BY LIBERTY WAMPLER

Photo By Liberty Wampler

Matt Coors (left) and his brother, Paul, have created a new gallery on Over-the-Rhine's Clay St.

The sign at 1308 Clay St. comes out on opening night only. It's the final step to setting up a show at Publico, the sign that installation is over and Final Friday begins.

Somewhere between studio and gallery at mid-installation of Craig Cooper's painting show, Controlled Archetypes, the space was too raw to tour, so a last-minute coffee with two-thirds of the legislative body of Publico -- minus co-owner Daniel Stephen Reddinger -- resulted in a little round of Meet the Coors.

They're normal guys, kind of funny with a professional edginess. Matt Coors graduated from UC last spring with a three-dimensional concentration. He's expanding his post-academic oeuvre with a body of work expected to show at Publico around June, a melange of prints and drawings he's done since Wintry Mix, the gallery's first show last winter. In grand tradition, Matt partook in the arduous task facing only the most dedicated of art school graduates -- finding that perfect low-rent space with a tolerant landlord and ample wall space.

Well, it wasn't exactly a dire situation. The other Coors, Paul (Matt's younger brother), bears dark circles around his eyes, characteristic of most fourth-year students at the Art Academy. Paul was already living at the Clay Street space with Dan Reddinger and another guy who moved out when Matt decided to move in.

As a gallery the space puts in-school studios to shame, exhibiting in a delightful rambling fashion down the long wall with some space at each end. At the last show, Lori Larusso's Shared Goods attracted quite a crowd with graphic narratives with the coolness of a Julian Opie landscape using her own domestic, patterned spin on new iconography. The back of Larusso's show announcement was a recipe card for cherry pineapple bologna; the front a pea green deco-style border that Publico helped design, free of charge. Do the benefits ever end?

One sacrifice: Two-and-a-half "idle" weeks the gallerists are unable to use the studio space during a show, a sacrifice they make for art-lovers everywhere. As for future plans, they'll stay in town a while before grad school and scout artists they enjoy, although not in any specific media or style.

"It's not just our friends in these shows," Matt said, "We look for any good artist, and if we're interested in their work, we ask."

Craig Cooper is one of these "found" artists, showing mixed-media paintings based on geometrics in Controlled Archetypes. Publico's upcoming events include shows featuring the Coors brothers, Dan Reddinger, Russell Ihrig and Print Liberation.

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