LARRY BELL
1939
Chicago, Illinois
LIGHT KNOTS, 2015
Mylar, metals, and quartz
Various Sizes
An iconic founder of the California LIGHT AND SPACE movement in the 60’s Bell has extended his exploration of how light interacts with surfaces is these LIGHT KNOTS which were commissioned by the ART, a hotel.
The LIGHT KNOTS are created from a single layer of Mylar film coated with thin films of metals and quartz. They get their mysterious charm from the way they gently move and interact with light. Bell considers them to be “improvisational, spontaneous and intuitive three-dimensional drawings in space.”
JOHN BALDESSARI
1931
National City, California
EIGHT SOUPS, 2012
Multi-color silkscreen prints
38 in x 24 ¼ in each
Conceptual artist John Baldessari playfully sums up nearly the whole history of modern art by combining the idea of Andy Warhol’s endless serial arrangements of SOUP CANS with a playful nod to Henri Matisse’s 1912 painting of GOLDFISH AND SCULPTURE. He is best known for works that appropriate images from film clips, newspapers, and photographs that he takes out of context and recombines in a way that gives them a totally new, if not always clear, meaning.
ALEC SOTH
1969
Minneapolis, Minnesota
DAVE AND TRISH. DENVER, 2013
Black and white photograph
39 ½ in x 29 ½ in
Soth met this couple on Kentucky Derby Day, shortly after they became engaged to marry. Taken by their style, Soth asked to photograph them. After a few pictures, they invited him to their Denver apartment in Capitol Hill in a show of hospitality towards an out-of-state visitor. There, he created this picture of the happy couple kissing on their bed. Upon his return to Minnesota, Soth sent thank-you prints to his Denver hosts. When he heard back with a request for more prints, he learned that the young man died of an undiagnosed illness shortly after Soth’s visit.
JOEL OTTERSON
1959
Englewood, California
BOTTOMS UP, 2013
Vintage pressed-glasses and cut-crystal goblets, steel, metal chain, copper wire, and electrical parts
84 in x 28 in
Loosely modeled after late 19th century Baccarat “birdcage” chandeliers, this work is an example of Otterson’s ability to create functional objects for domestic and public spaces by combining lofty high art ideals with thrift shop finds.
Playfully re-purposing common objects, in this case nearly two hundred pressed- and cut-glass goblets that he has collected over the past decade, Otterson’s work results in seriously beautiful, carefully crafted works of art. Unlike many artists today, he takes pride in making all his work himself: “I celebrate what my hands and ten fingers can do.”
SUSHE FELIX
1958
Colorado Springs, Colorado
EARLY MORNING MIST, 2013
Acrylic on panel
48 in x 36 in
During the 1930s and 40s, Colorado Springs was a center for American Regionalists and Modernists who looked to artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood as their mentors. Felix, a native of the region, reaches back to that tradition of rhythmic forms, extraordinary light, and layers of brilliant colors to create orderly compositions of geometric forms.
Though this work is abstract, its allusion to a stylish, vibrant city situated in a beautiful, lush mountain setting is clear. Its art-deco-like patterns suggest the painting might have been made in the 30s; yet its inner light and southwestern palette signal a very contemporary depiction of the Southwest.
ROB REYNOLDS
1966
Newton, Massachusetts
DON JUAN 1.2, 2012
Ink, acrylic, oil and alkyd paint on canvas in welded aluminum artists’ frame
48 ¾ in x 60 ¾ in
Equal parts a blood red monochrome, and an atmospheric sky, this painting hovers between abstraction and representation. The title and painted text DON JUAN refers to the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley’s boat, which he sailed into oblivion in the Gulf of Spezia in July 8, 1822, reflecting Rob’s interests in minimalism and the idea of the sublime.
SEAN LANDERS
1962
Palmer, Massachusetts
SOME CHOOSE TO BELIEVE IT, 2013
Oil on linen
60 in x 90 in
Landers says, “I generally want to paint cute animals.” And this tartan-covered bear from his NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS SERIES is about as cute as they get. If Picasso could paint blue people and Dali dripping clocks, why can’t Landers paint a plaid bear? Still, when we look closely at this adorable bear happily ambling through a Disney-esque landscape, we see a tiny bee just in front of his nose. This might not bode well for the happy fellow. The charm of the scene belies the seriousness of the work, whose title, carved into the rock in the lower right of the painting, is taken from a line in Kermit the Frog’s RAINBOW CELEBRATION song. Landers’s works always have multiple layers of meaning, most of them having to do with the vulnerabilities of being an artist, the struggle to maintain the mental freedom it takes to be creative, and respectful nods to artists that came before. The enchanting little cub on the opposite wall seems to be one of the “some” who choose to believe.
ROB REYNOLDS
1966
Newton, Massachusetts
OCEAN VIEW FOR DENVER, 2017
UV dye transfer ink on synthetic polymer canvas
40 ft x 80 ft
An OCEAN VIEW FOR DENVER is an original, site-specific outdoor art installation. The artwork features two elements: a 40’ x 80’ image of a tropical resort beach front with text reading OCEAN VIEW, accompanied by an oversized scaled up artwork label. This image both comments upon notions of idealized beach scenes, with a dead-pan and subtle, but sweetly satirical play on a the notion of a “view.” Referencing Pop Art with a surreal twist, this work brings an ocean view to Denver, where, the artist notes, “no one has had such a view for 500 million years.”
ALLAN CAPRON HOUSER (HAOZOUS)
1914
Near Apache, Oklahoma
LEGENDS BEGIN, 1990
Bronze
46 in x 21 in x 15 in
Born to parents who had been imprisoned for twenty-seven years along with other members of the Warm Springs Chiricahua Apaches after their leader Geronimo surrendered to the United States government, Houser was the first member of his tribe to be born out of captivity.
He became one of the most admired Native American artists of the 20th century, and was the first Native American to receive the National Medal of Art, awarded at the White House in 1992 by President George H. W. Bush.
JUN KANEKO
1942
Nagoya, Japan
UNTITLED, DANGO, 2012
Ceramic
53 in x 54 in x 15 in
Size matters in ceramics. The challenge of maintaining structural and aesthetic integrity in a 13-foot tall, hand-built clay object that can take a year to dry, a month to fire, and weigh up to 1,000 pounds is clearly daunting. No wonder that Jun Kaneko has, since the mid-70s, achieved worldwide acclaim for his pioneering work in monumental, perfectly rounded ceramic forms reminiscent of a Japanese dango or dumpling.
Growing up in Japan, painting was Kaneko’s first love. He came to ceramics in 1963 after settling in California, where he worked with influential ceramicist Peter Voulkas, who has called Kaneko’s ceramics “an amazing synthesis of painting and sculpture.” Kaneko allows his painter’s hand to show in the occasional drips that interrupt the rhythm of flawlessly spaced, eye-dazzling dots in this classic, bright orange work.