Margaret’s work develops intuitively. It is composed of a confluence of multiple sensations drawn from her own experiential landscape. There is an all-consuming mental grind in the creative process, and her objective is to achieve visually arresting images. The goal in this series is to make the apparently simple relationships of form and color charged with as much force, feeling and meaning as possible.
On a simple level, Micheline Klagsbrun began with the intention to display side-by-side work done in her East Coast studio with work done here in Telluride. She has always been interested in the sense of place in art. At a deeper level, Klagsbrun is also fascinated by the parallels that can be found between cultures widely separated by time and geography.
In our world that grows ever smaller, as the wonders of nature and the universe become more commonplace due to digital photography and affordable travel, the idea of the flawed explorer who travels the expanse of the mysterious world before him, yet never observes the amazing creatures around him—only focusing on “What else is out there? What am I missing?”—is a humorous observation on our digital lives. Dave Pressler’s exhibit, “Exploring Imaginary Worlds” focuses on these concepts.
“There is an undeniable sense of danger and power in using fire to create a drawing; and there lies a grotesque, but grounding, beauty in using bacon to create a painting. Perhaps the combination of the two is American.” Anderson is interested in the way environments and their people shape how one interprets their experiences. Oscillating between energetic moments of inspiration and long periods of study and focus is essential to Anderson’s practice. Sketches and drawings from travels formed with careful but emotional mark making weave a history of journey among the creatures.
The nature of this show has evolved and changed as the work emerged. What was once a wildly conceptual installation has transformed into a simple statement of Beaver’s inner self. Never being given the opportunity to explore art as a path in life, this creative outlet has become a way for Beaver to express different aspects of himself. This body of work is a genuine exposure and emergence. While the mediums vary throughout the show, they each reflect an uncharted territory of, what Beaver describes as, his “inner sanctuary.” The things that Beaver finds most sacred in life and the marriage of those beliefs are the guiding influence in all of the work.
Next Move is inspired by an Albert Einstein quote, “Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” This work demonstrates some of my “moving”--- recent visual exploration to continue developing my vocabulary and sensibility. Abstracted shapes mingle with more figurative elements and old ideas and concerns struggle to find new expressions. The paintings are metaphors for past experiences and memory.
Alyce Levy is a graphic designer, and creator of her line, Modern Slice. Modern Slice art pieces have a mid century soul. They begin with a single piece of perfectly imperfect wood with rings and whorls that tell us a story of time and life, visual respresentations of who an individual is in strong, decisive lines and colors working together with a message to send, a song to sing, an all day long smile in the heart, and as unique as every living creature or thought on this planet.
Rebecca Harrell’s work is rooted in an interest in evolving landscapes, human interventions with the natural world, and geologic formations. She is interested in the contrast between slowly evolving natural forms and rapidly expanding, urban settings. The result is a visual dialog around scale, source imagery and space. Harrell exaggerates that tension through material and formal choices.
March 1, 2017 - May 30, 2017
Telluride Arts HQ Gallery
Telluride Arts’ HQ gallery in Telluride, Colorado presents, “Petal and Pencil,” an exhibit by local artist Adam Carlos accompanied by the jewelry of Colleen Thompson. The show opens March 2 and runs through May 2017. The Art Walk opening reception will be held Thursday, March 2, 5-8 p.m.
When one thinks of flowers, almost immediately their thoughts turn to a particular color of their favorite flower. For Adam Carlos, any mention of a the word “flower” conjures up the fields of springtime yellow daffodils left behind in Tennessee before his move to Telluride. For Adam, daffodils embody not only the first signs of spring after a long winter, but the memory left behind of past generations. One can find a cluster of daffodils, dig them up, and separate the bulbs to replant. This original flowers planted years ago will often multiply to produce a hundred new individual flowers. Growing up among the fertile soils of Tennessee, Adam Carlos always had a love of flowers that culminated from an early separation of a cluster of daffodil bulbs that had once resided on his great grandfather's farm. When one thinks of flowers, almost immediately their thoughts turn to a particular color of their favorite flower. For Adam Carlos, any mention of a the word “flower” conjures up the fields of springtime yellow daffodils left behind in Tennessee before his move to Telluride. From that original cluster, a hundred or so bulbs lined the driveway of Adam's childhood home every spring of his youth. Bulbs were divided to form the backdrop of the flowerbeds of Adam's later homes, and there are already plans to pass along daffodil bulbs to his own children.
This new series of works is an attempt to break away from the simple idea that the beauty of a flower is color alone. S Hopefully, simple black and white studies of form will stimulate memories and take an individual back to a single moment in time when they were engulfed in a single bloom or bouquet.
For last 20 years Adam W. Carlos has devoted the majority of his time to promoting an art form that has nearly become extinct through his portraiture and landscape work. Few artists spend the painstaking amount of time to produce large realistic works in graphite pencil as Adam does. He has instilled in himself an awareness of vision that could most simply be described as paying attention - specifically to beauty, uniqueness, community and family. Adam's vision, attention to detail, and his patience provide a strong backbone to his artistic methods, enabling him to create stunning portraits that capture the true character and personalities of his subjects. Adam's studio and gallery, Adam W. Carlos Fine Art, offers exclusive graphite pencil portraiture in heart of the Mountain Village core. His painstaking dedication to accuracy makes Adam's portraits, landscape and equestrian drawings stand out.
Additionally, Colleen Thompson will be displaying her newest series of artisan jewelry in Gallery 81435. Colleen Thompson is an easily inspired Telluride local who creates jewelry best described as "earthy elements combined with Southwest style." There is so much magic and possibility found in the San Juan Mountains— Colleen harnesses this magic into each handmade piece. In 2016 Colleen was awarded a grant by Telluride Arts District to create a collection of sterling silver jewelry using precious metal clay. She is thrilled to share this collection with the Telluride community at this month’s Art Walk. Special thanks to Christopher Beaver, her mentor, and Telluride Arts District.
The show runs through May 2017 at Telluride Arts HQ Gallery, located at 135 W Pacific in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6pm or by appointment.
March 1, 2017 - May 30, 2017
I have often heard that an artist has to have a good story to go with their work. My paintings tell their own story. They are rich in history. Layers of images. Every viewer sees something, their own story, a relative, a friend and that is what I think attracts them to my paintings. If someone asks me what one of my paintings is about, I say, “you tell me”. When I paint I feel alive and free. For a few hours nothing else matters. My hope is that my paintings can make the viewer feel that way too, if even for a moment.
February 1, 2017 - February 28, 2017
This series of paintings is a compilation of pieces done by the artist while driving around the Western US in her Chevy Astro Van, combined with pieces done in her Salt Lake City studio at the culmination of her trip. Gomez’s visual journal and sketchbook explode with ideas she captured on her journey through nature – from striking Natural Parks and Forests, to the serenity of the ocean. Each painting is wrought with vivid colors, deep textures, and gestural movements, as this is the vocabulary built from experiences and expressions of what she observed. Living in the mountains, smelling the pine trees each morning, or waking up to a salty breeze; Each painting is a product of the studies Gomez had done and continues to explore in her evolution as an artist.
February 1, 2017 - February 28, 2017
The colorful, humorous, and hopeful fabric works of New Orleans artist Chris Roberts-Antieau are coming to the Telluride Arts District for Mardi Gras season. Antieau’s subject matter ranges from joyfully candid cultural commentary depicting unbelievable true stories (such as James Brown’s Funeral: And The Tragic Aftermath) to more personal reflections on nature, perception, reality and truth. Antieau further explores her interests through sculpture and installation, creating elaborate dollhouses of famous murder scenes and elegant gowns embroidered with birds of prey eviscerating small animals.
Songline, named appropriately for the mythological Aboriginal calling to follow a mysterious dream track, is a show about Stephanie’s own creative walkabout. “I have embarked on a journey into my own art process and have created imagery that illustrates some significant discoveries along the way.” This allegorical body of work is the continuation of an ongoing theme centered on relationships between land, humans, animals and the great unknown.
November 30, 2016 - January 31, 2017
Emily Palmquist’s newest series is composed of those very bones, an intimate observation of the mesa she has inhabited for the passing of nearly three winters. The seasons transform with the interchange of birds and wildflowers, the various state and movement of water, a hen’s first egg and her last feather. Winter leaves the fence lines buried up to their ears slowly emerging with spring. Summer’s leaves turn brown and dry just in time for the winds of fall to blow them bare. The days are stitched together with tracks in the snow, rain clouds pulling low against the valley, and another dead vole at my threshold.
October 5, 2016 - November 29, 2016
For two years artist Jill Sabella and poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer experimented with simplicity—a leaning toward less and the more that blossoms out of it. They took turns sending each other work to respond to. The result: 45 intimate pairings, in which three-line drawings and three-line poems reflect each other. Some are framed individually and others are framed as triptychs. The result: Elegant. Provocative. Inviting. Poignant.
The artwork began with charcoal thoughts, and later the same drawings were done on rice paper with Sumi ink and brush.
In addition to the framed artwork, the pairings have been made into a book, even now (Lithic Press, 2016).
The show runs thru November 2016 at Gallery 81435, located at 230 S Fir Street in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6pm or by appointment.
September 6, 2016 - November 29, 2016
Telluride Arts’ newest gallery in Telluride, CO presents an exhibit by abstract painter Emily Ballou, ceramic sculptor, Matthew Adams, and jewelers, Veldt Marfa. The show opens Thursday, October 6, from 5-8 pm and runs until November 29.
The exhibit features an array of Emily Ballou’s work, all created in Telluride. Ballou gathers inspiration from the natural beauty that surrounds her in the Western Slope of Colorado. Additionally, the artist finds recent trends in design and fashion to be a source of inspiration for her vibrant variety of colors and interesting textures found in her abstract work. Ballou’s style of painting is contemporary. She works primarily with acrylic paints and various mediums, but also experiments with other materials such as wood stain, gold leaf, and varnishes in order to create new and intriguing surfaces and styles. She is constantly pushing her work to have its own unique properties, but consistently strives for vivacious color schemes and stimulating surface textures.
Emily Ballou is grateful for the inspiration and creativity spurred in the Box Canyon, as well as the support that the Telluride community and Telluride Arts provide to artists. Ballou is a Telluride local that maintains a very full lifestyle: working in the lodging/marketing industry, owning a small business (Bridal Veil Floral), plugging into the local community, and staying busy with her new baby boy. But Ballou has a true passion for letting her creativity pour out onto canvas, and painting is how she claims that she stays calm and grounded when life gets hectic.
Through his art, Matthew Adams desires to help the viewer discover something new by evoking the mysterious, but somehow strangely familiar, to draw the mind in direction it’s not used to. He enjoys exploring the boundless possibilities of form, while integrating rhythm, movement and balance. Matthew aspires to create lasting art that provides a captivating, tactile and poetic experience.
Matthew studied art at the University of Colorado, apprenticed at Moravian Pottery and Tile Works and then went on to receive an MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design. Before moving to Telluride last December, Matthew lived in Taos, New Mexico, making art and teaching clay at the University of New Mexico for the past 15 years.
Telluride Arts Gallery is currently featuring the jewelry of Veldt-Marfa. Veldt-Marfa is the creation of Glen and LéAna Clifton, an artistic duo living in Marfa, Texas. The hand-made porcelain forms designed and made exclusively in their tiny studio offer them the ultimate form of self-expression. Beautiful, minimal and sensual forms, distilled to their essence. Art that you can feel and wear. Using a unique process, the pieces have a buttery-smooth, highly tactile surface. The naked porcelain is fully vitrified, which makes it one of the most durable materials on earth. A natural fit for their minimal jewelry. Being handmade means each piece is slightly different from the piece before it, and quite personal.
The show runs until November 29, 2016 at Telluride Arts Soul & Matter Gallery, located at 135 W Pacific in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6pm or by appointment.
August 2, 2016 - September 6, 2016
Sunset skies and clouds are a subject Dave Pressler never gets tired of painting. Adding robots to the mix makes it even better. In addition to the bold color palette, he likes the added challenge of rendering clouds and light in a greyscale graphite medium. The added comedy of robots dealing with their flying rocket contraptions also reflects the frustration of man dealing with machines.
“Robots are my favorite subjects because I suck at drawing people,” says Pressler.
Dave Pressler is a Los Angeles based artist and character designer who has used sculpture and illustration to fuse two of his primary passions: fine art and the world of pop entertainment. In the past 20 years he has designed characters and worlds for a variety of kids entertainment companies. Most recently Dave has dove in to the universe of TV animation. Co-creating and designing the Emmy Nominated Robot And Monster a new animated series that is currently airing on Nickelodeon. In addition to his media projects, Pressler is an accomplished painter and sculptor whose work shows in galleries all around Los Angeles and the world.
The show runs until September 5, 2016 at HQ Gallery, located at 135 W Pacific in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6pm or by appointment.
July 3, 2016 - October 4, 2016
“What interests me is using color to steer the eye across the plane. I present the subject, but the meaning is not dictated, that is left to the viewer. I look to find that perfect balance, where less is more.”
For over two decades, Artist Ryan Cronin has been using Rust-Oleum paint to create his own unique iconography. His work has been described as Pop that teeters between Abstract and Representational. It is a mashup of high and low culture, driven by a deep sense of color and placement. It's large-scale, bold, and marked by his signature gloss finish. It is accessible and emotional, with a playful edge.
Cronin has exhibited his work in galleries, museums, and art fairs throughout the United States and has completed several large-scale murals including the silo at Tuthilltown Spirits/Hudson Valley Whiskey and a mural in Wynwood during Art Basel. In May of 2015 Ryan and his wife Melanie opened a gallery in New Paltz, New York. The gallery features a mix of Cronin’s original works, museum quality prints, sculpture, and a line of wares designed by Cronin.
Cronin was born in 1972 on the front seat of a late 60’s Plymouth station wagon. He made a bold entrance into this world and he has kept his family, friends, and fans on their toes ever since. From as far back as he can remember his father told him “you can be the garbage man, you can be the president.” These words stuck with him and shaped him into the artist he is today.
The show runs until August 30, 2016 at Gallery 81435, located at 230 S Fir Street in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6pm or by appointment.
Link to Artist Page
June 1, 2016 - July 2, 2016
Steven Derks’ exhibit, “Remnant Aluminum Sculpture,” is composed of constructivist inspired aluminum wall sculptures, which juxtapose the lyrical with the mechanical. Derks’ intention with this work is to make sculpture that represents fragments of industrial or mechanical apparatus. “I’m interested in the post-industrial aesthetic and the tension between regular geometries and irregularity.” The artwork is intended to suggest remnants of painted machines.
Steven Derks is a practicing full-time, self-taught artist focusing primarily in metal sculpture with an emphasis on as-is found object art, as well as a minor practice in non-objective painting and photography. His work can be found in numerous public, corporate, museum and private art collections both in the United States and abroad. His most notable showcases include a six-year exhibition in the Oval Office during the Clinton administration, and an ongoing residency exhibit at the University of Arizona Bio 2 in Oracle Az. He maintains a prolific studio practice that is influenced by such artists as Jim Dine and Sir Anthony Caro.
The show runs until July 5th, 2016 at Gallery 81435, located at 230 S Fir Street in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6pm or by appointment.
Link to Artist Page
March 2, 2016 - May 20, 2016
“I have never considered man to be separate from the environment, either physically or spiritually. All aspects of life and existence are intertwined and interdependent, an idea that was only confirmed by my study of biology in college. A reverence and concern for the planet is not a concern for something external to our selves.”
The exhibit, “Second Nature,” is comprised of pieces – both paintings and sculptures, from Dibbs’ series, “Anthropocene” and “Metanarrative”. Both series explore the dynamic and intriguing relationship between man and nature.
“Anthropocene” refers to our current geological era, which is marked by the effects of mankind. This body of work explores the complicated relationship between the natural world and mankind’s endeavors.
Tania Dibbs is an artist based in the Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen. At the beginning of her career, she was a landscape painter, but upon learning the skill of capturing nature accurately, she realized the style was meaningless and pretty landscapes seemed irrelevant to the status quo. The relationships between Mankind, his endeavors and ambitions, and the physical world are what Dibbs is exploring in this work.
The show runs until May 20th at Gallery 81435, located at 230 S Fir Street in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6pm or by appointment.
