Posts Tagged ‘Jackson Hole Public Art’
This logo just makes me want to ride my bicycle so bad!
The Jackson Hole Public Art (JHPA) Initiative is rolling out its new Rolling Gallery program, a platform for “artists and scientists to collaborate on artwork for Jackson Hole Community Pathways that highlights endangered and at risk species.” Â The project is another example of how wilderness and art are connected; that history has been repeating itself since the late 19th century, and whether we admit it or not we’re all descendants of those early naturalists, artists and expeditions. We’re still on expedition, in fact. If we weren’t, we’d not be here.
Austin, Texas artist Lance Letscher (kind of a super hero-y name…) brings his layered collages to the Tayloe Piggott Gallery January 31-March 15 2011. Letscher is new to the gallery, and as he hails from Austin I’m thinking that Tayloe’s good friend and former Jackson gallery owner Leya Oswald may have hooked the two up. Just guessing, but isn’t that what  you’d think? It’s a good thing.
The show, Hard Eye, opens to the public Friday, February 4 with a gallery reception 5-8pm.
Those who follow the arts know that most work presents itself very differently in media than it does in real life; once we see an artist’s work in front of us for the first time we can envision future work more accurately. So, when Letscher’s work is described as being reminiscent of Joseph Albers, Piet Mondrian and James Castle, I think “okay”…but I can also tell from the images of Letscher’s work that I’ll draw other parallels when I see his collages. Â I may change my mind, but right now his work brings to mind tipping towers of childrens building blocks, quilts,..and really, Folk Art. And maybe a dash of Alexander Calder; the latter because of his astroid designs featuring floating straight lines with circular ends.
Ooh, and that reminds me of Tinker Toys! Â You are probably too young to remember Tinker Toys…..sigh.
But Tinker Toys and Folk Art and Calder and printed, colored blocks are all there. Letscher has talked about craft. Here’s a quote:
“When something is designed as a utilitarian object, decisions are made in its construction that give it a voice – what fabrics are available – and I am trying to invest the work with a structure that has
an underlying logic of craft that is expressive of something else: a personal and intimate experience in making it,” reflects the artist. “It is an intuition I have; it is not completely conscious.”
Another quote (from an article entitled “The Book on Lance Letscher: What Lies Beyond the Buzz of Austin’s Hot Collage Artist?”):
“His intriguing images activate the reflective in viewers, who connect to their own feelings and memories, perhaps even more than to the delight in the eye-catching colors, patterns, and textures that formally compose the works.”
How conscious are we of design when we’re kids? Not very! But we still make the very best designs then because we’ve not self-censored via self-consciousness. Castle’s compressed, intense energy seems best likened to Letscher’s. And that is why I think I will like this show.
www.tayloepiggottgallery.com 307.733.0555
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Awesome speaker/Save-the-Date Alert:
March 10,2011 Public Art Director for the City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs Barbara Goldstein will visit Jackson. Sponsored by Jackson Hole Public Art (JHPA), Goldstein’s visit will include a workshop and presentations at the Center for the Arts. The morning presentation’s topic will be Public Art: Best Practices, the Pros and Cons of Different Funding Sources,Use in Cultural Tourism and Creative Placemaking. An evening talk discusses “The Next Generation,
National Trends in Public Art.”
More on Goldstein at a later date, but for now here is her resumé, provided by JHPA: “Barbara Goldstein is the Public Art Director for the City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs and the editor of Public Art by the Book, a primer recently published by Americans for the Arts and the University of Washington Press. Prior to her work in San José, Goldstein was Public Art Director for the City of Seattle. Goldstein has worked as a cultural planner, architectural and art critic, editor and publisher. From 1989 to 1993, she was Director of Design Review and Cultural Planning for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. From 1980-85 she edited and published Arts + Architecture magazine. She has written for art and architectural magazines both nationally and internationally, and has lectured on public art throughout the United States, and in Canada, Japan, China, Taipei, Korea and Abu Dhabi. She is currently Chair of the Public Art Network for Americans for the Arts.”
Good. We’re getting very serious now. Yay! RSVP your interest in attending to Carrie Geraci, cgeraci@gmail.com.
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February 4th–A reminder to check out Wendell Field’s new show at the Factory Studios. How fun is it to refer to “Factory Studios” in Wyoming? I’m hoping to get some images of Wendell’s new work before the show. In case I don’t, get a feel for his paintings (Field’s heaping piles of yurt, mountains and snow remind me of soft ice cream and clouds…) and other work on his website, www.wendellfield.com.
Jackson artist Suzanne Morlock recently removed herself from one icy environment to take up artistic residence in another. Six months ago Morlock, an 18-year Teton County Library staff member, felt the time was right to shift focus and spend all her time working on her passion—creating art.
So she went to Iceland.
“I wanted to do an artist residency–a chance for an artist to remove themselves from daily routines, environments and responsibilities,” says Morlock. Â “Artists do residencies with individual goals in mind: start and finish a project while shaking up their practice. Â There can be myriad goals for a residency.”
Morlock set her sights on Skagaströnd, Iceland after briefly visiting there in March of 2007.  Taken by its beautiful landscapes she vowed to return. In Iceland, Morlock settled on the concept of creating a site specific installation based on what she learned about the community. Skagaströnd, a fishing and trading port, has a population of 500 and is located on the east shore of the bay Húnaflói, in northwestern Iceland. She wanted to go where knitting and fishing were important cultural attributes; fish imagery has been integral to her work and “her own personal narrative.”  Knitting, as an art form, has gained favor with Morlock; last April she created a site specific piece in Le Vigan France, forming old newspaper into a “yarn,”  and knitting it with 1.5″ PVC pipe knitting needles.
Morlock used giant trawler fishing cable spools — metal cable is used in large fishing nets– in creating her work. Emptied spools aren’t returned to the UK, where the cable comes from, because of the expense; a fact that made the spools even more intriguing. Â She used “fine net-like material” found in black trash bags too fragile for fishing; it was in fact old covering for hay bales.
How are sites for site-specific art installations chosen?
Morlock says that sites are determined by the artist based on concepts or goals. “The term ‘site specific’ refers to a particular place where the art is installed or arranged,” she explains. “The concept of installation art often provides more sensory input for the viewer and typically includes a three dimensional array, may include sound, movement or other components not typical of more static two dimensional art. Space and time take on different connotations. The term began to be used in the 1970s and continues to describe a common genre of art work. The works may be temporary or permanent and often are documented by the artist via 
photography. One of the attractions I have to installation work is its ephemeral nature and inability to be commodified.”
Although she’s unsure of the status of public art in Iceland, Morlock says that  installation artists exist, though their work may not be public. Installation artist  Olafur Eliasson (NYC Waterfalls) is 
a favorite. Â When asked what motivates public art in Iceland (conservation, industry, politics, etc…) she says Reykjavik (where Yoko Ono will celebrate John Lennon’s 70th birthday!)Â Â has some great contemporary art facilities. A few galleries such as Kling and Bang offer cutting edge contemporary art.
“In less urban areas I suspect crafts such as knitting and felting maybe be more dominant. Design work seems to be another sensibility, although I really didn’t spend much time in towns other than the one I was working in. The town of Blonduos there was a Textile Museum exhibiting historic and contemporary textile works.”
Morlock will create public art for Jackson’s ArtSpot this winter and plans on using cast-off materials and knitting. Â The piece will be specific to Jackson’s environmental and social influences.
Morlock carries fond memories of Iceland. Â ”The morning I left to come home I observed a fisherman walking by the area and staring at the spool. While it would have be interesting to hear what he had to say, it’s almost more fun to imagine what he was thinking.”
View Morelock’s work on her website: Â www.suzannemorlock.com
Item #2:
The Casper Star Tribune announced early Saturday morning (Sept. 25, 2010) that Jackson painter Fred Kingwill’s watercolor, “Christmas in the Tetons,” has been selected as the official painting of Wyoming’s 2010 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree.  The Bridger-Teton National Forest and the Wyoming Arts Council sponsored a statewide artists’ competition and juried art exhibition to select the painting. Nine more selected works will be posted at capitolchristmastree2010.org; the general public  may vote for the People’s Choice Award. Voting begins September 27, and runs through October 8, 2010.
Kingwill’s painting will be presented to the Forest Service chief in December; the work will be exhibited in the his office for one year before joining a permanent collection of tree portraits. Â Â The painting will hang in the chief’s office for a year and then join “The Tree Gallery,” a permanent collection of tree portraits.
Kingwill is an award-winning artist who teaches and leads workshops throughout the West. He also worked for the Kingwill was a Forest Service for 30 years, and teaches painting in Jackson, Wyoming, and throughout the West.
(Picasso!)  Pablo Picasso’s ”Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” which had a pre-sale estimate of between $70 million and $90 million, sold the evening of May 4 for  $106.5 million, a new world record for any artwork sold at auction.  New York Auction house Christie’s hammered the sale to an as yet unidentified buyer.  Christie’s auction house on Tuesday evening to an unidentified telephone bidder.
The Washington Post reports that “There were nine minutes of bidding involving eight clients in the sale room and on the phone, Christie’s said. At $88 million, two bidders remained. The final bid was $95 million, but the buyer’s premium took the sale price to $106.5 million.
Conor Jordan, head of impressionist and modern art for Christie’s New York, said he was “ecstatic with the results.”
“Tonight’s spectacular results showed the great confidence in the marketplace and the enthusiasm with which it welcomes top quality works,” he said.
The striking work of Picasso’s muse and mistress Marie-Therese Walter has been exhibited in the United States only once, in 1961 in Los Angeles to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Picasso’s birth. The painting, which measures more than 5 feet by 4 feet, shows a reclining nude figure with an image of Picasso in the background looking over her.”
This is really special. Writer/Conservationist/Activist/Friend Cate Cabot has sent word that world renowned biologist artist Patricia Johanson will speak at the Jackson Hole Community School on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 5:30 pm.   The event is free and open to the public.
This is a talk everyone who feels the Town of Jackson should evolve with consideration to new urbanism, and as a sustainable and cultural reflection of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, need attend.  These are the ideas and concepts crucial to how Jackson, now an urban entity, can become a model of sustainable, artful urban existence in the midst of protected land. Jackson leaders mandate must be this: to consider all indigenous and cultural qualities of our region in their civic planning.
A wonderful story: Johanson used her time with her young children wandering the woods and open spaces. As her children explored, she created biological, artful field sketches of the places they visited.  According to Cabot, Johnson’s “small artistically stunning 
studies became what her earlier vision had anticipated, massive functional interactive installations which incorporate sculpture with local natural history and the cultural story line of an area with the intent to resolve a problem…”
A problem, in Johanson’s case, is defined as polluted water and heavily polluted land sites.  Johanson has worked to design passive natural filters for dirtied waters, and restore it as potable. She also creates systems that reclaim crucial habitat shared by mankind and myriad species.
“Her work is jaw dropping in scale, composition, effectiveness, beauty and comprehensive synthesis,” says Cabot. “These installations have regenerated environments all over the world with many works completed, many more under development. I think
of Thomas Berry’s perspective, that “we humans are genetically coded for beauty” when I consider Patricia Johanson’s work.”
Descriptions of Johanson’s book, Art and Survival: Patricia Johanson’s Environmental Projects , published in association with the Islands Institute, praise her environmental solutions expanding, healing and softening sites ranging from congested waterfronts to urban wastelands. Johanson’s designs are accepted as important new models for the reclamation of gardens and parks eroded by neglect, lighting the way for new sustainable, integrative landscapes.
Johanson’s book is available at the Teton County Library.
For more information about May 4th’s event, contact Sarah Drake at 307.733.5427.
To read other posts relating to landscape and planning, an invitation is extended to search this site using any of these key words: Urban Planning, Landscape, Placemaking or Walter Hood.
Item #2:
The Jackson Hole Art Auction is back, returning to the J.H. Center for the Arts Theater, on Saturday, September 18, 2010.  I believe the Auction is still open for consignments–last year’s cut off date was June 1.   The Jackson Hole Art Auction is its own entity and is produced by the partnership of Trailside and Gerald Peters Galleries. It is a pinnacle event of the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival.
As anyone who has attended this auction knows, it is the real thing. The Auction features “Past and Present Masters of the American West,” focusing on historically recognized artists, according to the Auction’s Emma Zanetti.  Lots auctioned in past sales include works by the Taos Society of Artists, and deceased Masters. Artists you may recognize include, but are not limited to C.M. Russell, Albert Bierstadt, Maynard Dixon, Charlie Dye, Frederic Remington, John Clymer, Bob Kuhn, Carl Rungius, Donald Teague, Olaf Wieghorst, and more. Top contemporary artists include William Acheff, Clyde Aspevig, Ken Carlson, Martin Grelle, Clark Hulings, Z.S. Liang, Bill Owen, Jim Norton, Kenneth Riley, Mian Situ, Howard Terpning, Jie Wei Zhou and others.
Last year’s solid auction sales totaled just under $6 million.  To talk with the Auction about consignments, stop by Trailside Galleries in Jackson (130 East Broadway) or email Emma Zanetti at registrar@jacksonholeartauction.com.
Public Art and Placemaking are, as many of us in the arts community have been saying, inextricable from contemporary, smart, even green, urban growth. Right now, the Teton County Comprehensive Plan is available to for the public to review. This is our chance to comment on the way we will grow, not only quantitatively, but qualitatively.  Quality urban growth must include public urban spaces and public art.
If Jackson Hole’s citizens do not make reviewing this plan a priority, we essentially determine not to vote. And those of us determining not to vote lose a lot of “street cred.”  Writing letters to the editor is a crucial public right; writing them when you’ve opted not to be a part of the process by showing up at town meetings or workshops is a bit fraudulent. The Comprehensive Planning process has been activated for many, many months.
YOU are the Plan.
I know it’s hard; but make this a priority. Here’s a way to start.
TUESDAY, MAY 12, beginning at 5:30 p.m., attend a public meeting at the CENTER FOR THE ARTS. The meeting takes place on the Center’s third floor, in Teton Art Lab’s new space. The Art Association’s digital photography studio will be available for those wanting to contribute comments electronically.  Members of our arts community will ask questions and submit comments on the inclusion of public art and placemaking in Teton County’s Comprehensive Plan. Please try and make time to study Themes 3 and 7, in particular.
Preserving environment and quality of place, managing growth, and creating a 
more viable, broad-based economy are Jackson’s great challenges. Most crucial is ensuring we promote and protect our wildlife, its habitat and other environmentally sensitive areas. In our region, the arts are a keystone in preserving place. Although our Town Square’s monument, various land art and myriad creative educational projects provide continual reminders of our inherent love for the arts, we’ve so far not included researching and moving towards making the arts a part of our “constitution,” as it were.  We can remind ourselves and all visitors of this history by including beautiful and lasting public place making in our Comprehensive Plan.  Such planning aids in building tourism and strong market values. Think logo.
Art captures the essence of the places dear to our hearts. Successful public art resonates on a national level.  Our traditional themes may be translated traditionally; they may also be translated using contemporary aesthetics and materials.
We must not only include the words. We must decide upon a logical process of implementation. Without implementation any plan is simply an exercise.
For information, contact Don Kushner at don@jhcenterforthearts.org or Carrie Geracie at carrie@centerofwonder.org.