Jacob Cohn Photo

"Recycled Choppers."

Orbit Art Gallery

Part of Ideat Village, through June 28. 118 Court St., New Haven, ideatvillage.org.

This out-of-the-way space just off the Green resembles a bizarre combination of a legit art gallery and the backyard of a worryingly creative junk dealer. It contains somewhat conventional paintings, metal and wooden sculptures and seemingly random bric-a-brac, all assembled around the room in a strange semblance of order. It's the ultimate public art.

Ideat Village is presenting the "free, unjuried, uncensored" Orbit Art Gallery through June 28. Previous incarnations of the group have put on day-long outdoor exhibitions in place of an actual gallery, and Ideat Village cofounder Bill Saunders says the group is very excited to have the new space, donated by New Haven realtor John Wareck.

"We really wanted to provide a free, local outlet," Saunders says. "With all the art that goes on during the concurrent Arts & Ideas, there's very little place for visual artists and musicians to easily participate in the process."

The gallery accepts art from anyone, and currently there are 71 mostly local artists displaying more than 150 pieces at the gallery.

"This gallery is run by the artists," Saunders says. "It's a perpetual work in progress, ever-changing and ever-growing."

The art at Orbit takes many forms. The Bridgeport painter known as Looketha displays colorful, abstract human figures that are somewhat conventional in this company. But they have titles such as "They thought she would choke...now the damage is done."

Other artists choose mixed media. Rafael Cornier and Dave Alarcon's piece "Recycled Choppers" is a pair of elongated bicycles with various modifications. One has a plastic animal skull on the front, and the other a pair of shotgun stocks.

Eric Davis's piece is a large wooden framework that could represent a double helix, or possibly an abstract Imperial Walker from Star Wars. And then there are the paraphernalia placed around the gallery: posters, photos, poetry, T-shirts and everything in between.

"Each piece is unique," says participant Matthew Osborne. "Unique is unique. It needs no qualifier."

The gallery will close with a party on the evening of June 28, from 2 p.m.?10 p.m. But Saunders says he plans to revive the gallery for future festivals.

"We hope that we continue to have a gallery space now that we see how awesome it is," Saunders says. "It's been a dream for a while, and now it has been realized."

editor@newhavenadvocate.com