Adam Junior
Keepsakes
August 5- September 18, 2016

Mementos. Keepsakes. Sentimentality, and the use of objects to preserve memory. These are symbols of evolution and transformation. It seems a natural human inclination to collect ‘things,’ if for no other reason than to help us to remember, to reflect on past states of being, and to have something tangible to tether us to experience.

My work has always grappled with past, with what has personally molded, broken and rebuilt the person who exists now. An overarching and significant piece of this work has focused on home—the icon of the house, the concepts and emotions that pull at the contentious relationship between the ideas of ‘house’ and ‘home,’ and the inevitable networks of human connection that sprawl outward from this epicenter like the dendritic patterns that compose suburbia. But as we break free of the constructions that both shackle and shelter us, what is it we take with us?

Humans act much like hermit crabs, moving from house to house as a crab to a new shell. Perhaps the old one had been outgrown, or life’s proclivities have made it necessary to downsize, or maybe a sense of wanderlust provoked nomadic adventure; the houses we inhabit are simply empty shells, and what we build, break and inexorably take with us are the memories along with evidence of personal growth and hardship that occurred in each place. The idea of homes past is very little about the shell of roof and walls and almost entirely about everything that a particular shell was filled with, both material and immaterial. Home is both personal and communal, stationary and completely peripatetic. So, like a quiltwork of tactile memory, one could represent an entire life by building the patterning blanket of keepsakes from transient moments of home. Objects, little houses, reminders of what is left behind as we move and grow, placeholders for ephemeral pieces of ourselves that will always be taken with us as we build into an uncharted future.

Elizabeth Morisette
Fun & Games
August 5 – September 18, 2016

“Fun & Games:  Essential material by Elizabeth Morisette”

Work that incorporates toys and games in weavings and basket forms to explore the consumerist nature of contemporary childhood.

Artist Statement: This series of work was inspired by the birth of my 2nd daughter.  Our oldest daughter was 11 years old at the time and we had long since given away all of our ‘little kid stuff’.  Upon the 2^nd daughter’s birth, I noticed a surge of games, toys, and other items slowly descend upon our household.  Some were gifts, some were hand-me-downs, all of it was generous and kind, but very little of it was actually necessary.  Much of it was ‘made in china’ and some had no obvious value in the raising of a child.  Reflecting back on our 1^st child, it all seems to start with a ‘baby shower’ where you are given many items deemed as ‘essential’ which become giveaways as the child quickly outgrows their ’necessity’.

In this show, I explore the waste associated with this cultural phenomenon.  All of the items used in this work have been free, acquired through others’ cast offs, giveaways, garage sales and thrift stores.  These items have had a previous life as a toy or game and now they are considered something of little worth to the previous owners.  I have taken these items and organized them in weavings and basket forms; attempting to create beauty out of junk.

This work is intended to speak to the viewer on several levels; the first as a whimsical ‘contemporary archeology’; seeing toys and games you might have played with as a child.  The second is to contemplate the waste of our throw-away society. It is a bit staggering to consider the sheer amount of items that have been used in this work which would have otherwise ended up in a landfill.  The third is a thought to take home with you the next time you consider purchasing an item for a child (or yourself): Do I need this item?  Can I buy it reused?  What is the ‘true cost’ of this toy?  Beyond the monetary cost, what is the opportunity cost once it is no longer ‘essential’?

Eastham Family Exhibition Series

Touching Strangers: Richard Renaldi

May 27 – July 24, 2016

Members Opening, Thursday, May 26 from 6:00-8:00pm
Featuring a talk on portraiture by painter Haley Hasler at 6:30pm & a performance by Impact Dance at 7:00pm

Since 2007, Richard Renaldi has been working on a series of photographs that involve approaching and asking complete strangers to physically interact while posing together for a portrait.
Working on the street with a large format 8-by-10-inch view camera, Renaldi encounters the subjects for his photographs in towns and cities all over the United States. He pairs them up and invites them to pose together, intimately, in ways that people are usually taught to reserve for their close friends and loved ones.

Renaldi creates spontaneous and fleeting relationships between strangers for the camera, often pushing his subjects beyond their comfort levels. These relationships may only last for the moment the shutter is released, but the resulting photographs are moving and provocative, and raise profound questions about the possibilities for positive human connection in a diverse society. Click below for a video of Renaldi working and the background to this project.

http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=4506

Organized by Aperture Foundation, New York

Curator: Ann Pallesen, Gallery Director, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle.

The traveling exhibition Touching Strangers was made possible, in part, with the support of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Andrea Wallace
The Fraternal Series

May 27 – July 24, 2016

ARTIST STATEMENT

My research is informed by issues surrounding the relationship between individuals and the construction of identity. I am interested in intersections: child and adult, women and men, the dualities of living, success and failure. Ultimately, I am interested in how we as human beings experience ourselves; how we define ourselves and are defined by our relationships with each other. Boyhood friendships exist from moment to moment in and unrealistic and imaginative state, never taking time to be concerned with each others appearances or long term plans. The power and importance of the oral, written and visual story lies at the heart of my work. I am drawn to the power of the narrative to seduce, influence and transform. My portraits speak to the physical and psychological spaces that we inhabit simultaneously. They are a documentation of a personal journey, but one that is universal to human experience.

Andrea Wallace is the Artistic Director of Photography and New Media at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. She received her MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Before coming to the Ranch, she worked as Assistant Professor at Lake Forest College and Willamette University. Her film, Rochell and Brian, a documentary about teenage pregnancy, premiered at the New York International Independent Film Festival. She exhibits nationally and internationally with numerous shows throughout the Americas, Europe, China and the Middle East.

CELEBRATING TWELVE YEARS OF MASKS: EXCEPTIONAL CREATIVITY IN OUR COMMUNITY

Click HERE for a look at all of the 2016 Masks.

April 1 – May 6, 2016

On April 1, the 2016 Kaiser Permanente Masks Project kicks off as the Masks Exhibition opens at the Fort Collins Museum of Art during the Downtown First Friday Gallery Walk,

5:00-9:00 p.m. First Friday’s are open-admission events made possible by funding from the Eye Center of Northern Colorado.

The project celebrates 12 years of Masks, the museum’s signature fund-raising campaign. With the focus on community and creativity, Masks is Fort Collins largest visual art event with an exhibition of 200 masks designed by both professional artists, student artists and more casual artists whose daily endeavors are directed elsewhere.

Initially, masks leave the museum with the artists who responded to the call for entries as simple ceramic forms and return transformed into ingenious works of art to be exhibited and sold in the museum’s silent auction. The in-gallery auction is but one part of the fundraising components of the project, which provides a major portion of the museum’s annual budget.

Midway through the 30-day span of the Masks Project, a gala celebration pays tribute to an individual or individuals selected as the Masks Honorary Chair. This year’s gala celebration, Carnevale di Venezia, is being held April 22 at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center.

The 2016 Masks honorary chair is Michael Powers. Powers, who served on the museum’s board of directors and was instrumental in the original purchase of the museum’s building in 1989, it’s reclamation from floodwaters and its successful sale to Brinkman Partners in 2012, worked for the City of Fort Collins for 25 years. During majority of his years with the City, Powers was the director of cultural, library and recreational services.

The 2016 Masks Project concludes May 6, also during the Downtown Fort Collins First Friday Gallery Walk. The silent auction bidding closes at 9:00 p.m. when top bidders are awarded their masks-of-choice

Leigh Taylor Mickelson (Ossining, NY)

Jerry Monteith (Carbondale, IL)

Charlotte Nichols (Fort Collins, CO)

Rachel Stevens (Las Cruces, NM)

January 22 – March 20, 2016

Natural Shift presents four artists from around the country who work with nature-inspired forms in their sculpture. From steel to copper, wood and clay, these four artists present a view of nature that is full of adaption and change. Nature, in general, is defined as the forces that control the physical world and life itself. All four of the artists in this exhibition look to nature for inspiration in the sculptural forms that they create but they also see nature in a continual state of flux and transformation as well as a place impacted by human development.

Sculpture is an incredibly elastic medium and one that encompasses a varied set of materials. It is fitting that many artists working today in the intersection of nature, human and the environment are sculptors, as the medium contains an endless assortment of form associated with nature itself. Each artist in Natural Shift explores nature though the living forms that we interact with everyday, such as plants, trees, flowers and food. They also explore how humans impact these living organisms and our relationship to our environment, as well as how nature adapts to a very quickly changing climate and harsh conditions that characterize various ecological zones.

Micheal Butts

January 22 – March 20, 2016

I capture my “still frames”of the world with a hand made camera which has no lens: it is cardboard, wood, black ABS pipe, a bit of brass and  wood veneer which makes it look presentable. Three tiny pinpricks let light enter the darkened half cylinder chamber at different overlapping angles to expose 4X5 inch sheet film. Negatives are mounted one at a time in the field with the assistance of a light tight film changing bag equipped with arm sleeves so that you can manipulate objects around inside the bag. I do all this with the changing bag on my lap; It takes up to five minutes to prepare for exposing a photograph. I spend the time concentrating on what I can only feel inside the light tight bag, while observing the environment, looking intently on the beauty around me, thinking about the upcoming exposure. When my negative has been scotch-taped successfully to the curved backing plate inside my pinhole camera, it has been closed up and all the light tight film storage boxes have been tucked away, I bring the  camera out into daylight and mount it  on a tripod. I remove  strips of electrical tape “shutters” to expose the film for up to 2 minutes, turning the camera toward what I find captivating in the environment. I have no view finder, but over years developed a vague sense of the relationship of what I find interesting in the moments around me and the placement of the camera. My images take the blur out of the world a bit less than traditional lensed cameras and capture what I have experienced in the complexity of that moment.

Bob Coonts: Art & Influence

November 20 – January 10, 2016

Bob Coonts, The Awakening, Collection of the Eastham Family, Photo credit: Christina Gressianu

Pattern, decoration and stylization are ancient forms of expression that exist in various formats in almost every culture and time period. One of the best known artists from western culture who utilized patterning and stylization was Gustav Klimt from Austria in the 19th century. Like Klimt, Bob Coonts has developed a style unique to his creative expression, but it is one that is based on color, design, pattern and stylization. Coonts chooses bold, expressive color within his art and makes his subjects come alive through this intuitive use of non-realistic color. His subject matter mostly consists of animals, landscapes and abstract compositions and mythology, nature, Native American, Celtic, Asian, Middle Eastern, Greek and Roman art are strong influences in his work.

Coonts uses geometric shapes, circles, triangles, squares and other forms, such as arrows and concentric circles.  The arrow, used by early Native Americans in many of their animal images found on pottery and  petroglyphs, represents the heart line.  The heart line was believed to be the strength, source, and breath of life for a particular animal.  Coonts uses  the arrow as a design element which also imbues his paintings with a sense of movement as well as suggesting the four directions.

As much as this exhibition is about the artistic career of Bob Coonts, it also celebrates his incredible legacy as a mentor and teacher through his business Bob Coonts Graphic Design, Inc from 1974-1994 and his decades of teaching as an Affiliate Faculty member at Colorado State University from 1971-2006. Bob invited twenty designers to display a memorable piece of work as part of this exhibition. All of the artists and designers below were either students of Bob’s while at Colorado State University or were employees of his business. This partial list represents a sampling of the artists that Bob is proud to have mentored.

Ti Benson                                                                              John Metcalf

Chuck Black                                                                          Doug Post

Devon Burkhalter                                                                 Greg Rattenborg

Jacquelyn Etheridge Busch                                               Chris Richardson

Sam Cooper                                                                         David Santillanes

Eric Cox                                                                                 John Schiller

Bob Donovan                                                                        Greg Sherrill

Bruce Holdeman                                                                  Anne Vetter

Mike Lizama                                                                         Gary Wiese

Monte Mead

Melanie Metz

Click here to listen to the Bob Coonts feature on Support Local Culture on KRFC:

Audio Player

This exhibition sponsored in part by: Gary & Carol Ann Hixon

Ronda Stone

November 20 – January 10, 2016

The Inner Landscape

Artist Statement- I photograph people from the inside out — the inner landscape of the human experience.  I dig deep to discover and express the dark side of myself and others in order to understand my own feelings and actions as well as to understand the human condition that continues to be a mystery. When we look at what we don’t want to see in ourselves, the answers can elude us.  Photographing what I have spent years getting to know – my own inner experience – opens those doors with fear and excitement.  Duane Michaels said it well… I just photograph my own truth, but it all comes from the inside.  Until you find your own truth, you have nothing.  I know my own truth, and as Carl Jung says, People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their soul.

I create photographs in a contemporary style inducing stimulation rather than comfort, and raising questions rather than offering solutions or endings.  I’m not interested in Novocain for the eyes but want visual impact.

Using mixed media such as bones, insects, words, drawing etc come from the subconscious.  They bring a much needed balance to our experience on this earth.  They serve to illustrate the inner landscape in a more natural way.  Sometimes the objects balance out the fear, anger or loss.  Sometimes they add to it.  Sometimes they come from the subconscious and can’t be explained.

This body of work expresses the human condition in a way that only art can do.  These photographs are my secrets, my shadow, the obsessions and manifestations of my subconscious. The inner mysteries of all of us cannot be suppressed.

September 4 – November 1, 2015

One of the most popular American artists of the past century, Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a keen observer of human nature and a gifted storyteller. For nearly seven decades, while history was in the making all around him, Rockwell chronicled our changing society in the small details and nuanced scenes of ordinary people in everyday life, providing a personalized interpretation—albeit often an idealized one—of American identity. His depictions offered a reassuring visual haven during a time of momentous transformation as our country evolved into a complex, modern society. Rockwell’s contributions to our visual legacy, many of them now icons of American culture, have found a permanent place in our national psyche.

Norman Rockwell’s 323 Saturday Evening Post Covers has been organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Media sponsorship has been provided by Curtis Licensing, a division of The Saturday Evening Post, Indianapolis, IN

Zachary Pullen: Among Giants

September 4 – November 1, 2015

Illustration is specifically about narration, whether obvious or implied. It is the putting of a personal style and stamp onto a piece of artwork that separates those who will be remembered from those who will not. Any artist with staying power in the world of illustration has to be able to take the assignment, understand, interpret, shape, twist and execute on the deadline.

When it comes to giants there are none larger than Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951) and Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966). For the majority of illustrators in the second half of the 20^th century (and through today) Parrish, Leyendecker and Rockwell were THE giants and the period when they roamed the earth was the Golden Age. In general, these oldsters gained fame and staying-power by creating something uniquely theirs and sticking with it. Rockwell’s storytelling, Leyendecker’s compositional clarity and Parrish’s technical facility.

Rockwell was among the very first illustrators to be judged simply as an artist – not as a commercial artist. Today the lines between fine and commercial art are blurred to the point where it is unusual to hear the phrase “mere illustrator”- two words that were nearly inseparable until the mid-1970’s. Zak Pullen is motivated, even driven, to deconstruct what he sees and make it his own. This is how he comes to appreciate and embrace what’s gone before.

– Fred Taraba

The World of Jan Brett

June 5, – August 23, 2015

Jan Brett has more than 35 million books in print and has been one of America’s most beloved children’s author/ illustrators for over 30 years. Her books regularly occupy the #1 slot on the New York Times best-seller list. Her illustrations are adored for their classic beauty and vibrant life-like images of animals, landscapes and flourishes from cultures around the world. From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs to Japanese gardens, she studies the traditions of the many countries that she visits and uses them as a starting point for her children’s books.

This exhibition is organized by the Oshkosh Public Museum, Oshkosh, WI.

April 3 – May 1, 2015

For the 11^th year, the Fort Collins Museum of Art’s Masks Project has attracted both professional artists, whose creativity is their economic main stay and recreational artists, who respond to their need to express their creativeness in ingenious styles. The result is an exhibition of 200 pieces of unconventional art opening during the First Friday Gallery Walk, April 3. Masks originated in 2003 as fund-raising event for the Museum. It now encompasses the popular exhibition, the celebratory Masks Grand Gala, and a tribute to the 2015 Honorary Chairs, Don and Donna Beard. These components provide a significant portion of the Museum’s operating budget as well as an engaging community art event.

Hallowed Absurdities: Work by Theodore Waddell
January 16 – March 15, 2015 in the Main Gallery
Member’s reception and artist talk: January 15th
Friday, March 6: Artist Talk by Theodore Waddell

The Fort Collins Museum of Art is pleased to present Montana artist Theodore Waddell, one of the region’s best known artists. Waddell is an accomplished painter, sculptor and printmaker although he is primarily recognized for his uniquely identifiable paintings of the West, rife with wildlife and signature Angus cattle. (read more here…)

“I examine life and death and the connection of human and animal beings… My work deals with these issues and how one might come to terms with various aspects of our relationship with the animals and with each other… As animals we share this earth with other animals. My work explores our living and dying.” —Theodore Waddell, 1992

Rocky Mountain National Park Centennial 1915-2015
Twenty Years of Photography by Mark James
January 16 – March 15, 2015 in Gallery 101
Member’s reception and artist talk: January 15th

The Fort Collins Museum of Art is proud to present the evocative landscape photographs of Wellington photographer Mark James that celebrates the Centennial year of Rocky Mountain National Park. Utilizing a pinhole camera, James creates haunting, indelible images of this beloved landscape that has been part of America’s national consciousness for 100 years. In 1995, Mark James was granted an Artist-in-Residence from Rocky Mountain National Park. He began photographing the Colorado Rocky Mountains using pinhole and lensed cameras to create a comprehensive body of work that portrays the landscape in a way that recalls the survey photographs of the 19th century.

Click HERE for STYLE Magazine’s coverage of Whatever Blows Your Skirt Up- the opening event for Marilyn: Celebrating an American Icon

Featuring more than 100 paintings, photographs and videos of the starlet, this exhibition celebrates the image of Marilyn Monroe that still electrifies the world half a century after her death. Famed artists such as Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Antonio de Felipe, Milton H. Greene, and Andy Warhol among others, capture the many sides of the 1950s glamour goddess and immortal legend.

Marilyn: Celebrating an American Icon, based on the hugely popular exhibition Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe, reveals the character of Marilyn Monroe as an enduring cultural phenomenon through the art of more than 50 influential artists in styles ranging from fashion photography to Pop art. Images of well loved movie scenes, familiar publicity photos and biographical glimpses into Marilyn’s private moments, cover her rise to stardom, and ultimately, her struggle to empower herself. While, abstract interpretations of the popular icon sometimes reveal the artists’ ideas on sexuality, commercialism and exploitation through the power of her image.

Though her life ended prematurely at the age of 36, the world’s fascination with Marilyn Monroe’s magnetic appeal and much publicized private life has continued to thrive over time. Marilyn: Celebrating an American Icon pays tribute to America’s favorite movie star and sex symbol.

Artistic Eye on History: Fort Collins 150
July 25 – September 28, 2014
This exhibition was in honor of its 2014 Masks Honorary Chair, Paula Edwards, and coincides with the FC150 exhibition that opened August 20, 2014 at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. Watch a video of one of the artists, Jennifer Davey, creating her piece for this exhibition.

Downstream: Encounters with the Colorado River 
Karen Halverson
May 16 – July 3, 2014
Main Gallery

The New West: Colorado Photography Now
Kevin O’Connell
May 16 – July 3, 2014
Gallery 101

April 4 – May 2, 2014

Andy Warhol Prints from the Cochran Collection
December 13, 2013 – March 16, 2014

James Jensen
August 9 – September 22, 2013
Main Gallery

Paula Peacock: Colorado Still Life Painter
August 9 – September 22, 2013
Gallery 101

Syd Mead: Progressions
May 17 – July 21, 2013

 
April 5 – May 3, 2013

Only Persist: Works by Ernst Neizvestny
from the Collection of Wayne F. Yakes, M.D.
February 20 – March 15, 2013

Tools in Motion
Sponsored by Mawson Lumber & Hardware
December 14, 2012 – February 7, 2013

ICE: Melting Glaciers & Avalanche Paintings by Marlene Tseng Yu
October 5 – December 2, 2012

Liao Yibai: Supersized Fakes and Cold War Artifacts 
from the Wayne F. Yakes Collection
May 18 – September 15, 2012
Main Gallery

Ajean Lee Ryan
July 13 – August 29, 2012

Marc Chagall and the Bible: Etchings and Lithographs

David Wander: Drawings from the Biblical Texts
May 3 – July 1, 2012

Structures in Cloth
February 17-April 21, 2012

CHIHULY VENETIANS: from the George R. Stroemple Collection
December 14, 2011 – March 18, 2012

COLORADO COLLECTS GLASS:
A Celebration of the American Studio Glass Movement
December 14, 2011-March 18, 2012

Ansel Adams: Masterworks
from the collection of the Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, CA
January 14 – March 15, 2011

Michael Gregory: Western Construct
January 14 – March 15, 2011

William Morris: Myth, Object and the Animal
August 6 – November 5, 2010

Lynn Goldsmith: The Looking Glass
March 5 – May 15, 2010

The Mind and All It Creates, an ArtScience exhibition by Todd Siler
January 15, 2010 – March 25, 2010

Hung Liu: Apsaras
November 13, 2009 – January 2, 2010