Jackson Hole Art Blog

Altamira Fine Art continues its ascent by adding yet another new artist to its roster:  Marshall Noice. Some years ago I wrote about Noice for Planet Jackson Hole. The column went something like this:

Noice, who lives and paints in Kallispell, Montana, is a nationally noted artist whose works are part of many prestigious collections.  However, the prize he holds most dear comes from the Blackfeet Nation, which, in 1987,  honored Noice with a name-giving ceremony.  Medicine man George Kicking Woman, who saw Noice’s name in a vision, gave the artist a Blackfeet name: “E-Kah-She-Mah-Kin.”

I don’t know the translation, but I do know that Noice began his artistic career as a photographer.  The work taught him about light.  In fact, Noice was Ansel Adams’ assistant during the summer of 1977, and the experience gave birth to Noice’s love of landscape.

“I have sometimes wondered if I live here because of the work I do, or if I do the work because I live here,” muses Noice.  “An interesting question without an answer. I learned how to see light from Ansel Adams.  He was a great teacher.  I really learned how to recognize landscapes.  I feel that my experience in photography has helped me to develop a heightened sensitivity towards landscapes.”

Noice’s work also has to be influenced by Fauvism.  For the Fauves, color is TOUT.  It is applied furiously, without restraint, and it is wholly interpretive.

Art history lesson alert!

“Fauvism” refers to a period in art history having its genesis in 1905, when French painter Henri Matisse and his buddies Andre Derain, Maurice Vlaminck, Albert Marquet, Raoul Dufy, and Georges Braque first displayed new paintings drenched with color; huge, vast masses of unbroken, emotional, explosive color.   These painters and others were given the nickname “Les Fauves,” –the Wild Beasts. Upon seeing the collection of wildly colorful paintings surrounding a comparatively run-of-the-mill sculpture, unveiled for the first time at the 1905 Paris Salon d’Automme, French art critic Louis Vauxcelles remarked that “it was like a Donatello ‘parmi les fauves’”-among the wild beasts.

Wildlife art. Wild Beasts.  Sense a century-old connection here?

Contemporary Western Art is in no way disconnected from art history’s great movements; it descends from many masters and traditions.  Artists in the West articulate landscape and are paying homage to light, color, and “the shapes of things,” as artists always have.

In addition to Trio house artist Lee Carlman Riddell hosting a painting workshop in Tuscany, her gallery partner Kathryn Mapes Turner has said “yes” to an invitation to exhibit her work alongside those of Michigan painter John Felsing.

The two artists plan a joint exhibition at Altamira Fine Art, where Felsing is represented.  The show runs March 11-13, kicking off with an artist’s reception on Thursday, March 11, 5-7 pm, at Altamira, in Jackson.

The show does not signal any change in Turner’s affiliation with Trio Fine Art.  More on this special exhibition soon.

Item #1 (With a bullet.)

Via Facebook, the Art Association of Jackson Hole has announced a lecture on censorship taking place Thursday, February 18, at the Center for the Arts.

The forum is set to be a panel discussion and runs sixty minutes.  Beginning at 5:30 pm and scheduled to end at 6:30 pm, this talk will allow participants to head out early in the evening—however, I can’t imagine an hour being enough time to really tackle this subject, particularly given the Jackson Hole late-arrival trademark.   At this writing the Blog is unclear as to whether this discussion will deal with perceived censorship issues within Jackson, or with censorship in the world at large.  Maybe both.

Whatever the focus, it’s a convenient and welcome chance for creative persona to bring censorship’s causes and repercussions to light.

The irony of censorship is that when a show or artist is censored their particular spotlight only burns brighter.  And usually, as we’ve seen in Jackson, the entity doing the censoring gets much more negative attention than the art in question.

Figure of Speech: Censorship in the Arts will be held in Artspace’s Main Gallery.  Panel members include reps from writing, dancing, theatrical and visual  arts.

Item #2:

A reminder that Lee Carlman Riddell and Ed Riddell are guiding a photography and painting workshop to Tuscany, Italy this spring. The trip begins April 29, 2010 and concludes a week or so later, on May 5.

Ed Riddell has details about the trip on his website, www.edwardriddell.com. You can also visit Lee’s website, www.leeriddell.com. Lee is represented locally by Trio Fine Art.    A previous post on this blog has more details regarding fees and application processes; do a search using key words “Riddell,” “workshop” or “Tuscany” and the post should appear.

Diehl Gallery features works by artist Angie Renfro now through March 6.   As they’ve been doing, Diehl is offering collectors a chance to deduct 10% of the cost of any art work towards a particular non-profit.   This show benefits WomensTrust, an organization providing outreach to Ghana, via microfinancing, education and healthcare.

So who is Angie Renfro?   Why are her works simultaneously so melancholy and strikingly beautiful?   Looking at press images, I’m struck by Renfro’s split subjects.  The birds, bees and spring’s new budding branches are here; so are abandoned industrial landscapes depicting rusted piles of pipeline, muddy fields, flat gray skies and blackened telephone poles.

Blackened telephone poles, crying rivers of red.  Dripping red.

A Texas native now living in California, Renfro says she’s haunted by the vast landscapes of her home state.  There’s overlooked beauty in desolate lots, deserted factories.  She’s yet to be carried off by California’s blue tides, its sunshine, undulating mountains and deserts.

Renfro takes long drives across Texas, a state the size of a small planet.  She believes placing the natural world on the same podium with broken down palaces of  industry and farming will help viewers appreciate a shared “quiet, unassuming beauty.”

Along the lonesome Texas highway, there’s little obvious distraction, says Renfro.  But, if you stop and sense the quiet, you’ll find quiet makes its own noise.  Like Pompeii’s ruins, these Texas subjects are frozen in time.

Renfro’s landscapes are works one could live with for a long time.

Diehl Gallery phone:  307.733.0905.

Item #2:

Word has it that Center Street Gallery is closing.  Timeline is unclear.

As long as I’ve lived in Jackson, Center Street Gallery has been there on Town Square’s east side, lighting up the boardwalk with its eclectic collection of contemporary art.

The gallery carries some very noted artists.   That list includes: Thomas Batista, Lynn Berryhill, Kathy Bonnema-Leslie, Bruce Dean, Bill Drum, Robert Deurloo, Jeffrey Jon Gluck, Siri Hollander, E.H. Klink, Marshall Noice, Raymond Nordwall, Andrew Parent, Francine & Neil Prince, Stephen Rolfe Powell, Jean Richardson, Dennis Sohocki, Sari Staggs, Kay Stratman, Louis Von Koelnau, Joy Watson, Don Webster and Elizabeth Wright.

Center Street and the former Martin-Harris Gallery broke the contemporary art ice in Jackson Hole. Center Street’s art references in regional beauty interpreted by new, as well as practiced, modern day artists.    Works are intimate, grand in scale, colorful, tonal, two and three-dimensional.  A couple of decades ago, it was a brave act to open a contemporary gallery space in a traditionally representational Western culture.   As Western art scholar Peter Hassrick has noted, we’ve yet to fully address the impact of humans on the remarkable landscapes and wilderness we inhabit.   Without the continued health of contemporary arts in Jackson, we’ve less of a chance of approaching that still sensitive subject; it’s unmentionable, marketing-wise, to create content pointedly addressing human effect on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

The hope is that a good percentage of these artists will find alternate local gallery venues.   Center Street Gallery, thank you for playing an important role in our arts history.

Jackson Hole artist September Vhay revisits a familiar theme in a new show, All the Red Horses. On view beginning February 9, the show opens February 11, with a reception from 5-8 pm at Trio Fine Art. Vhay will talk about her art from 5-6 pm.

Horses are inextricably associated with Vhay; her portraits of these animals — nobody renders a horse’s body and flesh like Vhay– are ubiquitous.  Rightly so.  Vhay’s horses hold gentle strength, graceful form and lyric mystery.

These horses are red and reduced.  Minimal, they are void of Vhay’s more representational anatomy and detail.  She has explored using this red paint–I’m going to call it a Chinese red–in the past.   Constructive circles and arcs are plain in these works, which remain ethereal.

A little research tells me that describing Vhay’s red as Chinese red is apt.   In Chinese art, the horse is a symbol of power and virtue; a thousand years ago Asians considered the horse to be a luxury good, rivaling silk in its prestige.   They are also a symbol of imperial power. And red, in China, is the color of Luck.

For more information, phone Trio Fine Art at 307.734.4444.

Item #2:

Naturally Nude, CIAO Gallery’s latest competitive exhibition, holds its opening reception at CIAO on Saturday, February 13, 6-9 pm. The party will be warmed up by jazz trumpeter Mark Memor and accompanying musicians providing music composed by CIAO artist Martin Hagen.

With more entries than ever–this is CIAO’s third annual Naturally Nude show– choosing  just a few winning artists was difficult, says gallery manager Michele Walters. She notes that the juried show has caught on –  artists from around the country submit work.

Judges ultimately bestowed first place to Michael McGrath’s delicate bronzes; second place to Rick Wheeler’s compositions rendered with oils, watercolors and pastels; and third prize was awarded to Armin Muhsam’s abstract intaglio prints.

An evening of jazz and art is romantic, but an evening with jazz, art and good food borders on the decadent.  Wilson chef Piper Wright-Clark will be serving up tasty fare, inspired by Valentine’s Day.

What’s not to love about this party?  Do drop in. CIAO’s address is 66 S. Glenwood, in Jackson.  Contact Walters at 307.733.7833 for more information, and viva l’amour.

Trailside Galleries keeps their artists busy!  Throughout the month of February the gallery’s annual New Horizons landscape show illuminates downtown’s East Broadway.

Highlighted in the exhibit is contemporary landscape painter Robert Moore, a very popular artist.  His canvas sizes run the gamut–they can be almost monumental in scale, but he also creates paintings in sizes appropriate for any space.  Result: lots to choose from!

Moore’s paint application suggests  a palette knife; brushstrokes have a slicing quality.  Moore’s colors are vibrant–he’s flexible here, too.  Landscapes are warm, cool, and everything in between.  Baskets of color, flying confetti, piling up—Moore’s own painterly parade.   He’s a painter for all seasons, an “American Impressionist.”   Hailing from Idaho, Moore has been painting for 25 years; this show is slated to include at least 10 new works.

Other artists featured in February’s show are:  Bruce Cheever, Brent Cotton, Michael Godfrey, Lanny Grant, Francois Koch, Calvin Liang, Grant MacDonald, Dan McCaw, Danny McCaw, Greg McHuron, Robert Moore, Scott Myers, Ralph Oberg, Andrew Peters, Bill Sawczuk, Curt Walters and Kathy Wipfler.

For more information, contact Cara Kelly via email:   Cara@trailsidegalleries.com.   Check out the Trailside Galleries website for more gallery information.

The University of Wyoming has put out the call for entries for their nationally acclaimed literary and arts journal, the Owen Wister Review (OWR).  The competition is open to all writers and artists contributing work about the Western experience.

The University recently provided the following information:

OWR, printed each spring, won its second Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker, the college equivalent to a Pulitzer Prize in October.

“We are looking forward to another great year and can’t wait to start looking through this year’s submissions,” Editor Joshua Watanabe said.

Journal editors will be selecting original works of fiction, poetry, photography and art for inclusion in the 2010 edition. Submissions are open to artists, authors, poets, photographers or designers of any age.

Visit www.uwyo.edu/studentpub/owr for detailed submission requirements and contact information. All submissions, regardless of media, must be unpublished, original works and may not be simultaneously submitted elsewhere. Submission deadline is February 15, 2010.

University students published OWR’s first edition in 1978 with the goal of producing a magazine “the magazine reflected the talents of writers and artists in our community, recognizing them in the great tradition of Western literature and art.”

Named after Owen Wister, who set the first modern western novel, The Virginian, in the town of Medicine Bow, the review’s focus remains on the western experience interpreted by western people, but all writers and artists are invited to contribute their visions and stories.

Item #2

The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Winter Carnival Quick Draw takes place Thursday, January 28, 5:30-7:30 pm.   Proceeds from the 1-hour paint-in and auction benefit NMWA’s educational programs.

This year’s Quick Draw will include more than a dozen artists, including four young up-and-comers from Jackson Hole high schools.  $10 admission for members, $15 for non-members, and children under 18 are free.   Get your “Chilly Bar, and some short beers, courtesy Snake River Brewing. Gessler gets tall ones, and so does McHuron.  Not sure why….Website: www.wildlifeart.org.  Phone: 307.733.5771

I let CIAO down;  I did not get their photography deadline posted in time, but hope to make up for that hole-in-the-blog by posting the following comprehensive information sent by gallery director Michele E. Walters.    Visit CIAO’s website to find out more about the gallery–you can even view a video–or call 307.733.7833 to find out about upcoming opportunities for artists.

CIAO Memberships:

The gallery is taking applications.  Membership includes:

* Gallery representation in downtown Jackson Hole, WY
* Website representation on a busy site and webstore representation
* Free application fees into any of the juried competitions.
* Representation in press releases, newspaper articles, emailing, etc.
* Accessibility to potential collectors

First Annual Open Photography Competition

This competition is open to landscape, wildlife, candid, portrait/studio, abstract & architectural shots and more.  B&W and color photography accepted.   Eligibility requirements include:

• Semi-Professional and beginning photographers (Photography revenue must be less than 50% of your gross income.)
• Photos of people must have release forms.
• Work must be ready to hang, and clearly labeled with the artists name and contact information.
• No substitutions of accepted work.
• All work will remain on display during the duration of the exhibit.
• Art work must be for sale.

Exhibition date:  January 8, 2010.

You could win some cash!

1st Place-$500 Cash Prize and one months representation of selected works
2nd Place-1 month free representation in featured artist section on gallery.
3rd Place- 6 months free representation in featured artist section on gallery website.

Deadline is December 18th 2009!  (This is the late part.  Call anyway, what could it hurt?)

Naturally Nude

Join CIAO’s 3rd Annual Naturally Nude Show. Open to all artists in any medium, traditional images and not-so-traditional, just bring it.  Entry deadline: January 22, 2010. Exhibition takes place on Valentines Day.

*1st Place*-piece featured in gallery for three months with no exhibition fee; six months free representation in featured artist section on gallery website.

*2nd Place*- Six months free representation in featured artist section on gallery website.

*3rd Place-* Three months free representation in website’s featured artist section.

Submissions must be received on or before January 22nd, 2010.

Please visit CIAO’s website for links to specific events and invitations, or phone 307.733.7833.

A poignant holiday note for Jackson Hole’s contemporary arts scene is that two of its best galleries, the Oswald and Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, are closing their doors.   With them go venues for myriad contemporary artists – photographers, painters, sculptors, multi-media artists, crafts people, filmmakers – and the loss pries open, to a greater degree, a cultural chasm our community must strive to close.

Ever entrepreneurial, McCandless and the Oswalds are combining their artist rosters for one great contemporary art sale opportunity.  The two galleries offer up the works of more than 40 artists in a special series of Seasonal events, taking place at the Oswald Gallery, 165 North Center Street:

December 17 & 18, 6-8 pm:  “Art Cocktails”

December 26, 6-9 pm:  “Holiday Party”

December 28, 29 & 30, 6-8 pm:   “Art Talks”

Through the months of December and January, 2010, all proceeds will provide a percentage of art sales as donations to local arts non-profits.  Beneficiaries include the Center of Wonder, the Art Association, Teton ArtLab, Womentum and the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Press materials feature images of works by Bronwyn Minton, Rick Bartow and Nine Francois.   Check both gallery websites for their complete artist lists, and phone 307.413.4331 for more information.

En-Joy!

Item #2

Galleries West sends word that a new hardcover coffee table book, “Sculpture of the Rockies,” has just been released by the editors of Southwest Art Magazine. The book “surveys the broad spectrum and spectacular variety of current sculpture being created in the Rocky Mountain region.”

“The Rocky Mountain region of the American West is renowned for its natural beauty – rugged, snow-capped peaks, sweeping valley vistas, towering pine trees, delicate wildflowers – as well as its artistic splendor, with many noted sculptors living and working in this area,” herald the book’s publishers.

As many as 97 sculptors have chosen favorite works to share; they also talk about their process and inspiration. The book includes both contemporary and traditional sculpture, even providing a sampling of purely abstract works.   Galleries West will have the books on sale, and suggest you call to reserve a copy. The gallery is offering some special deals on holiday shopping, so jingle their telephone bells (307.733.4525) to find out more.

Galleries West is currently showcasing its annual holiday exhibit, the 7th Annual Little Jewels Holiday Miniature Show, running through January 15, 2010.   An opening reception takes place December 30, 3-8 pm.   In this miniatures show, paintings measure 11×14 inches and smaller; sculptures are 12×12x12 inches and smaller.   Chimney-sized gifts for all!

“For me, animals endure our presence and attentions with a bemused tolerance so often lacking in our own species.”- Susan Brearey

“Forest Silhouettes,” a new collection of works by noted artist Susan Brearey, now on display at the J.H. Muse Gallery, will be celebrated with an opening reception December 17, 5-8 pm.  Brearey, along with artist Mike Piggott, will be featured at the gallery’s annual holiday party, Champagne & Chocolates.   Brearey’s works remain on display until January 15, 2010.

Represented by galleries around the country, Brearey makes her home in Vermont, where she is on the faculty of the Putney School.   Inspired by Vermont’s landscapes, as well as other wilderness, her paintings “employ an economy of detail which evokes both the archaic forms found in the primitive cave paintings of Lascaux and the elegant simplicity of Asian art.”

“When you look at one of my paintings, it is like the moment you see an animal, just before it flees,” she says.

Highly evocative, Brearey’s wildlife portraits hold spiritual magic.  I think of them as visions, as messengers from one space to ours.  They are here with us only momentarily, physically compressed, traveling from portal to portal.

Anthropomorphism is completely absent.  Brearey’s animals are practically faceless, symbolically universal.  Her palette is muted; she favors serious blues, dulled whites to silver; I see references to topographic maps in a few of these new works.  Maps…. or a tree’s inner rings, a forest’s way of revealing the years of its existence.

Brearey leaves it up to us to form answers to all the questions her paintings ask. Likely, a certain warning about our planet’s future is here; Brearey acknowledges that her paintings reflect her concern for environment and species.  Perhaps these paintings are prayers, or premonitions.

For more information on this and other exhibitions taking place at the J.H. Muse Gallery this month, log on to their website.

Item #2

Ring in the Season with Amy Ringholz’s Solo Winter Show & Reception, at Altamira Fine Art. The exhibition opens with an artist’s reception at the gallery (172 Center Street) on Friday, December 18, 5-7:00 pm. The show remains up until January 8, 2010.

I remember what I believe was Ringholz’s first show — or one of her firsts; she had a Takin’ it to the Streets booth, and she sold a lot of paintings that year.  Her signature “jigsaw” painting style was totally new.  Since then, Ringholz has become one of Jackson’s favorite local artists; her work could be called playful, but it is rooted in the artist’s deep reverence for the power of animals, and by our collective unconsious reverence for wildlife.  Her work is certainly energetic and vibrant.

Says Altamira’s Director Mark Tarrant: “Amy’s Holiday Show has become an annual happening where locals gather to celebrate the Season and her work. Amy’s bold works depicting our local wildlife on bright, colorful canvases are a fitting way to celebrate both the end of the current year and the beginning of the new one.”

For more information, log onto Altamira’s website here.

Item #3

Trio Fine Art – featuring art by Lee Carlman Riddell, Kathryn Mapes Turner, September Vhay and Russell Chatham – will be open the following hours during this Holiday Season:

December 22 noon-5pm

December 23 noon -5

December 24 10-3

December 29 noon – 5

December 30 3pm-8pm

December 31st 10-3

The gallery looks forward to seeing everyone during the Wednesday, December 3o Art Walk. Additionally, Trio Fine Art will be open during the winter on Thursdays only, 12:00 noon – 5:00 pm.   More information on Trio’s winter shows will soon be available.   www.triofineart.com.

Throughout December, Mountain Trails Gallery hosts its Holiday Miniatures Show, a collection of small works on canvas and bronze sculptures.  Currently on display, the show remains up through December 24th.   An artists’ reception takes place Thursday, December 17, 4-7 p.m.

Gallery Director Pam Flores notes that the show explores a wide selection of subjects and styles.  Prices are mixed, providing good opportunity to purchase affordable art; it’s a nice chance to begin a personal collection.   Themes are primarily Western, and include wildlife, Native American culture, cowboys and landscapes.   More than 50 works are included.

Many artists will be on hand to greet the public during the reception, which takes place during December’s Gallery Association Art Walk.  This is the first holiday reception for Mountain Trails in their new corner space on the Town Square.

For more information contact Pamela Flores, at 307.734.8150, or email director@mtntrails.net.