Telluride Arts: First Art Walk of 2019 Season, 1/3

30 Dec Telluride Arts: First Art Walk of 2019 Season, 1/3

Telluride Arts’ First Thursday Art Walk is a festive celebration of the art scene in downtown Telluride for art lovers, community and friends. Participating venues host receptions from 5 –8 p.m. to introduce new exhibits.

The first Art Walk of the winter 2019 season takes place Thursday, January 3, 5 – 8 p.m.

The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art kicked off the winter season with a show featuring the work of West Coast art titan Tony Berlant, 3D paintings and collaged sculptures. Much more here.

The Ah Haa School continues with a show that debuted New Year’s Eve, an improvisational duet between painter Chris Miller and author/storyteller Craig Childs. More here.

Immerse yourself in Gallery 81435, which showcases local artist Katy Parnello’s newest collection.

Telluride Arts HQ hosts “Moons,” paintings by another local artist, Ally Crilly.

Tune into Open Art Radio on KOTO from 12 – 1 p.m. to hear interviews with the participating artists. Complimentary gallery guides are available at all the venues for a self-guided tour.

Art Walk Venues, October 2018:

Ah Haa School for the Arts
Baked In Telluride
Crossbow Leather
Elinoff Gallery
Gallery 81435
Kamruz Gallery
La Cocina de Luz
Lustre Gallery
MiXX projects + atelier
Nectar Arts (new venue)
Picaya
Slate Gray Gallery
Studio G
Telluride Arts HQ Gallery
Telluride Gallery of Fine Art
Telluride Music Co.
Tony Newlin Gallery
Turquoise Door Gallery

Ah Haa School for the Arts

Synesthesia: a condition in which the brain links a person’s senses together, prompting unusual sensory responses to stimuli. In this case, shapes, lines and colors conflate with language to create short story moments, resulting in a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Because one man uses paint to communicate.

The other works with words.

Painter Chris Miller and author Craig Childs paired up to perform a kind of jazzy duet, its roots planted firmly in that all-American genre built, paradoxically, on both independence and cooperation, with improvisation at its core. Think of their proposed interplay as a variation on the theme of a parlor game with high stakes: the support of one of Telluride’s signature institutions whose mission is to enhance lives through art (writ large) everyday.

Chris Miller has been painting continuously since college, both landscapes and abstractions, but the work on display at Ah Haa is all non-objective.

“…abstraction brings unseen and unknown elements together to create a dialog between form, color and texture with the idea of exploring the essential in our own unique experience. Painting is a journey, and I’m not sure where that’s going to take me, but there’s an exploration going on which is both personal and autobiographical,” explains Miller.

 

 

Like all abstractions, Miller’s newest work, stripped of the duty to depict something accurately or judge an external reality, winds up revealing universal truths like the emotional meaning of color and shapes on their own. And that goes straight to the heart of Childs’ improvisational riffs.

Chris Miller, more:

Chris Miller was born in California and studied studio art in various colleges, including Fort Lewis College and CU. Near the end of a short career in film he discovered Telluride and moved here with his family in 1992. Since 2013, Miller has divided his time between San Francisco, Napa Valley and Telluride. An avid cyclist, he and his wife Catherine McNamee owned Moots Cycles from 1995 to 2015.

Over the years Miller has studied painting at Ah Haa and Anderson Ranch, however, this is his first solo exhibition.

Craig Childs, more:

Craig Childs is an Arizona native now living in western Colorado. Winner of the 2009 Rowell Art of Adventure Award, he is part deep traveler, part writer who focuses on natural sciences, archaeology, and journeys into the global wilderness. He is also a commentator for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, Outside, the Sun, and Orion. His subjects range from pre-Columbian archaeology to US border issues to the last free-flowing rivers of Tibet and Patagonia.

Baked In Telluride

Baked in Telluride features, “From the top of the San Juan Range.” Local climber Jeff Channel presents spectacular views of the top of our world in his photographs. Stop by for cookies, coffee and conversation.

Crossbow Leather

Oil & Forge Co. handcrafts antique spoons, transforming them into rings and necklaces.

Originally founded in Dana Point, California, Oil & Forge Co. discovered its inspiration for building and restoring unique pieces of work with good tale through the old, tall ships that were at berth in the Dana Point harbor. Out of one-of-a-kind motorcycles and antique cars came handcrafted rings made from .925 sterling silver and pure solid 18k gold.

 

Currently being forged in Telluride, every purchase from Oil & Forge Co. gives the buyer a chance to win a custom-built motorcycle. The business is now located in Telluride, here to write the next chapter of its story and continue handcrafting motorcycles, antique cars, and producing some of the world’s most unique jewelry.

Elinoff & Co.

Elinoff Gallery carries a museum quality art collection, including works from some of the most celebrated names in the history of art. From Monet to Pissarro to Warhol, the fine art collection covers Impressionist works c.1860 – 1880 through the Pop art period of the 50’s and 60’s. Lithographs, drawings, and etchings are also for sale.

Gallery 81435

Visceral adj.
1. Relating to, situated in, or affecting the viscera

1a. Viscera pl.n. Collectively, internal organs of the body, especially those contained within the abdominal and thoracic cavities, such as the liver, heart or stomach

2. Being or arising from impulse or sudden emotion rather than from thought or deliberation

Katy Parnello’s newest collection, “Visceral,” grew from a desire to create space for her family. Realizing on a deeper level the importance of environment, the artist created a comforting and inspiring room that provides strength, support and a reminder of what is possible. Her stand-alone pieces can be hung on walls or incorporated into the architecture of a building to further support and encourage a more sensory experience of life.

Kamruz Gallery

Kamruz Gallery presents photography by local photographer Mary Kenez.

La Cocina de Luz

Katie Kurtz is an emerging artist from Telluride. As the mother of two boy, she draws most of her inspiration from close to home and from her mountain-town surroundings. Kurtz paints both landscapes and figurative in different settings; her medium is oil and acrylic on canvas and paper. This latest series, “Dog On A Couch,” is about the many ways her boxer is transformed on her favorite couch at different times of the day, the gold Victorian couch being her pet’s favorite place to hang.

Lustre

 

Lustre Gallery presents a special collection of hand-made jewelry by Aaron Henry. The lines ranges  from intricately cast aspen leaves to gorgeous gemstones expertly arranged. His accolades include Spectrum, Niche, Signity and Diamonds Today awards.

Several Aaron Henry pieces have also been used in the marketing efforts of the World Gold Council, the GIA, De Beers and the California Jewelers Association. His jewelry has been showcased in industry and consumer magazines including Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Millionaire and InStyle.

MiXX projects + atelier

“We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not,” John Wesley Powell.

From O’Keefe to Abbey to the ancient petroglyphs that pepper the red rocks of the desert, the dramatic landscapes of the American Southwest have long been fertile ground for creativity and artistic exploration. Leading the first group of white men down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, John Wesley Powell poignantly captured the sense of wonder one experiences when first exploring the canyons, mountains and sweeping expanses of desert that characterize that part of the country. But along with thrill of the new, the other treasure of the Southwest is its wealth of history, embedded in the cultural fabric of the region and in the rock formations, intricately carved by geological time.

MiXX is pleased to showcase three very different artists whose work represents the intersection of discovery and tradition that defines our unique corner of the world.

Santa Fe-based Ellen Koment’s tactile encaustic paintings capture the striking pigments of the desert in fresh, contemporary abstractions.

Durango, CO resident Ray Phillips crafts complex mixed-media pieces that, while paying direct homage to the Wild West, also lead the viewer through the intricate and thoughtful maze of referential materials embedded in its layers.

And finally, one of the newest artists in the MiXX stable, Stephanie Del Monte, brings a modern eye to the timeless art of weaving, creating stunning tapestries that evoke both the natural world and the rich history of traditional crafts.

Nectar Arts

For Nectar Arts’ debut Art Walk, the venue features a show compiled of seven local female artists.

 

Featured artists include Ally Crilly, Brittany Anne Miller, Melissa Leigh Friedman, Michelle Montague, Sue Hill Designs, No Mind Mala (Hansa Devi), and Luciblue (Alyssa Flewelling).

Picaya

 

Picaya features local artists and jewelers, such as Ashley Dove, Colleen Thompson, David Rec, Virginia Howard, and Debi Smith, to name a few. Come by and sample organic snacks while supporting locals.

Slate Gray Gallery

Slate Gray Gallery presents “Dualities,” by Arizona-based, contemporary artist Niki Woehler.

Woehler works with a variety of lines, layers, and textures, drawing inspiration from objects ravaged by nature and perspectives skewed by the influence of the elements. The longer something stands the tests of time, the more interesting it becomes to Woehler.

In “Dualities,” Woehler is featuring two different types of works: organic, textural canvases along with high-gloss resins that often resemble stone scattered with minerals.

Studio G

When she was a girl, Frank did not just love horses, she thought she was a horse.

“My best friend Peggy and I galloped around my dining room table on our hands and knees. We galloped with scarves sticking out of our pants to look like tails.”

The artist – who holds an M.F.A. in photo-printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.F.A. in painting at Ohio Wesleyan University –  has lived in Telluride since 1989.

 

“Never did I guess that when I began to travel the world to ride horses in different countries and cultures would my passion for the horse bring me success in the studio. What amazes me most about the partnership with a horse is that they allow us on their backs, but that is exactly what creates the tension in my paintings; the partnership between equine and human.  The images are larger than life yet intimate, and hopefully capture the beauty and power and grace of the horse, yet the horses are bitted and bound with reins.  The human factor is always present, but never within the frame except perhaps a suggestion, like a caressing hand… It is the special agreement and the spirit of both which make the paintings shine with light and life,” Nancy B. Frank, featured artist.

Frank never liked empty spaces on canvas, so she photographed her horses to fill the screen and, subsequently, the picture plane, with haunches and heads, manes and tails, glossy coats, bits, and reins in extreme close-up.

And in doing what she does in the unique way she does it, Frank reigns supreme: her horse images are fraught with the dynamic tension embodied by these powerful, proud creatures, bound up with tack, yes, but only seemingly submissive. Collectively, Frank’s images packs a wallop: her horses also clearly mark the moment the artist came into her power, the result of finding her natural subject and creating work that is very very good – and owning that fact.

Nowadays, when it comes to painting equines, Frank owns the finish line.

Telluride Arts HQ Gallery

Telluride Arts’ HQ gallery presents, “Moons,” a solo exhibit by painter Ally Crilly. In her show, Crilly explores her relationship with the moon, revealing its power: the beauty, the pull, and the altered state the moon puts her in.

Crilly is particularly curious about indigenous cultures’ respect to the moon. She loves the names given to the different moons by different peoples. And she is also learning to love painting portraits.

“I find a human with a moon very beautiful. My portraits will try to convey the magic of the moon and our relationship to it.”

For Crilly, painting is how she can best tell the truth. It is a messy, unpredictable process.

“When the flow is happening, I know I’m supposed to paint. When it’s not, it’s excruciating. I’m learning to paint regardless and wait for the moments that it makes sense and just ride the rest of them out. I’m also learning to do this in my life. Art has to surprise me in some way for it to interest me.”

Telluride Gallery of Fine Art

Telluride Gallery is pleased to present “Tilt in Time” 23 works (2010-2018) by artist Tony Berlant.

Unlike conventional mixed-media pieces created from cutouts of random images from magazines or photographs and taped or glued to a surface, Berlant works with photo-printed metal (using the artist’s own images, plus vintage and modern metal signage and graphics) and found tin, which he fastens to panels with shiny steel nails, surrogates for his thumb print. The end result is a hybrid that lies at the intersection of painting, sculpture and photography, also Pop art (for its appropriation and elevation of everyday objects), assemblage and abstraction. The work is, at once, all of, yet none of the above: Berlant is his own “ism.”

 

Berlant’s bold explorations of color, memory and landscape have brought his work homes in the permanent collections of the Whitney, Smithsonian, MOMA, Art Institute of Chicago, Hirshhorn, MOCA LA and many more.

The Turquoise Door Gallery

The Turquoise Door Gallery is pleased to welcome back Colorado painter, Nicholas Reti. On display are 20 of his oil-on-canvas landscape paintings, many focusing on Telluride, including winter views of the Valley Floor, Town of Telluride and Wilson Peak.

 

Nicholas is just returning from showing at the prestigious “Young Guns” Coors art show in Denver.