Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2018 i American Art Collector

I’ve been the Editor of American Art Collector since the very beginning. While we launched the first magazine in September 2005, my job actually began in June of that same year. So it has now been 13 years since we have been creating and publishing this magazine every month. Thirteen years. One hundred and fifty three issues! A lot has changed in the publishing world since that time. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that fact that American Art Collector is a collector-driven magazine and we pride ourselves in knowing that the best collectors of contemporary and representational art read this magazine on a monthly basis and use it to help them acquire art for their collections. How do we know this? Simple. The galleries tell us. Just recently,…

Opens 7/12 Charlotte, NC Painting is most often thought of as the application of paint. But removing paint has its own rewards, as is the case with the artwork of J. Louis, who uses layers of paint—some stacked tall and others scraped away to reveal a soulful underbelly of raw color—to explore the kaleidoscope of emotion that can be found in the human face. “The face and the human expression are the most important,” he says. “What I like to do is use the elements around the face to draw you in around this solid, abstracted design. One thing that gets lost in a lot of art is that it’s a tool for creating and communicating an idea. To communicate you have to have something familiar that people can relate…

Opens 7/13 Nantucket, MA As the warm weather rolls in, people often find themselves embarking on vacations to the watersides. The paintings of T.S. Harris idyllically capture this summertime fun through images of women standing on beaches and taking dips, allowing the viewer to imagine any time and place through the modern, cropped compositions. Beginning July 13, Harris will have her first solo show at Quidley & Company’s Nantucket Island location that will feature new works of this timeless theme. For the exhibition, Harris says, “I wanted to capture that feeling of fresh air and sea breezes, and all of those moments that we love about summer and being with our family, being at the beach and having that feeling. When I’m working on a painting that’s really what I’m…

7/5-7/6 Kiawah Island, SC In a solo show at Wells Gallery in South Carolina, Russell Gordon will show nearly two dozen paintings that represent a full year’s worth of work. The pieces range in subject from florals to still lifes to avian wildlife, but all contain the clear admiration for nature that has become characteristic of Gordon’s work. Gordon is constantly looking to flora and fauna for his subject matter, saying, “What’s out there is what I’m chasing... When migratory birds return after winter or certain flowers start to bloom, it’s like an epiphany.” He tries to bring that nature back into his studio, carrying a sketchbook almost everywhere he goes, and setting up still life scenes so he can work from life. Treasured is a close-up examination of a…

7/1-7/31 Provincetown, MA Throughout the month of July, Steve Bowersock will present an exhibition of paintings from multiple bodies of work that comment on politics, race and identity. The pieces, on view at his Bowersock Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, are not literal but rather well planned, conceptual compositions that allow the viewers to form their own reactions and thoughts. “The artist has a job to tell a story or narrative, and once it’s done it belongs to the viewer,” Bowersock shares. “You’ll notice a lot of my titles are neutral. I have the concept or idea, but the viewer can see something totally different.” For each painting, Bowersock meticulously builds the concept, subjects and design. “I start the story I’m trying to do, and it turns into a conceptual idea…

7/5-7/8 Northport, NY Masha Gusova’s artwork encourages viewers to challenge their expectations when it comes to our belief systems and the ritualistic thought patterns that can often take over our everyday lives. The U.K.-based artist’s upcoming solo exhibition, a body of work that strives to tell the stories of women, will run from July 5 to 8 at the Haven Gallery booth, No. 623, at the Market Art + Design contemporary art fair. “I am inspired by classical works of art and finding new ways of reinterpreting them. For this show, I have chosen various female figures, which tell stories of our strengths and weaknesses. Envy, which is self-evident; Lady Godiva relating to courage; and the third, Two Venuses, which will be a playful representation of the multifaceted nature of…

Even though Mike D. Wodnick’s work is representational, the underlying abstract shapes and composition is what interests him the most. Born and raised in Minneapolis, Wodnick has had a lifelong interest in the arts and remembers an elementary school field trip where he was mesmerized by Jean Baptiste Chardin’s Attributes of the Arts. “Chardin was a master of composition. His still life paintings are nothing but still. He guides the viewer through the picture, which is something that I strive to do,” Wodnick says. Describing his artistic process, Wodnick explains, “I have an idea or theme that I want to convey. Many times the title of the piece. This is important because it keeps me focused on the center of interest. I will do several thumbnail sketches. I keep them…

Denver-based artist Michelle Courier will be heading out to her beloved Lake Tahoe July 1 for three weeks. She will be visiting the galleries that represent her nearby for shows. She will be at Art Obsessions in Truckee, California, on July 7 and Pacific Crest Gallery in South Lake Tahoe on July 14. She will be bringing new paintings representing Lake Tahoe from her home base, Westward Gallery. Courier will also be searching for new hikes to take photos for new work when she heads home to her Denver studio. “I have the best of both worlds being in Colorado and California and consider myself blessed to be able to hike and paint the vision I see to share with others,” she says. “I want everyone to see what I…

American Procession At Track 16 Gallery, Sandow Birk and Elyse Pignolet present a panorama of American icons and ideology. American Procession consists of two 17-foot long woodblock prints, along with individual works by each artist. The enormous prints are inspired by the Procession of Princes mural in Dresden, Germany. The exhibition runs through July 28. Avian Murals Images of North American birds are appearing in large-scale murals in New York City as a part of the Audubon Mural Project, a collaboration between the National Audubon Society and Ari Gitler of Gitler &_____ Gallery. Currently, there are 82 completed murals of 312 intended, representing the number of North American bird species under threat from climate change. Expanding Collection The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced the acquisition of 10 new…

Make Out Party I want to start this introduction off on a personal note: I have not been this impressed, delighted and stirred about an artist’s work in a while. Not only is Emily Esperanza’s vision clear and well put together, but also the young artist’s voice is intensely and remarkably strong. I’ve known Esperanza for a few years now through mutual friends in the LA art scene and was aware that she was extremely talented and working on big things. So, when I heard that she had finished her newest short film I was excited to see it. After watching her short film, Make Out Party, I decided that Esperanza and her work would be a perfect fit for this column. The 26-year-old artist sent me some of her…

AMY BRIGHT UNFRIED abu@unfriedsculpture.com www.unfriedsculpture.com BRENT COOKE CastArt Studio, Victoria, BC (250) 386-5352, home (250) 588-5352, cell www.castartstudio.com BRETT F. HARVEY brett@brettfharvey.com www.brettfharvey.com BRIAN KEITH Brian Keith Fine Art, (925) 642-0400 brian@briankeithfineart.com www.briankeithfineart.com BRYANT NAGEL GALLERIES Lanning and Turquoise Tortoise 431 SR 179, A1-2, Sedona, AZ 86336 Lanning, (928) 282-6865 www.lanninggallery.com Turquoise Tortoise, (928) 282-2262 www.turquoisetortoisegallery.com CAROLE A. FEUERMAN 28 W. 27th Street, Suite 488, New York, NY 10001, (212) 213-4988 www.carolefeuerman.com DONNA PILTCH Palm Beach Gardens, FL (561) 880-7745, donnapiltch@yahoo.com www.donnapiltch.com JON EDWARD info@jonedwardgallery.com www.jonedwardgallery.com LIQUID LIGHT GLASS 926 Baca Street, Santa Fe, NM 87505 (505) 820-2222, www.liquidlightglass.com MARY HODGE (214) 769-2151, mhhstudio@gmail.com www.maryhodgesculpture.com NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WILDLIFE ART Western Vision 2820 Rungius Road, Jackson, WY 83001 Amy Goicoechea, director of programs and events, (307) 732-5412 agoicoechea@wildlifeart.org www.wildlifeart.org/western-visions PAIGE…

Through 7/7 New York, NY Mason jars were a part of Peggie Blizard’s everyday life growing up in rural North Carolina. In a new series of works on view at George Billis Gallery, Blizard will feature seven still lifes of florals displayed in the iconic vessels. Blizard says, “They bring to the work an element of comfort and nostalgia, while at the same time appealing to an increasingly sophisticated feeling for color and design.” Though the shape of the jars changes from piece to piece, and the flowers depicted range from Japanese anemone to tulips, the paintings all contain the same core elements. Blizard explains, “The jars are centered in the panel with water creating a line roughly through the lettering. The flowers appear to be just tossed into the…

7/13-8/5 Taos, NM Born in Japan, Teruko Wilde went to school at University of Cincinnati and Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio. There, she recalls, she worked in pastels and watercolor primarily in subdued grays and blues. In 1986 she moved to Taos, New Mexico, and discovered color. “Color is part of me after more than 30 years here,” she says. “Not intentionally,” she adds. “It’s a natural extension of my personality.” She calls herself a “country girl” who grew up in the foothills of the mountains near her home in Nagoya and fell in love with Taos Mountain when she moved to New Mexico. She lives in one of the unique Earthships—passive solar homes built with recycled materials—outside of Taos. “I can never get away from nature,”…

Through 8/5 Santa Fe, NM Joerael Elliott’s latest show at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, titled A Clip of Petals, is a fully immersive experience. On view through August 5, the exhibition serves as a visual dialogue around gun violence and mass shootings in the United States. Elliott describes, “I wanted to create something that is both intriguing and beautiful.” Upon walking into the exhibition space, viewers see a watercolorized mural in sumi style, which depicts a flower made of assault rifles. “In the middle of the flower, where insects typically find pollen, there is a clip of bullets, with a bee trying to extract them,” Elliott says. The mural is also decorated with the Sanskrit words for “non-violence” and “non-stealing,” along with words in his own made-up…

William Brion moved to California in 1952 where he enjoyed living on the cliffs above the beach at Agate Street in Laguna Beach. His mother, who had worked for Disney Animation Studios, was instrumental in his exploration of different art mediums. Brion graduated from Whittier College in 1974 with a degree in art and art history. He explored the many forms of artistic expression in art history and began to assimilate and articulate certain artistic influences by preferred artists into his work. He relished the realism of Andrew Wyeth and his weathered structures, and he cherished the beauty of the impressionists in their attempt to capture the moment with dashes of “lighted” paint. Brion rounded out his artistic background with the art of India and the art of Oceania classes…

Group Exhibition MOUNTAIN TRAILS GALLERY July 3-8 Heather Barron TROVE GALLERY July 7 Our Favorite Things TERZIAN GALLERIES July 20-August 1 Of Paper: Denise Duong J GO GALLERY July 21 Niki de Saint Phalle KIMBALL ART CENTER July 21-September 16, opening July 20 Teresa Kalnoskas: Opus JULIE NESTER GALLERY Through July 24 Mary Sauer: Remnants MEYER GALLERY July 27 Audra Weaser JULIE NESTER GALLERY July 27-August 28, opening July 27, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Kimball Arts Festival MAIN STREET August 3-5 Group Exhibition MOUNTAIN TRAILS GALLERY August 3-5 David Frederick Riley MEYER GALLERY August 4 Thomas Arvid PROTHRO GALLERY August 25 Colby Sanford: Remembering Home MEYER GALLERY August 31…

JUL 2018 5 BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY THE BRIDGEHAMPTON MUSEUM Market Art + Design Market Art + Design returns to Bridgehampton for its eighth edition. The tightly curated modern and contemporary art fair showcases 65 top galleries www.artmarkethamptons.com Through July 8 5 LAGUNA BEACH, CA FESTIVAL OF ARTS Festival of Arts of Laguna Beach For the 85th year, the Festival of Arts will include a wide variety of media such as paintings, photography, sculpture, hand-crafted wood and furniture, ceramics and more by Orange County artists. www.lagunafestivalofarts.com Through September 1 6 RALEIGH, NC CAM RALEIGH Jason Craighead: New Works Raleigh’s contemporary art museum features works from Craighead, a recognized leader in the North Carolina art scene. His mixed-media work is expressive, raw and honest. www.camraleigh.org Through August 26 WILMINGTON, DE DELAWARE CONTEMPORARY The…

Figurative artists often find narratives for their canvases from experiences in their personal lives and in their surrounding culture. The result is diverse compositions that speak to artists’ own perspectives, but the works usually capture the attention of viewers because there can be a sense of familiarity. In the exhibition We the People at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Arizona, more than a dozen artists will display artwork highlighting the American experience. These range from pieces with social commentary and self-reflection to works that record moments of everyday life. On view through August 5, the show combines the ideas of its three curators—Tiffany Fairall, the museum’s curator of exhibitions; its chief curator Patty Haberman; and Frank Gonzales, an artist and the museum’s exhibit designer/preparator—to create a varied display of subjects,…

7/5-7/8 Northport, NY The mind of Travis Louie is one of brilliant, otherworldly eccentricity, creating whimsical oddities like swamp monsters, giant bugs, dragons and rabbits in suit jackets on smooth board. His artwork transports viewers to Louie’s imaginary world laced with the characteristics of the Edwardian and Victorian eras. From July 5 through 8, Louie will showcase his new body of work with Haven Gallery at the Market Art + Design contemporary art fair in Bridgehampton, New York. This show is representative of a continuing conversation the artist says he’s been having with himself through the portraits of various characters he has created. Louie adds that his connection to the immigrant experience informs “the unusual circumstances that the subjects of my paintings deal with as they come to North America…

7/21 Denver, CO Raw paint scratched bare in places, piled high in others, parts like a curtain to reveal Ron Hicks’ delicate figures peering out through twirling wisps of off-white background, a blizzard of brushstrokes meant to evoke light and illumination. His figures, many of them women, ask for thoughtful consideration as their eyes lock with the viewer, or wander off the edge of the painting. Hicks’ newest works are presented under the banner The Faces of Eve, which has a biblical inspiration, though not an overly religious guiding light. “I was reading the Bible and I was struck by this passage that deals with the Adam and Eve story, the apple and serpent and all that. If you read between the lines, Eve is sort of framed as though…

7/4-7/17 Santa Fe, NM Aleta Pippin admits, “When I started to paint I tried to control everything.” Today, she experiments with the qualities of the various media she uses—acrylic, resin and oil. She has learned what each medium is capable of doing. “I use a palette knife with the oils so I’m actually touching the paint,” she says. “Otherwise, I’m allowing the material to do what it does. Sometimes I add water to the acrylic or turpentine to the oil but the effect isn’t something I can control. The paintings are spontaneous and sometimes the effect I want is there but I can’t stop it. I walk a thin line between spontaneity and control. “I’m all about color,” she continues. “Acrylics have a sharp synthetic quality and with oils I…

7/1-7/29 Chicago, IL For mixed media artist Ashley Anne Clark, her focus has always been on animals. “I’ve been pushing for animal rights since I was a young teen,” she says. Hoping to elicit compassion and appreciation for all living creatures, Clark endeavors to immerse viewers within the intricate emotions of animal life—worry, angst, surprise—and connect those emotions to that of the human experience. The Charlottetown, Canada, artist’s upcoming exhibition Moonlight Wanderers at Lotton Gallery explores these connections in a way that is literally larger than ever before, as Clark explains that the pieces featured in this show are much bigger than she normally creates, giving her the space to explore a more developed narrative. “Into the night, under the light of the silvery moon, Ashley Anne Clark takes us…

7/20-8/9 Santa Fe, NM Let your eyes explore one of Rodney Hatfield’s paintings for a few moments and you will notice there is something emerging from beneath the final layer of paint. Each work builds from the initial underpainting to sometimes numerous revisions, with these previous iterations bleeding through into the finished piece. This artistic element, called pentimento, is a signature of Hatfield’s, allowing the viewer to appreciate not only the final composition but also how he arrived there. “Sometimes whole paintings that I’ve lived with for a while and decided I didn’t like, I’ll paint over,” Hatfield elaborates. “But, in doing so, I will leave other parts of the original surface showing through. They will become, then, a part of the new painting.” For as long as Hatfield has…

With the end of an era comes an opportunity from artist Michael Wilkinson. He says, “For 36 years now, I have been creating bronze and acrylic sculpture. Fifty-seven of those sculptures were acrylic. The last I created is called Continuum: Moment in Time, which seems a fitting title for my last work in the medium. Thirty-six years is a long run and yet, in my memory, it seems to have happened in the blink of an eye.” At the end of this year, the man who casts Wilkinson’s acrylic sculptures will be retiring and closing his business. “Because he is the best at what he does, I don’t want to start anew with another caster. At the same time, I am satisfied that I have done what I wanted to…

The paintings of Linda Kollacks offer a feast of color to delight the eyes and an energy that reflects her passion for painting. Her goal is not just a duplication of the subject before her but rather an imaginative interpretation using the solid painting skills developed over the years. An early move to Brussels, Belgium, spawned an interest in landscape painting and provided many opportunities for her to paint plein air, a discipline she says cannot be overestimated. “Such exploration not only enriched my art experience but also broadened my life perspective,” Kollacks shares, “and I’m deeply grateful for this.” Kollacks accepts commissions, teaches portraiture and paints landscapes and still life. “It’s important to see oneself as an artist first, not just a portraitist, otherwise one can so easily become…