'Dentistry is art': Longtime Dover dentist opens gallery featuring 40 artists

DOVER — By day, longtime dentist Dr. Eric Katzman works on teeth, but by night he is an artist and art gallery curator.

Katzman and his wife, Julie, are opening a gallery, Katzman Contemporary Projects, right next door to his dental practice at 44 Dover Point Road. 

Before he learned the art of dentistry, Katzman was a professional artist. He decided to combine his love of science with his love for art, and did just that with a career change. He opened his Dover practice 13 years ago, but still longed to do more with art.

“In a way, dentistry is art,” Katzman said. “It’s color, it's sculpture, it's harmony, it's beauty. It has all the elements of aesthetics except it's highly functional and backed by science and technology.”

Katzman Contemporary Projects opens with its first show on Friday, Oct. 22 featuring 40 different artists. Katzman calls the first show "Nor’easterly," featuring the work of artists from Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The show will run through Nov. 18.

A space for artists

Katzman said that this isn’t just any gallery with only canvases on the wall. It will feature art across an array of mediums that includes video, ceramics, printmaking, sculpture, painting and drawings. There were nearly 100 submissions of work from artists across the region.

“We didn't really have a theme beyond regional diversity,” Katzman said. “A lot of shows have themes like blue or summer, but what we wanted to do was show the depth and talent of the area, grouped not just thematically but by a diverse body of work for the show. And I think that that's where the show will be really successful.”

'Colors trigger emotion':Museum of New Art-Portsmouth opens with world-class exhibit

Katzman said that while the variety of mediums are visually distinct, they complement one another, too. 

The name Katzman Contemporary Projects was chosen to differentiate itself from a regular commercial gallery enterprise and distinguish itself as a project space.

“We want this space to be able to include these different voices and different media,” Katzman said. “Places like Boston, Portland and New York have a deep appreciation for art, as does the Seacoast, and it's nice to be able to add another voice in a really broad community of artists and galleries in the area.”

'Our supply chain is not broken':Seacoast Artist Association ready for your holiday gift list

He said that combined with the existing galleries in the Seacoast, the area could become a hotspot for artists, nestled between some of the most well-known art hubs in the East Coast. 

Why Dover, why now? 

Katzman’s wife, Julie, says that opening a gallery is something the couple has had on their minds for a long time. Julie manages her husband’s dental practice, and said this has been a long time dream of Eric’s, who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Painting degree before going to Harvard Dental School to become a dentist.

“He’s always been an artist, and I’ve always been an art lover, so I think opening a gallery is something that makes sense for us,” Julie Katzman said. 

Duston's Market and Bakery:Celebrating 50 years in Dover

The space used to be a massage therapy practice. When it came on the market, the Katzmans immediately bought the space and renovated it.

“We see it as a project space that really uplifts the artists in the region, and is a place for both community and artists,” Dr. Katzman said. “We didn't open it in downtown Portsmouth or Dover, because of the economic pressures of rent. This allows us to be able to decrease our overhead, but still have challenging and interesting programming where sales aren't the major focus. If you were in an expensive area, you would have to move a lot of art to be able to afford the rent.”

Lifelong legacy 

Dr. Katzman is not the first in his family to have a passion for art. Both of his grandfathers and his mother were artists. He grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, surrounded by art books on every table and bookshelf, and lots of family art hanging on the walls. 

He worked in the art scene in Washington D.C., working in galleries. He went from studying artists in textbooks and magazines in college, to transporting and hanging their work in the galleries. While he loved being behind the scenes, he grew to dislike the transactional relationships between galleries and artists. That was when he changed careers and headed into dentistry, first through the Air Force and then with his own private practice. When he opened his practice, instead of having magazines on the waiting room table, he brought dozens of art books for patients to read while they’re waiting. 

Throughout his career, he’s continued painting and printmaking but mostly kept his art to himself. A devastating house fire in 2015 changed his mind. 

“Most of my work went up in flames,” Katzman said. “It really lit a fire under me to produce more and get my work out there because you never know when something like that is going to happen. I want people to see and appreciate it. We would fantasize about how great it would be to have an artist-run gallery space where we could show work that we liked and support artists.”

As for what the future holds for the gallery, Katzman says the opportunity is vast.

“We see this as a place where we can bring in poets or writers to do readings, or have an environmentalist talk about environmental art,” Katzman said. “It’s about having a space where people can propagate their ideas, even if it's not in material form. That's something that excites us, too, because there are so many great thinkers, writers, musicians and artists in the Seacoast.”

The opening reception on Friday, Oct. 22 runs from 5 – 9 p.m. The gallery will be open every Saturday and Sunday through Nov. 12 (except Oct. 31) from 12 to 4 p.m., or by appointment on other days.