Pioneer Project
DENVER | 00.00.0000 - 01.23.2021 |
Artists: Jennifer Nehrbass
It is without a doubt that women and their contribution to western expansions have been widely underrepresented in history. What if history was written from a female perspective? What if women were the first pioneers of the west? Jennifer Nehrbass’s current exhibition, Pioneer Project, sets out to rewrite history by viewing it from the female perspective. Nehrbass’s imaginative work takes us back in time when women were the first pioneers to settle the American West. The body of work includes landscapes, portraiture, and Dada inspired sculpture. Nehrbass takes the viewer on a visual odyssey from familiar to fantastical locations all the while reexamining the concept of manifest destiny and American history. The landscapes in Pioneer Project are like exploring nature in a dream. Nothing is real yet everything is so familiar you can almost recall being there. The “new” western landscape are fragments of both real and imagined environments - a majestic sky, a mountain range in Wyoming, a river in Europe. Nehrbass’s idealized landscapes are the ultimate mash-up of locations. These artificial locations contribute to a new re-imaging of the American West. Nehrbass cleverly approaches each portrait in Pioneer Project by using a matte black background, like Dutch portraiture, creating a psychological space for the subjects and the spectator. The formally posed, almost regal, portraits are cloaked in highly patterned textiles and often appear to be in conversation with one another or in direct gaze with the onlooker. Nehrbass, *“contemporizes her characters to be a perfect representation of how she perceives they should be remembered in history.” The hyper realistic facial expressions and gestures of the females serve as universal visuals cues to the wonder of the unknown as well as the hardships that people would have faced.
Mothers and Daughters
DENVER | 00.00.0000 - 01.23.2021 |
Artists: Madeleine Bialke
I spent the summer on a lake in the east coast Adirondack Mountains. About fifteen minutes up the lake is the start of a large acreage of old-growth forest called the Five Ponds Wilderness area. As you get closer to the area, bedraggled old white pines start to tower over the rest of the skyline. These trees are living history and witnesses to the changes brought about in the area for some hundreds of years. They lived through the mass felling of the world’s great hardwoods and are survivors in the aftermath of logging in America. Driving back to where I live in Brooklyn this fall, I was keenly aware of the stout and homogenous height of the trees along the highway, how our forests today are largely full of young trees, lacking in inter-generational variety. Mothers & Daughters observes this post-apocalyptic natural world, and in it finds community and family ties amidst ecological devastation. The world depicted is simplified, and seen through a hazy, romantic pollution. The landscape is imbued with an anthropomorphic tone; the trees have distinct personalities and individually express their liveliness. In Red October, a young tree is christened with light against a backdrop of elder pines. In Two Slow Dancers, a pair of ancients bends rhythmically to the passage of time as dark clouds form overhead. Sometimes, hikers and animals find peace under the protective watch of the old trees. A cabin, tucked away, blends in and becomes part of the environment in One more summer. There is loss within this narrative. When all who could show the full picture have disappeared, we are left only with mythic fragments. Yet, nature is resilient and cyclical. Daily routines continue. Young saplings inevitably rise up. With any luck, they will grow tall and old, and perhaps this time we will not cut them down.
Extranjero: Recent Paintings From Mexico
DENVER | 01.29.2021 - 03.06.2021 |
Artists: Tracy Stuckey
In August of 2019, artist Tracey Stuckey and his family moved to Baja California Sur, Mexico for what was supposed to be a year. The artist’s wife was on sabbatical doing a research project in the Sierra de la Laguna, their two children were enrolled in the local schools, and Stuckey was left to soak up the experience and work in their makeshift outdoor studio. When preparing for this adventure, Stuckey’s mind was full of ideas and perceptions of what he thought would be his experience. Shortly after arriving, the artist realized that his actual experience was not going to be as anticipated. His original intention was to work in the same manner as he usually does, exploring the romantic and exaggerated ideas about the region’s history, especially as it related to the US side of the border; however, Stuckey soon realized that his intentions were ill-conceived and what he previously thought he would be exploring was not a reality. Rather than trying to force his preconceptions about the region into the work, the artist decided to take in as much of the experience as he could, to observe, and to explore. Tracy Stuckey’s time in Mexico was cut short due to COVID-19. Stuckey and his family were asked by the State Department to return home at the start of the pandemic; however, he continued to work on these new paintings after returning to his home in Colorado. The paintings and drawings in this exhibition contain snippets of memories and ideas of kitsch and clich鬬 - reflecting his experience as a whole. Extranjero translates to “foreigner” or “stranger”. Although he did his best to speak the language, make friends with locals, enjoy all the foods, and see all that he could, Stuckey still felt like an outsider trying to understand the amazing experience.
Anonymous Women: Demise
DENVER | 03.12.2021 - 04.17.2021 |
Artists: Patty Carroll
In the latest narratives, “Demise,” the woman becomes the victim of domestic disasters. Her activities, obsessions and objects are overwhelming her. Her home has become a site of tragedy. The scenes of her heartbreaking end are loosely inspired by several sources including the game of clue, where murder occurs in one of five rooms of the house: Dining Room, Kitchen, Hall, Conservatory, and Library. Visions West Contemporary will be participating in MOP (Month of Photography). Month of Photography (MOP) is a biennial festival held in Denver and includes gallery exhibitions, museum exhibitions, artists talk, outdoor screenings, and much more.
West: The American Cowboy
DENVER | 03.12.2021 - 04.17.2021 |
Artists: Anouk Masson Krantz
French photographer Anouk Masson Krantz traveled the West to capture the everyday lives of The American Cowboy. "Even as a child growing up in France, Anouk Masson Krantz loved horses and cowboys. After she moved to the United States as an adult, her youthful passions evolved into photographic projects spanning years. Her first book, the bestselling Wild Horses of Cumberland Island, compiled a decade’s worth of photographs taken on a remote barrier island off the coast of Georgia. Her new book, WEST: The American Cowboy, offers a contemporary depiction of Western ranch and rodeo life." Visions West Contemporary will be participating in MOP (Month of Photography). Month of Photography (MOP) is a biennial festival held in Denver and includes gallery exhibitions, museum exhibitions, artists talk, outdoor screenings, and much more.
The Fallen Fawn
DENVER | 03.12.2021 - 04.17.2021 |
Artists: Holly Anders
The Fallen Fawn continues Holly Andres's examination of personal narrative and feminine subjectivity depicting short melodramas inspired by childhood memories. In large-scale, lush color images, Andres revisits the complexity of childhood, the fleeting nature of memory, and female introspection. The Fallen Fawn is based on a personal account of Andres’ two older sisters who, as adolescent girls, discovered a woman's lost or abandoned suitcase near the river behind their house. Knowing it was a valuable treasure, they took it home, hid it under their bed, and when they could, often during the night, secretly dressed up in this "mystery woman's" belongings. Visions West Contemporary will be participating in MOP (Month of Photography). Month of Photography (MOP) is a biennial festival held in Denver and includes gallery exhibitions, museum exhibitions, artists talk, outdoor screenings, and much more.