Best of 2011: Clyfford Still in Denver, De Kooning at MoMA from adobeairstream.com
On November 22, I visited the newly opened Clyfford Still museum in Denver, which for the first time presented the artist’s work as it developed, in stages, visually highlighting how Still got from landscapes and figures to abstraction. A few days later I was in New York taking in the Willem De Kooning retrospective at … Read more
Peter Plagens at Rule Gallery from adobeairstream.com
Explosions of color are presented in the solo-exhibition of collage paintings by Peter Plagens at Rule Gallery. Vivid color seeps into the paper, full chroma jars the eyes in staggering layers, there is depth, contradiction and spontaneity in the color, packed in relatively small frames. The largest paintings are 24 x 18 inches the smallest … Read more
The Aspen Zone: Veryl Goodnight’s Inspiration from Arts Perspective
Goodnight and her husband, Roger Brooks, live between the brow of Mesa Verde and the La Plata mountain range, near Helmet Peak. Within a 30-minute drive, Goodnight can explore groves of aspen trees, the headwaters of the La Plata River, the barren alpine tundra above timberline, or the red rock canyons to the south. Herds of elk and deer are abundant, joined by the occasional bear, mountain lion or coyote.
Regan Rosburg: The Understory exhibition essay for David B. Smith Gallery
Regan Rosburg is inspired by the humble network of life that proliferates on the forest floor, in the shade, beneath the canopy of trees that sore above, blocking out the precious sunlight. The artist collects objects and insects from the deciduous forest of Northeastern Tennessee where she lives on a small farm with her fiancé. Regan left her native Colorado for Tennessee a little more than a year ago. Sheʼs inspired by her surroundings and the sound of her rooster talking to his hens. These recent works created for “Understory” reflect how those changes in her life are influencing her creative work.
Patrick Mcfarlin at Goodwin Fine Art in Denver
Mcfarlin began exploring this body of work in 2008, inspired by the obituary postings in Art in America’s Annual Guide. He was initially struck by how the lives of these art-world celebrities were reduced to a two-line sentence.
Roland Bernier artist profile from Art Ltd. magazine
Bernier intentionally did not affiliate with the early conceptual artists using text to make art, such as Ed Ruscha or Lawrence Weiner, or with Pop Art, for that matter. Bernier considers himself an original, unaffiliated with any movement or group. His work contains limited thematic content; one of the most striking elements of his practice is that he does not use words to make sense or to reference contemporary culture. “Initially I felt I had to break down the barriers of making sense by just listing words taken at random from the dictionary and putting them on canvas and board, sometimes by themselves, at other times with designed or familiar images in which the words were covered.”
Laura Ball for David B. Smith Gallery
Fabulous forces are encountered in the paintings of Laura Ball. Her heroines have entered the region of supernatural wonder. For Ball, as for Joseph Campbell, a hero is a person
in the world who encounters another person, a god or a guide, or has a traumatic experience, and thus begins a journey. Her watercolor paintings of girls on the heroʼs journey are inspired by Joseph Campbell and Greek Mythology.
What’s missing from Colorado’s “Best of…” lists when it comes to visual art
I’m more interested in what is unique to Colorado and not just some rehashing of the latest trends in contemporary art. Art happens everywhere in the state, not just on the Front Range.
Enrique Chagoya Controversy in Loveland
I wrote this piece for the Huffington Post about the controversy over Enrique Chagoya’s “The Misadventures of Romantic Cannibals” at the Loveland Museum. The truck driver from Montana, Kathleen Folden pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and received 18 months probation. Colorado Councilman May Want To Explore Why Art “Turned Him On.” Also on Huffington Post, … Read more
Dena Schuckit Profile from Art Ltd. Magazine
Schuckit grew up in San Diego, went to college in Santa Cruz then moved briefly to New York before settling in San Francisco, and a thirteen-year career as a master printer at Crown Point Press. Today she lives in London, where in 2008 she completed her MA in painting at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
