Posts from ‘Trends’
In neighboring Sublette County, the town of Pinedale has big plans for 2012. According to a recent edition of the Sublette Examiner, “Main Street Pinedale”—a group of Pinedale citizens working to promote its downtown by “capitalizing on its uniqueness and by using historic preservation to generate economic and entrepreneurial growth”— will host a series of conferences that will work to raise Sublette’s cultural profile. Â
Events surrounding the conferences include “CLICK! A Weekend for Wyoming Visual Artists.” The Sublette Examiner writes:
“The name “CLICK!” suggests that thing that happens when you reconnect with colleagues and get inspired by new ideas, which occurs continually when Wyoming artists congregate,” said Sue Sommers, a local artist who helped organize the event, and is hoping to expand on the visibility and interconnectedness of Wyoming’s art community with those near and far – something she also tackled recently with the Pipeline Art Project….Like Pipeline, CLICK! is working alongside the Wyoming Arts Council (WAC) [sharing] a database of Wyoming artists and helps plan and partially fund the project.”
CLICK! takes place March 30 – April 1, 2012 at the Sublette County Libray, Pinedale. More registration info will be available soon. To read the Examiner’s full article, “click” here.
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In case you live in a cave–and the only peeps I know doin’ that are Bears 399 & 610–you know wildlife painter Amy Ringholz is Jackson’s 2012 Fall Arts Festival (FAF) poster artist. At 34, Ringholz is the youngest FAF artist to date.
Her winning painting, “Dreamers Don’t Sleep,” a 72 x 60″ ink and oil on canvas, will be showcased in the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s lobby January 22 – March 23, 2012. A wonderous portrait of the region’s wildlife, its magnificent Teton Range, a sparkling night sky, the painting also includes 25 painted flowers, to in honor of NMWA’s 25th anniversary. The painting is set to be unveiled at the museum Sunday, January 22, at 3:00 pm
Inspired by Fritz Scholder and Egon Schiele, Ringholz is a contemporary painter—the first contemporary FAF artist in over a decade. As this year’s Festival artist, she joins some of the West’s most notable working artists: Russell Chatham, Bill Schenck, Donna Howell-Sickles and 2011′s Dwayne Harty.
Locally, Ringholz is represented by Altamira Fine Art. Her work has been exhibited at NMWA, the Rockwell Museum of Western Art and Desert Caballeros Museum. She’s been featured in Southwest Art, Western Art & Architecture, and Western Art Collector magazines.
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Altamira Fine Art also represents 2009′s Fall Arts Festival poster artist R. Tom Gilleon. Altamira has confirmed that prices for Gilleon’s works will “increase significantly” as of May 1, 2012.
Gilleon has a major museum exhibition January 28 – May 27, 2012, at the Booth Western Art Museum. He is planning a one man show at Altamira in July. Â For more information, contact Altamira at 307.739.4700. Â www.altamiraart.com
“Treemier.” Gravity. A play on words and a weighty noun headline the presence and presentations of Brazilian artist Thais Beltrame and local filmaker David Gonzales at the Art Association this month. Â Friday, January 14, the public is invited to attend an opening reception for the artist at the Center for the Arts; at 7:30 pm local arbor advocacy group Treefight premiers Seeing Red, a 20-minute film chronicling the non-profit’s first year of activism. Following that, a fundraising raffle and party ensue.
As doubtful melancholy is so prevalent a theme in the show’s press materials it must be o.k. to repeat that Beltrame’s artistry has its roots in a hatred of colored pencils. She favors black and white drawings, “creating endless narratives with simple lines.” Â Information on the artist goes on to say that today “….the result of such act are universal existential issues represented in black and white, recreating the memories of our childhood in all of its darkness, sadness, discovery and glow. The artist makes use of the subtle and meticulous brush and ink, revealing an atmosphere both peculiar and melancholic.” Beltrame will be creating a site specific (the newest trend in Jackson’s art scene) installation piece for this show.
Making a difference requires a degree of scrutiny and pessimism. And lots and lots of questions. Like, “What is the role of the artist in the 21st Century?”
Beltrame’s art and Gonzales’ tree fighting, a kismet connection. Check out these sites to learn more about the artists and their work:
www.thaisbeltrame.blogspot.com
and…www.artassociation.org, to see information on upcoming classes, exhibitions and events.
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The fifth annual Jackson Hole Art Auction will take place on Saturday September 17, 2011 at the Center for the Arts in Jackson. Produced by Jackson’s Trailside Galleries in partnership with the Gerald Peters Gallery of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the auction has rapidly become one of the West’s premiere auctions of contemporary and deceased Western Masters.
The auction is a major contributer to Jackson’s soaring Fall Arts Festival lodging and tourism statistics.
The auction’s Emma Zanetti says that this year’s sale already has works to offer for sale by these artists:Â William Acheff, Clyde Aspevig, Ken Carlson, Martin Grelle, Bill Owen, G. Harvey, Kenneth Riley, Mian Situ, Howard Terpning, Morgan Weistling, and Z.S. Liang. Also available are important works by the Taos Society of Artists, the Santa Fe Art Colony, as well as historically recognized artists of the American West.
Want to consign a work? Call for details at  1.866.549.9278, visit www.jacksonholeartauction.com or stop by the Trailside Galleries at 130 East Broadway in Jackson.
Chuck Close Self-Portrait Woodcut, 2009 Woodcut in 47 colors Image Size: 28 x 23 inches Paper Size: 35 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches Edition of 70 Printed by Karl Hecksher Published by Pace Editions, Inc.
Now that Teton Art Lab (TAL) has taken up official residency as a Center for the Arts tenant, with representation on the Center’s website, newsletters, et cetera, TAL’s executive director Travis Walker is announcing some exciting shows.
Though Jackson’s 2010 September Fall Arts Festival is a ways off, TAL has sent word that its FAF highlight will be a show of woodblock prints of the works of famed artists Chuck Close, Richard Estes and Alex Katz.   The show represents the first time these works will be seen in Wyoming.  Each exhibition print is the work of New York City master print maker Karl Hecksher, who will also be teaching a class on traditional Japanese hand printing, Moku Hanga.
The exhibition runs September 10 – October 5, 2010.  Mark your calendars.
Close’s work knocks Walker out.
“In 1998, I saw an exhibition of Close’s work at the MoMA in NY,” says Walker. “It floored me. I had seen photorealistic work before, such as Richard Estes (also in the exhibit), but what he was doing with these images seemed pretty genius, an Escher like blend of math, art, and science. Close makes big pieces with fingerprints, paper pulp, and overlapping circles of color, that become little abstractions up close, but are photorealistic from a distance. Those fingerprint pieces are especially awesome.”
Walker feels the accessibility of Close’s work appeals to the TAL mission, because its so readily educational. Walker himself says he’s not previously been exposed to Estes’ photorealism. “When I was a kid, a Jackson Pollock said nothing to me, but the photorealistic stuff was really amazing, technically. How did they do that?”
Walker says this is an unprecedented opportunity for Jackson residents to work with one of the world’s most noted print makers.  And, he giddily notes, the exhibit is free.
Hecksher is a friend of TAL board member David Gottfried. Schwing!  Hecksher, the founder, owner and director of K5 Editions LLC, has been printing in a variety of media since 1983. He spent the first three years after college as head printer at Prasada Press, collaborating with artists on stone and plate lithography. In 1986 he became a New York artist, printing editions at several major print studios.
Hecksher’s goal is to establish a more painterly approach to printmaking, one reflective of the individual artist’s touch; to make the print speak clearly and express the artist’s 
intentions. He’s been at it for two decades, honing his skills, and working with a full roster of noted artists.
A few years back, Walker took in a Portland, Oregon show of these prints and their matrixes.
” At the show there were these intricately carved wood blocks, stencils, paper screens, and etching plates that were just as beautiful as the prints themselves, side by side with the work to help viewers mentally grasp his process. It was truly mind blowing, from a printmakers perspective, to see the work involved in carving the blocks or etching the copper plates….At that time the Artlab was only a couple of months old, and we had only started to plan our printmaking studio. I knew if we ever did get a print program off of the ground, this work was something we should try and exhibit. So Dave made it happen with a few phone calls and a visit to Karl’s studio,” says Walker.
For his part, Hecksher is thrilled to be introducing his experience and method to Jackson artists. His hope is that students will develop their own personal approach to wood block printing.
(Photo, top Left: Chuck Close Self-Portrait Woodcut, 2009 Woodcut in 47 colors Image Size: 28 x 23 inches Paper Size: 35 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches Edition of 70 Printed by Karl Hecksher Published by Pace Editions, Inc.)
Diehl Gallery features works by artist Angie Renfro now through March 6. Â 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. Â This show benefits WomensTrust, an organization providing outreach to Ghana, via microfinancing, education and healthcare.
So who is Angie Renfro? Â Why are her works simultaneously so melancholy and strikingly beautiful? Â Looking at press images, I’m struck by Renfro’s split subjects. Â 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. Â Dripping red.
A Texas native now living in California, Renfro says she’s haunted by the vast landscapes of
her home state. Â There’s overlooked beauty in desolate lots, deserted factories. Â 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. Â But, if you stop and sense the quiet, you’ll find quiet makes its own noise. Â 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: Â 307.733.0905.
Item #2:
Word has it that Center Street Gallery is closing. Â 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. Â 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. Â Â Works are intimate, grand in scale, colorful, tonal, two and three-dimensional. Â A couple of decades ago, it was a brave act to open a contemporary gallery space in a traditionally representational Western culture. Â 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. Â 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. Â Â Center Street Gallery, thank you for playing an important role in our arts history.
February 5, it’s all happening at the Art Association.
Really! Sounds like a happening, 1960′s style, with symbolism and emotions and poetry readings and exploration of the human body’s nuances (Our Bodies, Ourselves, a ground breaking book about sexuality and women’s bodies, still available and updated, btw…), power and faith, Arlo Guthrie and Aristotle.
Arlo, Aristotle, Art Association: Triple “A” alliteration.
These shows represent a quantum leap forward for Jackson’s art community. Don’t miss it. A joint opening reception happens at the Center for the Arts on Friday, February 5th, at 5:30 pm.
Show #1:
Nekkid, a group figure exhibition, includes a noon Brown Bag Lunch Art Talk with participating artists. In our “democratic”, post-industrial, high-tech country we still struggle with being cool with nudity (unless you are John Edwards). This show offers a chance to probe that resistance.  Works in various media alternately explore and celebrate the human body. As part of the evening’s festivities the spirit of the Beat Poets will resurrect, with live poetry readings.
Participating artists include, but may not be limited to: Eliot Goss, Sue Sommers, Shannon Troxler, Suzanne Morlock, Susan Thulin, Bobbi Miller, Amy Larkin, Barbara Trentham, Mark Nowlin, Jenny Dowd and Valerie Seaberg.
Writers/poets to date include: Sarah Kariko, Marcia Casey, Valley Peters Bradley and Nicole Burdick.
(Bressler, where are you in this? You write great poetry about nudes!  Get going, don’t make me bring out the poem you wrote a few years back…..yes, I still have it, it’s bookmarking my souffle recipe.)
Show #2:
Power & Faith: The Photography of Paul Adams will be on display in the 
Artspace Loft Gallery.   Here, I defer to Paul Adams’ quotation describing the inspirations for his work.
“Through most of my professional photographic career I have tried to make beautiful photographs simply for the sake of beauty. Recently though I find myself motivated more by the same challenges the American folk singer Arlo Guthrie faced when he said, “For me it is not enough to write a song that is good. I want to write a song that is good for something.” The stimulating and exciting challenge for me as a photographic artist is to try and seduce the viewer into thinking as deeply as they feel. As we look into the faces of these Spiritual Leaders I hope to accomplish Aristotle’s goal for art when he said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”
Show #3:
The Scotch and Watercolor Society, comprised of painters Barbara Barella, Holly Bishop, Barbara C. Kuxhausen, Skip Larcom, Michele McDonald and Joan Melius, deliver their creative messages solely in watercolor.
Watercolors are considered by many to be the most difficult paint medium to master. Artists in this show offer up a variety of impressions, interpretations and subjects in their paintings. The exhibition will be on display in the Artspace Theater Gallery.   Perhaps a fine single malt will be served.
Show #4:
Art Association Ceramics Director Sam Dowd is, in my opinion, a great ceramicist. His space-inspired clay compositions are sheer intergalactic fantasy.
It’s exciting that Dowd’s collaboration and guidance of Jackson Hole High School 
students has resulted in this new art project and show, Blast from the Cast.
On display in the Artspace Lobby Gallery, students from Shannon Borrego’s art classes will mount their sculptures and vessels. Students have learned the slip cast mold process, and created works depicting, or speaking to, objects “chosen from life,….making a plaster mold… to produce several reproductions. The students then created clay projects that incorporated, repeated, and altered the mold pieces.”
And that’s quite a process. Results are colorful, well-designed and fanciful. Art created by youth is the most free; with Dowd teaching them, these students may hang on to that creative joie de vivre.
The Art Association may be contacted via their website, or you may phone 307.733.6379.