It’s Saturday night and Haskell Square, at the corner of 19th Street and Haskell Avenue, is deserted, save for two storefronts buzzing with activity. One is the Cross Town Tavern, where middle-aged patrons gathered to drink beer and enjoy the weekend. The other is the shopping center’s newest addition, DotDotDot ArtSpace.

Inside, about 20 people mill about as a DJ blasts Wu-Tang Clan from his station in the corner. The floor and one wall are covered with graffiti, and a bottle of whiskey sits in the middle of the room with a “free shots” sign beneath it. Though it looks more like a party, this scene is really the opening of local artist and KU graduate Erok Johanssen’s exhibition, “Toxicity Limits.”

Johanssen creates art using spray paint, acrylic paint and airbrushes, as well as digital photos and found patterns to make stencils. He calls “Toxicity Limits” a celebration of urban art. While creating the work for the show, Johanssen experimented with different mediums and even different mind states.

“My stoned paintings are more crisp and precise. My drunk painting are just paint all over the place,” he says.

Johanssen is a member of the Fresh Produce art collective, a close-knit group of Lawrence artists working to revitalize the local art scene. Since forming in January 2007, the collective has allowed more than 100 local artists to showcase their work, held art shows around Lawrence, as well as in Kansas City and Tulsa, Okla., and have had an exhibit shown at the Spencer Museum of Art.

The group has come a long way since starting with a half-dozen artists almost two years ago. Yuri Zupancic, former KU student and one of the founding members of Fresh Produce, says the group formed out of a common desire to let the public see all the art being created in Lawrence.

“It seemed problematic to us that we were living in such a rich artistic community with such little public display,” Zupancic says.

Throughout the next year, Fresh Produce picked up members and momentum by throwing parties and holding one-night shows at local businesses like Teller’s, 746 Massachusetts St., and Solidarity! Revolutionary Center and Radical Library, 1109 Massachusetts St. The shows and parties gave the artists an opportunity to release pent-up creativity, as well as meet each other and build friendships. Most of the events had unusual themes, such as the “Pocket-Art Party,” where attendees all brought miniature pieces of art and exchanged them with each other. For the “Bright Ideas” art show, the only light in a dark gallery came from the pieces themselves, which used light bulbs and glow-in-the-dark material.

Last March, members of the collective were approached by the owner of Haskell Square about moving into an available space. Ten of them, mostly founding members of the group, decided to seize the opportunity.

The space now serves as a home base for Fresh Produce. Though only 10 artists use the space as a gallery, having a place to hold the group’s weekly meetings gives the entire collective stability. The artists who rent the space share it in three-week increments, each getting free reign over the walls during their allotted time. Before Johanssen’s exhibit opened, the walls belonged to Spring City, Utah, senior Paul Flinders, who locked himself inside the space for 24 hours to create the paintings for his exhibit, “Wet Dreams.”

Though the space is in an area that isn’t exactly a hotbed for art in Lawrence, Whit Bones, Tulsa, Okla., senior and another founding member of Fresh Produce, says he likes the location because the rent is cheaper than it would be if the gallery were downtown. Because the renters can afford to pay for the space out of their own pockets, they face less pressure to sell pieces.

“We’re able to do whatever we want because we rely on each other to pay the bills,” Bones says.

Fresh Produce’s biggest exposure so far came when the Spencer Museum of Art contacted the group about putting up an exhibit in the museum’s 20/21 Gallery. The exhibit, which included masks, paintings, sketches, photos and video, aimed to capture the creative process of making art. It was on display from July 17 to Sept. 21.

“It brought a lot of freshness and excitement to the museum,” says Susan Earle, curator of European and American art at the Spencer.

Beyond getting exposure for local artists, Fresh Produce allows its members to grow and learn from each other. Bones and Johanssen both say the group setting gives artists with diverse backgrounds the chance to feed off of each other’s ideas. It also provides some friendly competition.

“You see how much everyone’s producing and you’re like, ‘I’m not just going to go home and watch TV,’’’ Johanssen says.

The group is always open to new artists, and Bones says there are no qualifications to be in Fresh Produce besides being committed to art.

Now that Fresh Produce has established its position in the Lawrence art scene, the next step is maintaining it.

“The collective could go on for 10 years or 10 days. It really depends on new people coming in and taking the reigns,” Bones says.