Unlike many other venues in town, the gallery demands that the art define the space, not vice versa. Opened in October 2009, Reference represents Richmond's latest installment in the gallery scene. It is also, perhaps, the rawest. It lacks the shabby-chic aesthetic common to numerous Richmond buildings: elegant windows and rustic exposed brick. No interesting structures protrude from the walls to add shape and visual interest to the room. George Washington did not eat, sleep or dance here. It was never a famous factory.

Reference takes no shame in the fact that it is a simple, rectangular room in a building with no fascinating historical claim. After all, Conor Backman, Edward Shenk, Ross Iannatti and James Shaeffer want Reference to be about—surprise!—the shows they curate, not how well they can primp and powder Reference's four corners.

I catch the entrepreneurial bunch on a quiet Saturday afternoon. The boys gather chairs into a circle in the middle of the stark space, only a few feet away from sculptures by Ryan Crowley. His February/March show, "Scouting Fouls," features an assortment of anthropomorphized junk. Imagine a garbage creature with a large wooden stencil of "UF" for a body, its plaster feet teetering atop a milk crate. A monster that looks like a papier-mâché bunny with a donut nose eavesdrops as we discuss Reference's mission, progress, and other odds and ends.

The boys embarked on a long quest for the perfect space, beginning five months in advance of their grand opening. They searched for venues on Broad Street, hoping to be part of the city's First Fridays Art Walk. Unfortunately, all of the available places were either too expensive or only offered separate leases for the upstairs and downstairs floors. Their current Main Street location luckily fell within their price range and required only one lease for both apartment and gallery. As First Fridays expands to previously untouched parts of the city, they may even have a chance to eventually participate in the event.

Looking around their new abode, Edward, Conor, James and Ross saw they were about to get their hands dirty. They didn't like the color or texture of the room. On a lean budget, the humble art students managed to strip out the room's nasty carpet, do over the floor and walls with generic white and gray paint, and achieve an overall clean look with a little sanding.