‘Abstractions’ and Indian blankets in Jackson, NMWA on TV

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

By Henry Sweets

This Friday, May 23, the Muse gallery will open a new show “Abstractions,” featuring mixed media works by two painters, who offer distinctly different brands of compelling cogitation to their viewers.

Whitney Nye’s collage paintings of meticulously patterned bits of cut paper, and Valerie Stuart’s richly hued minimal landscapes were chosen because they both have striking energies, gallery owner Tayloe Piggott said.

“Both artists have this amazing projection that captures the viewer, but in very different ways,” she said.

Whitney Nye cut old prints, maps and textbooks into tiny pieces and pasted them onto wood, sometimes painting before cutting, or juxtaposing the collages to surfaces built up with acrylic paint, and finished with oil paint.

Nye said her new series emerged from a desire to get rid of the papers and books cluttering her studio. She said by “sitting down and doing a mantra and a meditation, and not knowing where [the piece] is going,” she could transform the stagnant energy of the paper into something with a spontaneous energy and sense of renewal.

Valerie Stuart layers plaster and paint to create rich, textured frescoes with brushstrokes and built colors that mimic weather patterns and human emotion. The stark horizon lines and rich fields of color mimic the most innate reactions that people have to landscapes. Her pieces are warm, stormy, peaceful or refreshing. Some of the visual elements in her paintings are enough to evoke smells and sounds for the viewer.

The show will hang until June 17. The artist reception will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 23, at the Muse Gallery, 62 South Glenwood Street.
- Henry Sweets
                                                   •

The NMWA is flush off its recent 21st anniversary celebration. The museum first opened on May 16, 1987 on the Town Square. Anyone who missed even a day of the 21 years is invited to catch up with a celebratory documentary entitled “Wild at HeART,” airing on PBS next week. The hour-long special chronicles NMWA’s rise from little storefront to a nationally recognized museum of wildlife art.

At 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, Wyoming Public Television plans to air the film, which was produced locally by Sava Films of Wilson, Wyo. The piece includes interviews with artists, visitors, volunteers, trustees and staff and is dedicated to the memory of celebrated wildlife artist Bob Kuhn. Kavar Kerr, the film’s executive producer and a museum trustee, has watched the evolution of the Museum from its start. She said she is delighted to be able to share the story of the NMWA. “We want this film to be an ambassador for the museum,” she said.
- Jake Nichols
                                                     •
The Art Association of Jackson Hole snagged an $8,000 grant from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian’s new Visual and Expressive Arts Grants program. The inaugural grant was bestowed on 13 of 83 applicants who support Native American arts and cultural collaborations across the country.

The grant will allow the Art Association to support the traveling exhibition “Marie Watt: Blanket Stories.” Watt will be in artist residency in Jackson from June 13 to August 21. Watt is a descendant of the Seneca tribe and a Wyoming rancher’s daughter on her father’s side. She is recognized as one of the most important young Native American artists working today.

The exhibit, organized by the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper, Wyo., explores the symbolism of blankets within American Indian culture, past and present. It includes enormous quilts, stacked blanket works and cedar and bronze sculpture.
- Jake Nichols

Courtesy “Circles of Enlightenment” by Valarie Stuart.

PERMALINK:
‘Abstractions’ and Indian blankets in Jackson, NMWA on TV | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

Leave a Comment