. “La Jolla was good to me when I first came here,” Salazar said. “It only made sense to me to come back to La Jolla and continue what I’m doing, but in a different way — and that’s by supporting local artists.” The temporary gallery will focus on one local artist at a time, giving them most of the gallery to showcase their work, with some of the gallery’s staple artists and sculptors’ work dotting the gallery as well. “Sometimes you go into a gallery and there’s so many things going on that you don’t get to focus,” he said. “Here we encourage people to come in, look at the entire collection so they make a selection based on looking at everything.” Salazar works closely with the artists to ensure their pieces are worth investing in before displaying their collection. His first rising star to showcase at the gallery is about as local as they come. La Jolla native Erik Skoldberg will be exhibiting his vibrantly colored acrylic layering on canvas in his first-ever solo exhibition on Jan. 14 at Salazar Contemporary Art Exhibits. “Erik is one of the artists that I’ve actually been grooming in a sense,” Salazar said. “He approached me as an artist, and he wanted some advice on his work. We sort of went back and forth, back and forth until I thought his work was good enough to invest in.” Salazar worked with Skoldberg on concepts like where he should take his style, what colors and finishes to use, and the placement of signatures to ensure the longevity of the collection’s value. “People want to buy art from people that are going to be forever artists,” Salazar said. “This is a person who is always going to be painting, so I trust that anything I sell of his will have value.” Skoldberg, who has been working with Salazar for several years now, said he is excited to showcase his pieces in his first solo exhibit. “Especially to start it in my hometown is great,” he said. “This [show] is really important to me.” Skoldberg’s artwork oozes vibrant colors in layered brushstrokes that range from powerful to subtle, and the artwork entices viewers to interpret the images based on their own personal experiences. “It’s my art, but the viewer’s story. A lot of people see different things in them — faces, trees, landscape,” he said. “I just love the combination of natural colors in Mother Nature.” Because the artists showcased at the gallery are just emerging into the art market, the contemporary works will sell at affordable prices. Skoldberg, however, is quickly becoming a well-known artist to many in the community, as well as across the nation. Most recently, FedEx teamed up with Skoldberg to use his artwork in a nationwide marketing campaign, and he will show his pieces at a San Diego trade show in early January. Salazar hopes to extend the idea of helping emerging artists like Skoldberg while also helping beautify the community by transforming vacant storefronts in the village into beautiful temporary exhibit spaces full of vibrant art. “La Jolla is an exciting town, but it seems like there’s been a lull,” he said. “A lot of art galleries have gone out of business. It’s my philosophy that it’s not the art dealer. It’s not the space. It’s the art. My goal is to bring in the art with the support of the marketing that the gallery has already established itself with.” He is seeking property owners in La Jolla who have vacant storefronts and are willing to allow him to display monthly temporary art exhibits until the owners find a permanent renter, “so that there isn’t another empty window in La Jolla,” he said. “I’m keeping the inventory fresh. If it doesn’t sell in an exhibit, it goes back. On to the next,” he said. “The ultimate goal of the gallery is to bring to La Jolla what they’ve been missing downtown.” For more information or to contact Salazar about vacant properties in the village in need of artwork, visit www.alexandersalazarfineart.com or call (858) 551-8453.