PROVIDENCE In a double blow to the Rhode Island art scene, two of the state’s most adventurous venues for contemporary art and design are closing.

In a press release issued over the weekend, Gallery Agniel and Martina & Co. announced that they will not reopen following their traditional January break. The galleries, which spare ecialized in contemporary art (Gallery Agniel) and artisan-made jewelry (Martina & Co.), had occupied the same space at 120 North Main St. since 2004.

“It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while now,” said Martina & Co. owner Martina Windels. “Basically, running a gallery is hard work, which is fine if you have a lot of time and energy to devote to it. But at a certain point, I think Sara (Gallery Agniel owner Sara Agniel) and I realized that we were running a little short in the energy department.”

The timing of the announcement was especially surprising.

The holiday season is typically one of the busiest times of the year for jewelry sales, while recent exhibits at Gallery Agniel have enjoyed both critical and commercial success. In fact, while Windels said that sales of her handmade and one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces were down this year, Agniel said that 2006 had been a generally good year at her gallery.

“In my case, it’s not really about the money,” she said. “As a gallery owner, you’re always going to have ups and downs, but overall we did very well this year. Still, I’m at a point where I’d like to try something new.”

Though unexpected, the galleries’ announcement continues what has become an all-too-familiar pattern in recent years. Last spring, East Bay gallery owner Virginia Lynch decided not to reopen her namesake gallery in Tiverton Four Corners. Lynch, who exhibited work by a Who’s Who of Rhode Island artists, including glassmaker Dale Chihuly and photographers Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan, cited slowing sales and her own deteriorating health as reasons for closing the gallery after more than two decades.

In 2004, another high-profile gallery — the A&C Fine Art gallery in East Greenwich — also closed its doors. The brainchild of former GTECH executive Jean-Pierre Desbiens, the gallery foundered after only two years in business — this despite Desbiens’ investment of more than $3.5-million in the gallery and an accompanying sculpture park.

Compared to A&C, both Gallery Agniel and Martina & Co. were relatively long-lived.

Both galleries were launched in 1998, a time when Providence was just emerging as a major cultural destination, with trendy shops, cafes and galleries and a newly revitalized downtown. Agniel, a Rhode Island native who had just graduated from Brown University, started selling art from her Wickenden Street apartment. Before long, she’d moved to a larger commercial space at the corner of Wickenden and Governor Streets.

In 2001, Agniel decided to close her gallery while continuing to sell art as a private dealer. Over the next few years, she mounted a number of exhibits in rented or donated spaces, including a former funeral parlor on Westminster Street. Many of these exhibits showcased the work of young, up-and-coming artists associated with the city’s underground art scene.

In 2004, Agniel announced she was joining forces with Windels, a German-born jewelry-maker whose North Main Street shop featured one-of-a-kind rings, necklaces and other jewelry pieces by some of the top designers in the Northeast. At the time, it seemed like an ideal match, with art lovers and jewelry buyers rubbing elbows under the same roof.

Yet while Windels and Agniel said their partnership was fulfilling emotionally and artistically, it wasn’t always a financial success.

“There’s always so much to do,” said Windels. “Every few weeks there’s a new show, which means finding new things to exhibit, making sure everything arrives on time, making sure the invitations get printed up and mailed off, doing the wine-and-cheese thing at the opening. And after all that there’s no guarantee that you’ll even make enough money to cover your costs.”

Looking ahead, Agniel and Windels both plan to remain active in the local art community.

Windels, 45, said she would spend more time working on her own award-winning jewelry — something that was not always possible while overseeing Martina & Co. She also plans to continue selling her own work, as well as work by other jewelry-makers, through her Web site: www.martina-company.com. (Customers with questions about store credits, gift certificates or pending orders can also call the gallery at [401] 351-0968.)

Agniel, 31, said she would continue mounting occasional exhibits, including one devoted to the Hive Archive, a women’s art collective where she is a board member. She’s also working on a book project with Thomas Sgouros, a Providence painter who was one of Gallery Agniel’s most popular artists.

At the same time, Agniel, who can be reached at www.galleryagniel.com, said that she would explore other career opportunities, including business or finance. “Frankly, I’d like to be in a position to buy art for a change, not just sell it,” she said.