Saccarappa Art Collective Gallery will open the first new exhibit of its second year this weekend.

Since opening on Main Street on Sept. 1, 2012, the gallery continues to thrive, showing eight new exhibits a year, or one new exhibit every six weeks, with space for a featured artist and visiting artists, which include art by the eight members of the collective.

President Andy Curran said the gallery has been successful because of the “power of the collective.” The member artists are constantly looking for new painters, photographers and interesting art to exhibit.

“It’s an asset to the community. There needs to be art. I was surprised to see the number of people in the community who’ve come through to look at the exhibits,” said Tanja Kunz, a Maine artist who exhibits at the gallery.

On Friday, Sept. 20, an exhibit showing aerial paintings inspired by satellite photographs of Earth by Philip Carlo Paratore, a retired University of Maine at Augusta art professor, will be featured in the main gallery of the exhibition space. The opening reception will be held from 5-8 p.m.

– By Suzanne Hodgson

Aerial paintings inspired by satellite photographs of Earth by Philip Carlo Paratore are being shown in the new exhibit at Saccarappa Art Collective.