Termesphere Gallery | Spearfish

Setting and Overview
The Termesphere Gallery, located just outside Spearfish, South Dakota, is a one-of-a-kind art destination created by renowned artist Dick Termes. Perched on a quiet hillside along Christensen Drive, this small but remarkable gallery showcases Termes’s signature creations-Termespheres-which are intricate, hand-painted spherical artworks that capture entire worlds in 360 degrees. The gallery is both a creative studio and exhibition space, offering visitors an intimate look into a visionary artistic process that blends geometry, perception, and imagination against the serene backdrop of the northern Black Hills.

The Concept of the Termesphere
A Termesphere is not just a painting-it’s an entire visual environment wrapped around a sphere. Each piece represents a complete world, painted using six-point perspective, a system developed by Termes himself to portray an entire environment-up, down, and all around-on a single rotating surface. When the sphere turns slowly on its motorized stand, the image shifts continuously, revealing multiple angles, interiors, and exteriors that coexist within one piece. It’s as if the viewer is inside the painting, looking outward from the center of an imagined world.

The effect is mesmerizing. A Termesphere might depict the interior of a cathedral, the streets of a medieval town, an abstract cosmic pattern, or an impossible architectural landscape-all perfectly proportioned across the curved surface. Each rotation offers a new perspective, challenging the way we understand space and dimensionality.

Gallery and Atmosphere
The Termesphere Gallery itself reflects the creativity and individuality of its art. The building, designed and built by Dick Termes, has an architectural style that feels almost sculptural, with a circular layout and large windows that fill the interior with natural light. Inside, spheres of various sizes hang suspended from the ceiling, slowly rotating in quiet motion. The gentle hum of the motors, the play of light across painted surfaces, and the shifting perspectives create an atmosphere that’s both meditative and slightly surreal.

Visitors move slowly through the gallery space, stopping to watch each Termesphere turn-each one a complete visual narrative that never repeats itself in quite the same way. The paintings cover themes ranging from mathematical order and architectural symmetry to dreamlike fantasy and optical illusion, revealing the artist’s lifelong fascination with the intersections of art, science, and perception.

About the Artist: Dick Termes
Born and based in South Dakota, Dick Termes has spent decades developing and refining his six-point perspective system. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, appearing in museums, science centers, and private collections. Beyond his artistic achievements, Termes is also an educator-known for explaining complex concepts of geometry and spatial design in ways that inspire both art lovers and students of mathematics. The Termesphere Gallery functions not only as a display space but also as a working studio, where visitors occasionally see the artist in the midst of painting or designing a new sphere.

Visitor Experience
The experience of visiting the Termesphere Gallery is unlike any conventional art encounter. The drive to the gallery winds through quiet residential hills on the outskirts of Spearfish, and upon arrival, the surrounding pine-covered slopes and open sky set a tranquil mood. Inside, the floating, rotating spheres create a sense of motion and wonder that draws visitors into silent observation. Many describe it as an immersive moment of perspective-literally seeing the world differently.

Explanatory displays inside the gallery help visitors understand the geometry behind the art, while Termes’s short video demonstrations give insight into how each world is constructed on a curved surface. Visitors are often surprised by how disorienting yet harmonious the spherical compositions feel-the visual equivalent of standing inside a kaleidoscope that never quite stops turning.

Cultural and Artistic Significance
The Termesphere Gallery stands as one of South Dakota’s most distinctive cultural attractions, a blend of mathematics, architecture, and creative imagination that defies artistic convention. It reflects a spirit of innovation rooted in rural independence-a reminder that world-class creativity can flourish even in the quiet corners of the Black Hills.

Impression
Stepping into the Termesphere Gallery feels like stepping into another dimension. The silence, the slow motion of the spheres, and the infinite views contained within them leave visitors both grounded and weightless at once. Each sphere is a self-contained universe, yet together they form a collective meditation on perception and infinity. Long after leaving, visitors often recall the sight of painted worlds slowly spinning in space-a poetic reminder that perspective itself is an art.