Turner plays with paint; Ciao shows 'new arts'

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

By Susan Burkitt

Kathryn Mapes Turner, one of the three owners-artists at Trio Fine Art, will open a new show that in the painter’s own words is “all about place, paint and aesthetics.”
The show includes many landscapes and equestrian portraits, but is as much about the use of paint as it is about the subject matter, Turner said.

“I paint what I know,” said Turner. “But the relationship with paint is the focus [of the show] – thick, thin, playing with brushstroke.”

Turner, born and raised on the Triangle X Ranch in Grand Teton National Park, did her undergraduate work in Studio Arts at the University of Notre Dame, spending a semester in Rome, Italy, and later studied at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She also earned a master’s degree from the University of Virginia.

Among many honors, Turner was named Wyoming’s Best Watercolor Artist in 2001 by the Wyoming Watercolor Society, and in 2002 was listed in SouthwestArt Magazine’s “Annual Profile of Young Artists with Promising Careers.”

The artist continues to live locally. In addition to her involvement at Trio, Turner has taught at the Jackson Hole Community School and continues to teach adult art classes through the Art Association.

“Teaching is great for my art – it allows me to clarify my work,” Turner said.
Following a recent successful show in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., Turner said she is “thrilled to be back on my home turf” with the new show at Trio and a booth at last weekend’s Art Fair.

“The Jackson Community has been so supportive of my art,” she said. “I believe that beauty provides a service [to a community], and I am honored to be able to contribute to that service.”

Turner’s show opens with a conversation with the artist at 5 p.m. on Thursday (reservations requested) followed by hors d’oeuvres and refreshments 6-8 p.m.
 The show will hang through Aug. 11. Trio Fine Art Gallery is located at 545 N. Cache St. and can be contacted at 734-4444. Turner’s web site is www.TurnerFineArt.com.

                                                      •

You know times are a changin’ when Ciao Gallery in Victor, Idaho – an artists’ co-op that launched in March and already has 19 artists in its membership – hosts a show titled “New Arts & Mind Flowing Images” and opens it with free food, drink and a freestyle MC battle.

“New Arts,” which opens Saturday, features Tony Birkholz, a young video artist working with many media, and Steven Glass, another mixed media artist whose paintings on glass are reminiscent of pre-digital animation.

Birkholz, who identifies himself as “another being creative” on his MySpace.com page, works in multiple media, including video, sculpture, paint and photography. While his day jobs include video production and graphic design, Birkholz’s work has a decidedly political bent. He describes his viewpoint as “[c]onstantly growing and not agreeing with the way things are `… Contributing as much as possible to the good fight, a conscious revolution.”

His portion of the show will include video, photography and painting.

Steven Glass’s artwork stemmed from a “serendipitous turn, a happy accident,” as he put it. “A friend happened to be throwing away a print in a large glass frame. I knew instantly I wanted it.”

However, Glass’s happy accident seems less accidental in light of his educational background: a B.A. in English and an MFA in writing and the publishing arts. While writing was Glass’s initial passion, his discipline traveled a past as circuitous as his artistic mode of operation: “Unlikely turns, misinterpreted words, objects collected on the way, the process revealing itself, an entrance.”

In Saturday’s show, his work will feature found objects and recycled materials from the ReStore and will address themes such as food, water and war.

“The paintings for this show consist of wood and glass and are interesting to me because they contain visual depth, shadow and movement,” Glass explained. “On glass there is endless possibility for layering and shadows.”

Ciao Gallery opened this March with the idea of providing local artists with the chance to control the space where they exhibit their art, and share the costs and efforts of managing and maintaining the space. Currently, 19 artists from a variety of backgrounds and media are involved with the gallery and one or two are highlighted the last Saturday of each month with an opening reception.

The co-op provides great exposure for emerging artists in exchange for gallery shift hours and five different enrollment levels, which vary on rent costs and commission rates.

The show will hang until Aug. 10. Come join the party from 6-9 p.m. at 145 N. Main St., Victor, Idaho. Cntact Ciao at (208) 787-4841 or visit www.CiaoGallery.com.

                                                      •

John Felsing’s new show, “Dämmerung (Twilight),” on display at Muse Gallery until Aug. 7, finds the artist using oils and sand on linen and canvas in broad, paint-laden brushstrokes. The highly textural paintings, strewn with the grainy particles spread by his brushes, are in contrast to the dreamlike quality of his images.

The new work reflects the artist’s statement that his paintings “are all about dreaming, and thinking, and love, about the feeling of a long-ago wet autumn afternoons spent raking leaves with my father, about my German grandfather and this same wet smell that filled his air. … Somehow all of this gets up into the paintings.”

Several of the paintings have sold, but will remain in the gallery until the show’s close. Stop by and drift off into the welcoming landscapes Felsing presents to us.

Muse Gallery will also hold an artist’s reception 5-8 p.m. tomorrow for Russian-born and -educated Simon Kogan, whose show, “Simon Kogan: New Sculptures,” features mostly small-scale bronze horses, in part and whole, in a variety of poses.

Kogan, who now resides in Olympia, Wash., studied under renowned Russian sculptor Isaac Brodsky. Kogan’s sculpture has a classic style, whether seen in these smaller pieces or in his monumental works found at the Holocaust Museum in Spokane, Wash., and the WWII Memorial on the grounds of the state capitol in Olympia, Wash.

Kogan’s show will hang until July 31. Visit Muse Gallery at its new location at 62 S. Glenwood, call 733-0555 or go to www.JHMuseGallery.com.

Courtesy Steven Glass
“Thickening Agents,” mixed media on glass, 11 1/4 x 14 3/8 inches, Steven Glass 2007

PERMALINK:
Turner plays with paint; Ciao shows 'new arts' | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

Leave a Comment