If you’re walking down Main St. on a Saturday evening, you might see lines on the sidewalk of people waiting for tables at a Korean barbecue restaurant or outside the movie theater, but it might also be for Nucleus, an art gallery that’s been a downtown attraction since 2004.
Nucleus was founded by Ben Zhu, who was at the time living in Alhambra and commuting to West LA for his job as a concept artist and 3D modeler for Spark, a video game development company working on the Call of Duty franchise under Activision. He left in 2004 to start Nucleus.
Zhu played a lot of video games growing up, “like a lot of kids.” He always wanted to work in games and animation. Growing up, he was first inspired by classic fighting games. “I love Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Metal Gear Solid; the concept art behind those games really just made me open my eyes to game art.”
“When I started [Nucleus], I wanted to make it a place for people within the entertainment industry — animation, video games, graphic novels. A place for them to gather, show their work, or hang out. That was my original goal, because there wasn’t any place like that,” he said. “My original goal was to make an art gallery and a coffee shop, but I didn’t know anything about coffee.”
Nucleus celebrated its 20th anniversary in November. “It’s a lot of mixed emotions, to be honest. It feels good, but at the same time, I don’t feel like I’m super successful and I have the same sort of mentality in year 10 or year 15, which is just to keep doing it,” he said.
“I always say that we’re only as good as our next show, so we just have to keep putting out good shows. Every day has its new challenges,” he said, which includes being a first time business owner. “There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t know I didn’t know.”
The storefront on Main St. has stayed strong even through the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, the latter of which Zhu attributes Nucleus’ online presence to.
At the end of the day, Zhu is proud of what Nucleus offers for the art and illustration community. “A lot of the people come for our group shows and make friends. On Tuesdays, we have drawing workshops. A lot of people come to hang out and draw together. The community kind of just evolves that way.”
Nucleus works with artists and companies to put on exhibits throughout the year. Recent exhibits include the OMOCAT & OMORI Anniversary Exhibition, the Junko Mizuno Tarot Collection Part Two, a signing and panel for Netflix’s “That Christmas,” and the Over the Garden Wall 10th Anniversary Tribute: Back to the Unknown Exhibition.
“We’re more about the artist and not just the IP, we really want to shine light on the artists behind the properties that people love,” Zhu shared. “My ideal show would be to have a whole art show of concept art and still frames. I call them ‘blue-collar artists’ because they just do their jobs and not a lot of people know who they are.”
“Connecting fans with the artists, or with new art that they love, that’s pretty much the main drive,” he said. “And then also, you’re having relationships with artists, helping them sell their artwork and make a living and proving to them that their art is worth something and that people like it.”
Find more information about upcoming events and exhibitions at gallerynucleus.com.
