Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026/No. 243 i American Art Collector

Welcome to the January issue of American Art Collector and Happy New Year! We are kicking off this year with our Art Lover’s Guide to Collecting Fine Art in Arizona. This destination guide is close to home as our world headquarters are here in Scottsdale. The Grand Canyon State is brimming with contemporary realism this month. You will find the proof beginning on Page 59 in the many gallery and art show previews we have for you. While everyone else is hunkering down for winter, Arizona might as well have a sign that says, “Come for the art. Stay for the weather.” And you should. We have an in-depth guide for you that will help you plan your stay in Arizona. Our founder, Vincent Miller, chose Arizona for our headquarters…

Roger Rossi joined the Salmagundi Club in 2007 and quickly became an integral part of its artistic community. Soon after becoming a member, he joined the Art Committee and founded the Auction Help Team, going on to serve four years on the board. With his dedication extended to the Admissions and Collections/Archives Committees, and as Chairman of Auctions, Rossi broadened the club’s presence through expanded social media initiatives, now serving as a key pillar of the club’s public relations efforts. The Salmagundi Club recently honored Rossi with its Legacy Award, for his ongoing engagement, outreach and dedication that exemplify the spirit of Salmagundi. During his time with the club, Rossi also revitalized its plein air program, now known as “Salmagundians and Their Friends,” which has grown to four active chapters,…

Subscribe today to get the best contemporary American art magazine in the country, and the only monthly magazine that highlights the top artists, galleries, museums and fairs throughout the art market. Need proof? The proof is in your hands. Flip through this stunning issue to find the most thorough coverage of the contemporary realism genre through: » Previews of all the biggest gallery shows, art events and sales. » Destination guides for the hottest art markets. » Special genre sections to expand your collecting power. » 12 issues a year, each one presenting work from the top artists and the rising newcomers… and everyone in between! Join our huge community of subscribers who have chosen American Art Collector as their go-to trusted source for everything they need to know about…

Welcome Home: Larisa Brechun is the artist’s debut exhibition at Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, South Carolina. It runs from January 1 through 23. Robert and Megan Lange comment, “There are moments in the life of a gallery when an artist arrives, whose work feels so perfectly aligned with its spirit that it’s almost as if they’ve been there all along. Larisa Brechun is one of those rare artists. Her arrival marks not only a new collaboration but a heartfelt continuation of the gallery’s devotion to authenticity, beauty and the quiet strength of painting.” Brechun paints in her studio north of San Antonio, Texas, surrounded by her dogs and cats. “When I view other artists’ work, I always find myself relating to it in my own personal way…finding my own…

Jon Ching’s latest body of work does the same thing all of his paintings do—inspect, challenge and dissect the world around us. But as the world continues to change at a rapid pace, so do the themes that Ching examines. His upcoming exhibition with Haven Gallery focuses on the idea of escape, born from the desire to flee from the chaos and intensity of modern life. “What hasn’t been captivating me lately?” Ching says. “The news these days is so supercharged and the attention economy seems to have found new highs (or lows?). With all the chaos in this country from tariffs…the [government] shut down, attacks on the constitution, the weakening of environmental protections, etc. and AI looming over everything, and trying to figure out what’s the best elementary school…

So often when it comes to fine art, our focus is on the finished piece—its beauty, its visual or emotional impact, its message, its narrative, even its value. But sometimes there is an equal amount of beauty in the creative process—how an artist coaxes an idea from its nascent beginnings into full physical expression; and the painstaking steps and unwavering resolve required to reach the destination of completion. It is through process, unique to every artist, that we learn what really makes them tick. The methods of two artists in the January issue intrigued me as much as their finished works. The first is Cynthia Daignault, who spent six months driving the entire perimeter of the United States, stopping to paint or photograph the view every 27 miles. Back in…

Arizona has a bounty of options for locals and visitors who are seeking art-related experiences. Depending on what kind of art resonates with you, whether you enjoy urban vibes or a more bohemian feel, state-of-the-art museums or street fairs—or a smattering of it all—this guide will help you tailor the perfect trip to meet your needs and desires. You’ll likely be flying into Phoenix no matter where your ultimate destination lies, so if you can, carve out some time to explore the city and surrounding area. Looking for worldclass museums? Don’t miss the Phoenix Art Museum and the Heard Museum, home to an unsurpassed collection of Native American art. If you prefer exploring on a smaller scale or want to get a taste of cowboy culture and history, head over…

For Jivan Lee’s upcoming show at Altamira Fine Art, it’s all about light. While the Taos, New Mexico-based artist is enamored with the landscape that surrounds him, inspiring an exploration of varying concepts, Lee has mainly dedicated his new body of work to the spectrum of light. The Taos landscape is the “scaffolding” behind his observations of light and visceral human responses, revealed in roughly 12 new pieces with bold texture, thick brush strokes and a stunning palette. “My practice seems to walk between a few modes that weave together and also feel distinct,” shares Lee about the works featured in his show Full Spectrum. “One mode approaches conceptual ideas that I want to explore, like how we see and think about the landscape, what happens when a constant composition…

Shain Gallery often chooses to feature distinctly different artists in their group shows and, true to form, they are kicking off the new year with an exhibition that will have a piece to please every palate. This January, the gallery will showcase works by hyper-realist still life artist Scott Filipiak; Scott Hill, who paints dreamy scenes that spark the imagination; and Caitlin Shirock, whose dynamic depictions of organic forms enter the realm of the abstract. Filipiak is drawn to objects that carry traces of their past, “the worn edges, faded labels and subtle imperfections that reveal a story,” he explains. “There’s a nostalgia in that evidence of use, a link to a slower, more tactile era. Through painting them, I try to celebrate both their design and the human connection…

Whether depicting 1950s-era pin-up models against candy-colored polka dot backgrounds, neon signs, bottle caps, Mickey Mouse, pulp Westerns or matchbooks, Geoffrey Gersten’s vintage pop culture subject matter transports viewers to a time when, one might argue, the aesthetics of design had an unmatched visual appeal, and thus endures to this day. His latest body of work, on view at Altamira Fine Art from January 6 through January 17, continues in this vein, drawing inspiration from objects of the past that evoke a nostalgia balanced by Gersten’s bold contemporary style. “Retro Reverie invites us into a dreamlike era of American optimism, where design, desire and imagination collide in living color,” says gallery owner Jason Williams about the show. “Geoffrey Gersten captures that sense of wonder with a painter’s precision and a…

1 Principle Gallery sells painting on the cover of the October issue Russell Gordon’s painting Sod Buster was selected to be on the cover of the October issue of American Art Collector. The painting was featured in a preview of his solo exhibition at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. “I live in Alexandria, and I walk by Principle Gallery frequently and…I was strolling down King Street one evening and decided to pop in—it happened to be opening night for the Russell Gordon show,” says the buyer. “I was tickled and taken with the series immediately, and Sod Buster especially caught my eye: the richness and texture, colors and light, Gordon’s craftsmanship, and especially the subject. I see a prairie dog trying mightily (in an alternate reality) to make it as a farmer,”…

Making Moves: A Collection of Feminisms illustrates the breadth of materials and approaches artists have employed to represent women’s experiences. Ranging from figurative depictions to more abstract expressions, the exhibition examines the evolving complexities of femininity and feminism that have inspired generations of visual artists. Organized thematically, Making Moves explores ideas of self-representation, care, sentimentality, the erotic and memory. The artworks featured are drawn from the Crocker’s permanent collection, alongside generous loans and gifts from private collections. And for the first time at the Crocker, Frida Kahlo’s work will be on view. The iconic 1947 painting Self-Portrait with Loose Hair, on loan from a private collection, affirms Kahlo’s cultural identity in the years following the Mexican Revolution and stands as a powerful expression of feminine strength and self-definition. The exhibition…

Richard MacDonald is master of the space between the touch, of the electrical tingle anticipating the moment before skin meets skin, of the vibrating bridge of sensual communication. His sculptures are erotic and ethereal, soft melodies composed with the feminine spell and power of the ancient dryad, like harmonies of light with a counterpoint of hard bronze, a firm and masculine edge of solid physical presence. They are images of becoming, of the moment between contact, and of finding unity. Nightfall is the pregnant heart of MacDonald’s dreamy aesthetics, where everything is in the moment of becoming, where everything is in suspension. She represents the threshold of potential, because her step is the paradigm of all steps, each taken in the liminal space between the past and the future, each…

When Kurt Solmssen was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the early 1980s, he had a Toyota pick-up. The largest canvas that would fit in the bed of the truck was 50 by 70 inches, which became the standard size for his big paintings. The artist would drive around Manayunk, an area of Philadelphia that resembled a European city, with houses and churches above the Schuylkill river, or across the river in Belmont Hills, looking for places where he could set up and paint. “I was attracted to images where the shapes and colors, and the light and shadow, somehow fit together like pieces of a puzzle,” Solmssen says. The artist creates painterly scenes of the outdoors, maritime subjects and interiors. Starting on New Year’s…

The kinetic energy of his models animates the paint in Alex Kanevsky’s figure paintings, as if the models will keep on living—as they will—and may even appear different when we return for a second look. The seemingly static energy of the mountains he ventures out to paint is belied by the mountains’ eroding, their vegetation changing with the seasons, the perception of their form changing in the changing light. Yet, when he was making one of his mountain paintings for his current exhibition at Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, he felt that “everything in the world, in my life and in the landscape around the mountain felt to be in flux. But the mountain was the same as it has always been before I came there and the same…

Netherlands andre@andrerios.art www.andrerios.art André Rios is a Portuguese artist currently living in the Netherlands, who creates such sharp and vivid artworks, it’s almost hard to believe they’re pastels. From wildlife and botanicals to candy wrappers and tubes of paint, Rios’ hyperrealistic pastels are impressive to behold. “Much of my work has grown from a need to understand how we perceive reality and experience ourselves in an increasingly digital world. My in|square series was as a response to that. Pixelated, fragmented portraits that reflect how technology reshapes identity, memory, and even the way we see one another,” says the artist. This series takes those highly realistic images the artist is known for, and then distorts them. “Those works allowed me to express disconnection, distortion and the space between reality and its…

The Salmagundi Club hosted its first Annual Black and White Exhibition in 1878, only seven years after the organization was founded by now-renowned artists Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase, N.C. Wyeth, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Childe Hassam and others. The club has upheld the tradition ever since, making it their longest running show. The exhibition, featuring only works in black and white across a variety of media, was established during a time when many of the original members were illustrators and had only line and contrast to create impact in a time when color reproduction was rare. “Their black and white graphite and ink sketches and drawings were sold or auctioned occasionally to raise funds to support the club,” explains Art Committee co-chair William Jobson. “This tradition honors both the methods…