Community News see more »

Warren Vilmaire and Susan Kirchman are pleased to announce the opening of their second location for Kirchman Galleries in Johnson City, Texas. Featuring art glass, one-of-a-kind jewelry and original painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking, Kirchman Gallery 2 is located at 305 Main Street (Hwy 290 W). The emphasis is on contemporary work by regional, national and international artists.

The original location of Kirchman Gallery has been open for three years and is located across from the historic Blanco County Courthouse at 213 N. Nugent in Johnson. Exhibitions there concentrate on a body of work by one or more artists which changes completely every four or six weeks so that viewers will always see something different when they visit

Susan Kirchman established a career of more than 25 years as an exhibiting artist and a Professor of fine-art. Susan came to Texas in 1985 to teach at Texas A&M and was active in the origination of the Master of Science in Visualization Degree program in the College of Architecture and served as the first Program Coordinator. She also led Study Abroad courses in Italy, Greece, Turkey and Germany. She received the prestigious University Distinguished Achievement in Teaching Award in 2002 and retired in 2005.

Susan has been exhibiting her own art work in museums and galleries since the early 1980’s. Her exhibition record includes the Getty Center in Santa Monica, the University of Houston, The De Jung Museum in San Francisco, the Dallas Museum, the University of Oregon Museum, the University of Iowa Museum. Her art works are in private collections all over the states as well as in Barbados, Australia, England, Italy and Germany.

Besides being the left brain side of Kirchman Galleries Warren Vilmaire, a native Hawaiian and former aircraft engineer, is the talent behind the design and execution of all of the Kirchman Gallery building and expansion projects. He built his first boat, when he was 12, on the beach in front of the family home near Honolulu. The boat was built from lumber which had washed ashore following a shipwreck. He later bought his first car by selling metal that he salvaged by skin diving on the site of that same ship-wreck. After serving in Viet Nam in the Air Force Vilmaire embarked on a long career in the aircraft industry. He holds patents on several inventions that he developed in his “spare time”.

Warren completely rebuilt the original Kirchman Gallery building, adding 4500 square feet of gallery and living space to the 1200 square foot building on the historic site on the Courthouse Square. Now he has done it again, rebuilding the old Washateria on Main Street, creating another sleek show place for contemporary art. Now that he has finished the building phase for the galleries he is finishing the couple’s courtyard home and inventing and building an elevator up to the guest-room, which overlooks Town Creek. Mr. Vilmaire also holds the position of President of the Johnson City Chamber of Commerce and is the Chair of the local Planning and Zoning Commission.