Post No Bills - Jack Wood Gallery

Week by week, 14th and Vine becomes the new 12th and Vine.

Kaze and Quan Hapa have already put down edible roots in that section of Over-the-Rhine, joining established businesses including Mannequin (really, the first retail business in these gentrified parts), Pet Wants, Reser Bicycle and our pathetic beloved Kroger outpost.

Art lovers can now head to Jack Wood Gallery (right beside Pet Wants) to pour over beautiful vintage posters while they wait for their dinner reservation to open up.

You may recognize the gallery's neon lights and iconic posters from Jack Wood's previous spot in O'Bryonville. Wood says he had to move when the owner of his space in O'Bryonville wanted to return to the storefront. He reached out to friends at Mica (12th and Vine) and Mannequin (1405 Vine St.) and after ringing endorsements decided to make the move to OtR, too.

Wood has been dealing vintage posters for 15 years and collecting for five years more. Spend five minutes talking with him and it's clear he knows his stuff. We popped in for a quick look and ended up chatting for an hour about the various artists known for creating original Grateful Dead posters, famous poster artist Bernard Villemot's influences (Matisse for his earlier works), and the merits of Shepard Fairey.

About the latter, Wood suggests collectors buy anything and everything they can.

Whereas the O'Byronville location was open during business hours to cater to the business district's audience, Wood acknowledges he will likely stay open on some Friday and Saturday evenings to serve Over-the-Rhine's dining crowd.

Wood says he's still getting his gallery in ship-shape order, but he had little trouble finding some Dead posters we wanted to see. I imagine he wouldn't have much trouble digging up something specific for you, if needed.

For those of you already enjoying hearty poster collections, Wood says he's able to mount and frame them to ensure they stay vibrant with time. He mounts posters on archival-quality linen and uses special glass to ensure collector-worthy pieces are preserved for eternity.

Jack Wood Gallery carries a solid collection of poster genres including travel, transportation, and World War art. I noticed some 8x11 sized pieces were going for around $125; I am sure the Toulouse-Lautrec prints go for much, much more.

As if you needed another reason to spend your money in Over-the-Rhine.


Kate's Random Musings by Kate the Great is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.