MILFORD – Upstairs from the Union Coffee Co., in what once was an old gun shop, are now beautiful and serene spaces with white-walled rooms with gleaming wood floors.

The Granite Town Gallery opened in September and is the creation of art-loving website designer Kimo Lee.

Lee’s contemporary art gallery has four gallery spaces that currently feature the works of three artists: Marius Sznajderman, Lotus Lien and Jessie Pollock.

Sznajderman died in February, and his work has been exhibited widely in the United States and South America over the past 60 years, represented in the permanent collections of more than 45 museums and institutions. In the United States – including the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress – and in Europe, and in Latin America and Israel.

He and his parents fled Nazi-occupied France for Spain on 1942 before settling in Caracas, Venezuela. His paintings, prints and collages are full of symbols, said Lee during a gallery tour, with masks, chickens and pink nudes alongside items from his mother’s shop in Venezuela.

The featured artist for March is closer to home. Jessie Pollock, of Peterborough, works with wax, oils and metal Her “Place in Time” exhibit includes gorgeous landscapes of the coast of northwest Ireland.

Lien was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and now lives in Manchester and works in clay, encaustic (wax), oil and acrylic.

On her website, she says “each media has a unique process for expression. Working in both three dimensional and two dimensional, large and small, my awareness of the presence and physicality of the work is constantly renewed and energized.”

Lee’s search for the right gallery venue took him to towns and cities within a radius of his home in northern Massachusetts. He chose Milford for its lively, small-town feel.

“When I first walked in here, (I saw) it was perfect for a gallery,” said Lee, who is originally from Hawaii. He has a fine arts degree from the University of Hawaii and spent many years in New York as an art director before moving to northern New England.

The Granite Town Gallery is located at 42 South St., Suite 4, Milford. Call 769-4224 or go to www.granitetowngallery.com. Hours are Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. It is closed Saturday and Sunday.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100 or kcleveland@cabinet.com.