Surprising news today from one of Portland’s best young galleries: Motel will be closing its doors forevermore on Dec 29.

Jennifer Armbrust opened Motel in Chinatown in Spring ‘03, and is a large part of the reason for Chinatown’s surge as a local art mini-nexus. The original inception was one part retail boutique, selling artsy crafts and prints, and one part art gallery. For the first several years of Motel’s existence, its focus was on illustration-based work, and counted Carson Ellis, Jen Corace, and Rachell Sumpter among its early championed artists.

Last year, Armbrust took a bold step (and I think a great step) in shifting the gallery’s focus to more challenging, less illustrative work. Gone was the gift shop vibe, gone were the drawings of mushrooms and robots. These were replaced with bold, energetic art from national artists like Jessie Rose Vala, Casey Watson, and most recently, Amanda Barr. In last week’s issue of the Mercury, John Motley described Barr’s work as “hallucinatory,” “disorienting,” and “intriguing.” Within a short span of time, Motel had successfully transformed itself from a cute alt-space to one of the best galleries in town, part of a strong wave of sophisticated newer galleries (along with small A projects, Quality Pictures, and others) committed to showing daunting but rewarding work from local and national artists.

But this morning, a press release from Armbrust states: “A few weeks ago, I turned 30 and in the months leading up to this milestone, I again began having an inkling that it was time for another transition. After much deliberation, I finally concluded that the time has come for me to close Motel and embark in an as-of-yet-unknown direction. Although slightly scary, this leap of faith is accompanied by the thrill of possibility.” (Armbrust was also a co-founder of PORT, an online Portland art journal.)

Armbrust and I had our sporadic professional differences over the past five years, but I’ve always admired her entrepreneurship in starting Motel at the age of 25, and her commitment to evolving her gallery. It’s no exaggeration to say that her motel-room gallery at this year’s Affair at the Hotel Jupiter was one of the strongest presences there, including those from leading New York and California galleries.

Best of luck to Armbrust: If history is any indicator, I’ll see you on some dancefloor soon!

Throughout December, Motel “will be hanging our available inventory from past shows in the gallery. We have all of our postcards from the past 5 years on view in the hallway, too. Come by to see some old favorites or discover a forgotten gem!” Motel is located at 19 NW 5th.