Posts from ‘National Arts News’
Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival 2010: GO!
Paintings, Photography, Artifacts, Memorabilia, Jewelry, Sculpture, Woven Arts, Wine, Food, Auctions, Lectures, Street Fairs, Cookouts on the Square, Artist Studio Tours, Ranch Tours, Representational Art, Contemporary Art, Western Designs and Fashion, Antiques, Furnishings, Americana, Ceramics, Music, Cowboy Poetry, Metal work, Quick Draws….need we say more? We couldn’t. Toute de suite:
The 2010 Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival begins Thursday, September 9! The Jackson Hole Art Blog will post a calendar in 3-day increments. This post lists FAF events for September 9-11, 2010.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
Western Design Conference Lecture Series: Three 1-hour accredited talks, open to the public as well as the design community. Free with purchase of Gallery Exhibit Sale Day Pass, $15. Center for the Arts, Downtown Jackson. Noon-3:00 pm. You may buy tickets at the door or visit www.westerndesignconference.com.
Western Design Conference Gala Event: Fashion Jewelry Show. Live model jewelry show, runway fashion show featuring western style couture. Awards over
$22,000 in cash to best new designs. Gala follows. Center for the Arts. Doors open 6:00 pm. Fashion Show: 7:15 pm. (Drink up and buy up, ya’ll!) Tickets: $125, $100, $75. Reserved seating. 307.733.4900 or jhcenterforthearts.com.
Galleries West Fine Art’s 8th Fall Round Up
This annual group show features new works by the entire roster of Galleries West artists. Artist’s reception takes place during the Wednesday (September 15) night ARTwalk.307.733.4412 www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com
Mountain Trails Gallery Robert Hagan One Man Show – Final Day of Show. 307.734.8150 www.mtntrails.net
RARE Gallery “Art for the New West” Group Show, September 9-19. Featuring the truck tail gate pieces of rising star Michael Kalish, as well as the works of other contemporary western artists. www.raregalleryjacksonhole.com. 307.733.8726
Wilcox Gallery Both gallery locations exhibiting Wildlands and Wildlife Show through Thursday, September 30. 307.733.6450 www.wilcoxgallery.com
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
Western Design Conference Exhibition and Sale
18th Annual Western Design Conference Gallery Exhibit Sale
Impressive exhibition of western furniture, home accessories and fashion, Bringing together artists, scholars, collectors, interior designers, architects and fashion designers.
10:00am-5:00pm at the Snow King Pavillion. Tickets at the door; $15 day pass. www.westerndesignconference.com
Trio Fine Art Demonstration
Come watch artists Lee Carlman Riddell, Kathryn Mapes Turner, and September Vhay, with special guest artists Kay Stratman and Shannon Troxler. 3-5:00 pm. www.triofineart.com.
Studio Tours
Get up a carpool of friends and enjoy this self-guided tour of area artist studios. Visit painters, glass blowers, metal forgers, ceramicists. 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. Contact Laurie Thal at 307.733.5096 or visit www.thalglass.com. A special Studio Tours Reception takes place at the Center for the Arts, 5-8:00 pm. www.jacksonholechamber.com/images/adobe/FAF2010StudioTour.pdf
Palates & Palettes Gallery Walk
Perhaps the most notorious and fun FAF event. All (more than 30!) of Jackson’s galleries pair with local restaurants to showcase fine art and delectable food and wine. Free, open to the public! Officially begins at 5pm, and officially ends at 8pm. Some galleries remain open later. Walk and wine responsibly! Featured galleries are:
David Brookover Gallery The gallery hosts a special benefit for the Sheriff and Police search and rescue departments and K9 dog units. $10 admission, with all proceeds benefiting those organizations. View Brookover’s new platinum photographs, enjoy special Amangani fare. www.davidbrookover.com.
Tayloe Piggott Gallery Wolf Kahn: Refractions of Light, Paintings and Pastels. Converging color and light to create atmospheric and sensual pictorial fields, (Kahn’s) paintings evoke the ethereal world of nature even when they are not visibly representational. In the mid 1950s Kahn, as a Second Generation member of the New York School, was part of a core group of artists reinterpreting life. www.tayloepiggottgallery.com.
Diehl Gallery presents an exhibition of new works by Canadian painter Les Thomas. Thomas described his style as a hybrid of abstraction and representation. The imagery he places in his pictures are the pretexts he needs to further explore pictorial possibilities. This show will benefit the Jackson Hole Land Trust, a 501(c ) (3) organization established in 1980 to preserve open space and the scenic, ranching and wildlife values of Jackson Hole by assisting landowners who wish to protect their land in perpetuity. Collectors are invited to write 10% of the acquisition cost of works in this show directly to the Land Trust.
5:00pm-9:00pm
307.733.0905, www.diehlgallery.com
Cayuse Cayuse is highlighting early works inspired by National Parks, focusing on Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Grand Canyon National Parks. The show explores some of the first work, commissioned by the United States Government. www.cayusewa.com
Teton Art Lab, Center for the Arts: 5:30-7:30 pm. Chuck Close, Richard Estes, Alex Katz, Richmond Burton, and Robert Cottingham prints by master printer Karl Hecksher of K5 Editions. Hand carved and entirely hand printed masterworks by world famous artists. (Note: A recent New Yorker Magazine article by neurologist/artist/author Oliver Sacks identifies Close as having life-long prosopagnosia, a condition blocking the ability to recognize faces. Sacks quotes Close: “I don’t know who anyone is and essentially have no memory at all for people in real space. But when I flatten them out in a photograph I can commit that image to memory.”) www.tetonartlab.com.
Legacy Gallery showcases a One Man Show featuring Kyle Polzin (all paintings will be sold by draw). 5:00-8:00pm. 307.733.2353, www.legacygallery.com
Wild by Nature Gallery features new works by nature photographer Henry H. Holdsworth. Show remains up through September 19. 307.733.8877, www.wildbynaturegallery.com. 5-8:00 pm.
Astoria Fine Art Ewoud de Groot. Artist Reception 5-8:00 pm. 307.733.4016 www.astoriafineart.com
Jackson Hole Cowboy Jubilee Concert and Dance Party
Celebrate the West at the 9th Annual Premier Music and Poetry Roundup. Enjoy award-winning artists Juni Fisher, Patty Clayton, Al ‘Doc’ Mehl, and The All Star Cowboy Dance Band, featuring top-tier local singer songwriters and musicians. Join in the finale by gathering on stage for a true Western dance party
. Center for the Arts, 8:00pm, $28 307.733.4900 or www.jacksonholecowboyjubilee.org.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
Happy Birthday, Dad!
18th Annual Western Design Conference Gallery Exhibit Sale The lollapalooza exhibition of western furniture, home accessories and fashion continues. The Pavilion at Snow King Resort, 10:00am-5:00pm. Tickets at the door $15 day pass. www.westerndesignconference.com
Studio Tours A second chance to spend the day visiting artist studios throughout the valley. Download the self-guiding map here. Contact Laurie Thal at 307.733.5096.
Historic Ranch Tours Visit historic valley ranches, where Jackson Hole’s cowboy heritage still thrives. The tour is complete with cowboys, Western entertainment, and a good ol’ fashioned barbeque. Hosted by Mountain Living magazine. Busses leave Jackson’s Home Ranch parking lot at 2:00pm. $50 307.733.3316 or 307.699.3868
Legacy Gallery Artist Focus Show featuring Robert Coombs and Josh Elliott. 307.733.2353, www.legacygallery.com
A Horse of a Different Color showcases Sandy Graves’ contemporary bronze sculpture through September 30. Artist reception 4-7:00 pm. 307.734.9603 www.ahorseofadifferentcolorgalleryjh.com
West Lives On Gallery presents a One Man Show “Capturing Wyoming On Canvas,” by Reid Christie; artist’s reception 2-5:00 p.m. Show runs through September 12. 307.734.2888 www.westliveson.com
Artists in the Park Come join Kathy Wipfler and the Grand Teton Association for a free plein air demonstration of her painting techniques.
Kathy’s oil paints on large canvases and has two paintings hanging in The Whitney Museum of Western Art in Cody, WY. Locally, her work can be found at Trailside Galleries. www.kathywipfler.com. 3-6pm, Chapel of the Transfiguration in Grand Teton National Park. Bring a chair, a snack and watch Wipfler capture the majesty of Jackson’s Hole. 307.739.3606.
That’s the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival calendar through September 11, 2010. Fall Arts Festival calendar listings for September 12-15, 2010 follow soon! ~TC
Still. Reflective. Meditative. Calm. Mysterious.
Potent.
Landscape artist Jared Sanders’ depictions of barns, fields, rivers and trees — images reminiscent of rural Utah landscapes the artist experienced as a child — feel rooted and secured. It’s as if these quintessential American structures have made a life decision to stay “home.” No roaming. This land is the place and there is nothing finer; all the lights of the city, the allure of a rocky sea coast, the scintillating Western mountain ranges are calculating sirens. Not real.
This land is real. And it holds great power — pounding hearts, eternal rhythms.
Jared Sanders has a new exhibition, “Seasons: One Man Show” on display at Altamira Fine Art June 17-29, 2010. An opening reception takes place Thursday, June 17, 5-7:00 pm, at the gallery.
“Jared is an important and popular contemporary landscape artist. Although the scenery and barns he depicts in his paintings are primarily in or near the area
where he lives, they seem to strike a nostalgic chord of recognition and serenity with admirers of his work no matter where they live,” says Gallery Director Mark D. Tarrant. “His textured brushwork and subdued use of color continually create scenes which are simultaneously placid, yet compelling.”
Sanders, a tonalist, favors earthy, rubbed browns and dusky yellows; burnt reds and “old” blues and greens are aged–subdued–with the injection of grays. Siennas and ochre oils warm up the cool palette. Sanders intense attention to connecting objects and colors within each work is apparent; balance is flawless.
Contact Altamira Fine Art by phoning 307.739.4700. www.altamiraart.com.
Item #2:
A small note about a big move: Horizon Fine Art is decamping from its Center Street location and moving across town to new digs.
Horizon’s new address is Suite 202, at 30 King Street. I believe that address is situated on the east side of King Street between Broadway and Pearl….and close to the corner of Broadway and King.
It’s just north of from Shades Café and Sweetwater Restaurant. Ooh, and a short walk down the stairs from Snake River Grill! And in close proximity to Trailside Galleries, a few steps to the east on Broadway.
Congrats and Bon Chance, Horizon!
Who is moving in to your old space? Anybody?
Email: horizonfineart@wyoming.com. Phone: 307.739.1540.
Item #3:
Laurie Thal, Wilson glass artist, has had her work snatched up by the President. Of the United States. While exhibiting at a Washington D.C. craft show her work was admired by a member of the State Department. That staff member, Tracy Bernstein, asked Thal if she had any hand blown glass vessels depicting a peacock. She did; the bowl’s design is by Lia Kass, long time creative partner to Thal.
The bowl, shown at left, was purchased by the State Department’s Senior Gift Officer (what a cool job, shopping for fine arts to bestow upon heads of state!) and presented to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife by President and Mrs. Obama. The Prime Minister visited D.C. last November.
Thal also had a glass ornament on the Clinton Administration Christmas tree. AND she’s got work displayed at the Governor’s residence in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Congratulations Laurie and Lia! Very cool.
FINAL NOTE: LAST WEEK’S “ARTIST IN THE PARK ” EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED. THE NEW DAY AND TIME ARE JUNE 19, 9 AM – 12 NOON.
On May 19, as part of New York’s auction season, Sotheby’s holds its American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Auction. Featured in this year’s sale is Thomas Moran’s 1902 oil on canvas landscape Coconino Pines and Cliffs, Arizona. Measuring 26 x 32″, the painting is estimated to sell, according to one source at
$800/1,200,000. At last look, Sotheby’s posted an estimate of $500,000 – $700,000.
For American artists, the era was an opportunity for noted landscapists to be commissioned by railroads interested in promoting cross country travel, and America’s national parks held great allure, both as destination and as artistic subject. Moran is said to have accompanied a group of 12 or more artists commissioned by the Santa Fe Railroad. The expedition took them to the Grand Canyon; the railroad’s line had a starting point at Williams, Arizona. Moran enjoyed exploring other areas in Arizona as a benefit of his affiliation with the Santa Fe line.
Other works auctioned include Georgia O’Keeffe’s Inside Clam Shell, estimated at $3.5 million – the painting is the “star” of the auction. John Singer Sargent’s In a Gondola has an estimate of $1.5-$2.5 million; Remington’s Mountain Man, Cast No. 6, estimated at $700-$900,000; and N.C. Wyeth’s Waite Seized Him and Swung Him On High, $250-$350,000.
Item #2:
First: Thank you, Diehl Gallery, for sending me SO MANY IMAGES WITHOUT MY HAVING TO ASK YOU! That never happens.
The Sixth Annual Fete at Diehl Gallery – June 5
5-9 p.m.
Season-Opening All-Artist Show featuring
new works by gallery artists
June 23 & 24
Ashley Collins Preview
6-9 p.m. (6/23)
Ticketed preview to benefit Teton Science Schools;
Call Laurel Wyckoff at Teton Science Schools for
information and tickets: 307.734.3766
Ashley Collins Public Opening (6/24)
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through July 14
July 17 
Chris Reilly
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through July 30
July 31
Monica Petty Aiello and Tyler Aiello
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through August 13
August 14
David Banegas
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through August 27
August 28
Dirk De Bruycker
5-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs through September 9
September 10 Les Thomas
5-8 pm
(In conjunction with Palates and Palettes and the JH Fall Arts Festival) Exhibition runs through September 30
INFO: 
307-733-0905
info@diehlgallery.com
www.diehlgallery.com
Nicolai Ouroussoff’s March 31, 2010 article in the New York Times Arts Section brings to light a plan to reconstruct Haiti’s urban infrastructure by 
breaking up the population of over-crowded Port-au-Prince into smaller cities. These compact towns, if realized, are termed “smaller urban growth poles,” and could dramatically change Haiti’s economic, social and political future.
If you haven’t already, you can click on the above link and read the entire article. If you are short on time, here’s a bare-bones synopsis:
- The new urban distribution plan centers on the idea that many smaller cities would be established in areas of Haiti least likely to be struck by natural disaster. Port-au-Prince would no longer be the dominant city. Currently, Port-au-Prince has almost no sewage treatment and its building code is “barely two pages long.”
- Ouroussoff says these plans, still being developed, already best early rebuilding plans post-Katrina and post-Tsunami.
- Haiti’s woes go back a century, when America began concentrating trade ops in Port-au-Prince, shutting down other existing Haiti ports. By 1960, François Duvalier shut down any remaining ports in a bid for total political control via a single power base.
- Over 20 years, the city’s population almost doubled, to 3 million people. The “effect of the shift was an urban disaster – one that has put more and more pressure on the capital while draining the provinces of economic opportunity.”
- The quake has made redistribution away from Port-au-Prince’s major fault line and its exposure to landslides and floods a logical step. Thousands of the city’s buildings were destroyed, practically leveling it, as the world has seen. Refugees have fled, moving to other regions
of Haiti. - Planners hope relocation services like hospitals and schools will encourage re-establishment of new urban centers. They propose organizing new buildings around public parks and the like, which would provide sorely needed civic center points. Similar plans would be applied to rural areas, with farms surrounding central core services areas. Public structures would be paid for by the government.
- Light rail is proposed. Earthquake debris (millions of cubic tons) would serve as shoreline landfill, that could be turned into parks.
- One planner noted that “We should think in terms of the city’s urban evolution rather than large-scale development.”
- Haiti planners need access to money and ideas; the University of Miami’s “new urbanism” proponents can advise.
- Ouroussoff ends his article by observing that “….a connection between good urban planning ideas and political realities on the ground was never made (in New Orleans). The best plans went nowhere. Let’s pray that doesn’t happen in Haiti.”
Item #2:
University of Wyoming (UW) Adjunct Professor Nathan Abel’s print exhibition Origins, on display at Teton Art Lab May 7-31, also includes prints produced by members of the UW Print Exchange.
Besides being an accomplished artist, Abel is able to write with languid beauty about his work. Working to connect with a father he has no conscious memory of, Abel incubates his native landscapes, giving them new life that exists in binary-colored melancholy.
“In a time when oral history is diminishing I cling to the histories passed on to me by family members. My interpretation of those memories exist between the unconscious and the conscious mind. Through my work I explore the common ground that I feel I share with my father whom I never consciously knew. I utilize the rural landscape (where I grew up and still feel the most at home) in juxtaposition with integrated personal archetypes. The images exist as a dialogue between memories of the old family farm, photographs my father took, and my own personal narratives.”
Through his printing process, Abel is building what he calls a “dialog of history.”
“Wyoming” connotes thoughts of vast, wind blown space. Memories, in pictorial and written forms, sift their way through the ages. Abel is a highly conscious artist, taking history seriously. This is the true road.
A gloved hand grasping a warm gun. The gloved hand, avec pistol, pushes its way through the back of a steeple-shaped enclosure, and the gun is pointed at…..? The gun barrel is wrapped with what appears to be a barbershop pole spiral; all are framed inside a fire-engine red border.
Hold on, that tiny steeple is flanked by feral, sharp wing formations. Chubby jet propulsion feet set the base.
Hmm. Blows my theory about what this little sculpture may be about…..
It’s all subjective! And that’s the fun.
Found objects are the media of choice for artist John Thompson. His show, Accumulation, is on display in the Artspace Theater Gallery at the Center for the Arts through May 26.
Thompson says he sometimes conjures full works out of thin air. He wakes up and “there they are.” The Art Association describes Thompson’s work as experiments in color, pattern and finishes that come together in artistic statements—perhaps queries, perhaps pure observations–about universal themes: good and evil, positive and negative, decay and belief.
Also on display, in the Artspace Main Gallery through the end of April, is the Art Association’s 2010 Members Only Exhibition. The show is a grass roots, community inspired exhibition of artworks by all Art Association members. Hundreds of works are on display, representing all manner of medium. Come and see what Jackson’s creative community dishes out. It’s great dish!
If you have an idea for a show, submit your proposal to the Art Association by May 2010, to be considered for exhibition space in the Artspace Galleries in 2011. The Art Association’s policy and practice “….considers exhibition proposals on an ongoing basis as part of its mission to encourage a vital, creative community. The free contemporary art exhibition programs presented in the Artspace Main, Loft, Theatre and Lobby Galleries enhance the creative and educational environment of the organization and showcase a balance of local, regional and national artists. The Exhibition Committee of the Art Association considers complete exhibition proposals on a periodic basis.”
Not long ago, on New York’s Lower East Side, the world’s first Art Handlers Olympics took place. An article appeared in the New York Times. Here’s an excerpt:
“The event, the first-ever Art Handling Olympics - a combination roast, “Jackass”-style stunt extravaganza and excuse to drink a lot – drew about 200 people at its height who came to the Ramiken Crucible gallery to watch a dozen four-man teams (art handlers are, by and large, male, and, by and large, large) go head-to-head, demonstrating their skills with a lot of fake art and untold amounts of Bubble Wrap.
“We kind of thought maybe this was the wrong time for this, because everyone who works in this field was worn out from working the Armory Show and everything that goes on around that, but it turned out it was the perfect time, because everybody needed to vent,” Ted Riederer, an artist, former art handler and one of the event’s organizers, said. For some of the events, Mr. Riederer took on the role of a cruel German curator, wearing a tight houndstooth suit and sunglasses, shouting abuse at the handlers like “Nein! Nein!” and “Hold it higher, higher, a little higher!” and “I pay you people to do this?”
dot, dot, dot……..
“Called “The Eliminator,” the final punishing round involved a kind of Nascar-pit-crew competition for the remaining two teams – one named the 
Kings of Cleats and one whose name was a slightly racy double-entendre. The teams had to take pieces of art out of a wooden crate and, with the clock ticking, assemble them into an installation with no instructions or curatorial guidance. (The “art installation” kit consisted of a blanket, a tambourine, streamers, two rattraps and other things that resembled street trash – in other words, the kinds of things many art handlers have actually had to try to assemble by themselves on the job.)
If the time constraints weren’t tough enough, the art handlers were often heckled during this round by onlookers; one shouted “Derivative!” as the artwork was thrown together. Asked if he and his friends had practiced for the event, Paul Outlaw, a member of the team that went home with the silver, said: “Other than doing this all day, anyway, and sometimes all night? No.”
At the end of the day the Kings of Cleats, in an upset, won the gold, a “lovely handcrafted medal,” as the organizers described it, embossed with an image of a hand holding up a majestic flaming tape dispenser. “Plus, of course, they win enduring fame,” said Shane Caffrey, an art handler for the Marianne Boesky Gallery (daughter of Ivan Boesky!) and the event’s lead organizer.
No money?
Mr. Caffrey laughed. “In this business?”