EXHIBITIONS |
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Art Lecture Events •
Exhibits Schedule 2009 |
Senator Adelstein & Lynda Clark Gallery: Iron & Oil - John Lopez & Jenny Braig (Jan 17-Mar 7, 2010)
Ruth Brennan Gallery: GREEN (Oct 30, 2009 - Feb 8, 2010)
Inez & Milton Shaver Gallery: My Ranching Life - Jean Laughton (Nov 20 - Feb 7, 2010)
Bruce H. Lien Cultural Cafe & Gallery: Permanent Collection of the Rapid City Arts Council
Lobby
Gallery: Permanent Collection of
the Rapid City Arts Council
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GREEN
Ruth Brennan Gallery
Opening
Reception Sponsored by: Black Hills Power
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For this competitively juried show, artists were asked to submit artwork based on the word GREEN. The call to artists was mailed out to a limited regional mailing list and broadcast via e-mail, facebook and other internet sources. The show received 232 entries from 92 artists. Approximately half the entries came from South Dakota with the remaining majority coming from all over the United States. There were also entries from China, Turkey and Japan. Of these entries, 46 pieces by 32 artists, including 22 artists from South Dakota, were selected to be part of the exhibit. Artists in the exhibit: Kathryn Addcox, Anne Aleshire, Jeanne Apelseth, Steve Babbitt, Fiorenzo Berardozzi, Ayesha Joy Burkey, Bernie Butcher, Hope R Canaday, Susanne Clawson, Vi Colombe, Bonnie Cutts, Denise DuBroy, Shirley Jane Hobbs, Eden Hopkins, Jodi Jensen, Jerry Jessen, Don Jones, Jeremy Kendall, Debra Kern Workman, Vicki Kessler, Donna Kjonaas, Melisse Laing, Laurieann Dygowski, Jon Madsen, Deborah Mitchell, Joseph Night, Marshall Reaburn, Maurice Shortt, Donna Sinclair, Kathy Thaden, Tom Thorson, Andrew Yff Juror Candace Forrette is a Rapid City, SD native now living in Billings Montana. Her studio work is currently focused on sculpture and installation. She is the Executive Director of a non-profit organization committed to Fair Trade and sustainable business practices. The Green 3 series refers to 2 more events building on the Green Exhibit that will explore the topic in the past and the future. Democracy in Action and Friends of Rapid City Parks are co-sponsoring the activities as a way to encourage more citizens to join the conversation about creating a sustainable Rapid City. Sun / Jan 17 / 3-5pm: The History of Green will feature Gerard Baker, Superintendent at Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, speaking on Teddy Roosevelt, Our Environmental President. Expanding the exhibit's visual arts into the literary arts, Baker will be joined by Western South Dakota writers such as Linda Hasselstrom, whose work reflects themes of land and nature. The afternoon event will include opportunities for the audience to talk to the authors. FOR DETAILS...click HERE Sat / March 20 / 2-4pm: Our Green Future. The last event in the series will take the conversation about green and sustainability into the art of the possible: a forum on public policy. Democracy in Action and Friends of Rapid City Parks will facilitate an update on the activities of the Green City Task Force, including a question and answer session with audience members.
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Selections from the Dahl Permanent Collection
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See pieces from the Rapid City Arts Council's Permanent Collection of art for free in the lobby of the Bruce H. Lien Cultural Café and Gallery (entrance on 7th street, Mon-Fri, 9-5) and the main entrance lobby area (entrance on 7th Street, Tues-Fri, 12-8pm, Sat & Sun 1-5). |
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My Ranching Life Jean Laughton
Inez & Milton Shaver Gallery Opening Reception:
Sponsored by:
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With My Ranching Life, photographer
Jean Laughton brings panoramic images that capture both the expansive
beauty of the northern prairie and the uniquely gritty, romantic
lifestyle of the ranchers who live there. In her compositions, a
realistic balance of work, land and livestock celebrate and explore how
lifestyle is entwined with place.
Photographed from horseback, the black and white images also play with our idea of past and present in the contemporary documentation of an occupation that has remained virtually unchanged for one hundred years. Jean Laughton’s photographs are testament to this artist’s singular drive and vision. Her unique approach to in this work is the result of an unusual, some might say courageous, decision to uproot herself from a life in New York City and re-locate to the badlands to work as a hand on a cattle ranch. The depth of the artist's involvement with both the occupation and the image is often evidenced by the inclusion of the ears of her horse or the shadow of herself and her camera. Anyone that has ever admired the rugged
life of a cowboy, found beauty in the sweeping prairies or noticed the
simplistic elegance of black and white photography will enjoy this
exhibit of large format photographic prints. Her visual images record
what text cannot and though the people and times may change, her
photographs will endure.
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Iron & Oil John Lopez & Jenny Braig Senator Adelstein and Jan 15 - Mar 8, 2010 Opening Reception:
Sponsored by: |
Iron and Oil features scrap iron
sculptures by Eagle Butte, SD area sculptor John Lopez and oil on canvas
landscapes by Spearfish, SD artist, Jenny Braig. From the prairies to
the hills, and points in between, each of the two artists finds
inspiration from the materials they use and the things that surround
them, leading them to create unique representations of the familiar. John Lopez originally made a name for himself creating western and rodeo themed cast bronze sculptures. Past projects have included sculptures of presidents John Adams, John F. Kennedy and John, Jr., Calvin Coolidge, Teddy Roosevelt and Ulysses S. Grant for Rapid City’s City of Presidents project. These sculptures can be found gracing the street corners of downtown Rapid City. John has also created bronze monuments for the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, including a sculpture of World Champion Barrel Racer Charmayne James and Scamper when Scamper's bridle broke at the N.F.R. and another featuring World Champion Calf Roper Paul Tierney dismounting from his horse Coffee Jeff. With this new series of scrap iron constructions, Lopez takes a very whimsical approach to his subjects. In these sculptures, rusted metal pieces from the ranch scrap yard ultimately come together as recognizable animals, people and objects. Unlike the bronze sculptures, which are sculpted then molded and may be cast more than once; each scrap iron sculpture is truly one of a kind. The exhibit at the Dahl Arts Center features more of the artist’s scrap iron sculptures than have ever been shown at one time, including the unveiling of a brand new life-size piece titled “The Colt of Many Colors.” John Lopez has had the good fortune to build his career in sculpting without leaving the prairies of western South Dakota where he was born and raised. And if you ask him about his favorite thing to sculpt, the answer is an easy one… horses. Lopez comes from a long-time South Dakota ranching family well known for their horses, and has helped with the Lopez-Hunt-Meyer annual production sale since he was a boy, so his familiarity and ease with his subject come naturally. That is quite apparent when you look at the sculptures that he creates. Looking closely at these sculptures you will see that rasps, forks, wrenches, tines, and sometimes even a cast bronze piece or two, have been bent and twisted and welded in most unusual ways to form these balanced and beautiful animals. Jenny Braig takes an equally interesting approach to constructing landscapes out of oil paint. She strives to create well-crafted and beautiful objects that tell a simple but passionate story of a place. And Braig is clearly passionate about the beautiful vistas in and around the Black Hills of South Dakota where she lives. Nature is her greatest source of inspiration and she finds the inspiration for her compositions while enjoying a hike in the hills or a drive across country. Back in the studio, Braig works quickly, building her landscapes with layers of paint. The surfaces of thickly layered paint swirl across the canvas in a way that brings to mind the icing on a cake. She then goes back into the wet paint, drawing marks that not only reveal color from the layer below, but also create a composition of even more complex textures. The result is that from a distance the paintings look very realistic but as you get close the image becomes more abstract and the surface reveals a complex combination of vivid color and depth. Jenny grew up along the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa, where she graduated from Loras College with degrees in Art and Art History. She moved to Spearfish, South Dakota in 1992, where she lives with her husband and two children. Jenny has received many awards for her paintings. In 2009 she was the recipient of an artist’s grant from the South Dakota Arts Council and one of her paintings was purchased for the Art in State Buildings program in South Dakota. Jenny also volunteers at the Spearfish Arts Center and teaches piano. |
