It takes some guts (and a deep pocketbook) to open a gallery on non-trendy Second Avenue, well north of Pioneer Square, where so many galleries have shuttered since the recession hit. But that’s what Franco-African transplant Mariane Lenhardt did this spring with M.I.A Gallery. A proud, sophisticated Parisian, she’s not interested in African miserabilism. From the Third World and other overlooked corners of the art world, the artists she wants to showcase aren’t bogged down in theory or chasing this month’s trends. Seattle has enough narrow, regional hipster galleries. And if Lenhardt’s ambition should outgrow her present small space on Second, there are plenty of vacancies in Pioneer Square. BRIAN MILLER 1203-A Second Ave., 467-4927, m-i-a-gallery.com