Final Days for 'it goes under'

Steven Siegel's it goes under is scheduled to be removed

from Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational in mid-September

Photo courtesy of the UW Art Museum

The largest work in Scultpure: A Wyoming Invitational, it goes under is made from wood, multch, and wire mesh. It was created by New York artist Steven Seigel, who is known for his site-inspired large scae sculpture made from recycled or easily attained materials. This is the second work to leave the exhibition.

Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational will continue as many works have been lent on an extended basis for the exhibition. A walking/driving tour guide is availble on the Art Museum's webpage.

Preparations for Japanese Netsuke Exhibition Underway

Sarah Gadd, museum registrar (l), and Rachel Miller,
assistant curator (r), place more than 100 Japanese netsuke in casework.
Photo courtesy of the UW Art Museum.

Comprised of the entire Huey G. and Phyllis T. Shelton Collection of Inada Ichiro Netsuke, Ichiro: Netsuke, A Life's Work opens to the public on Sept. 5. The special collection was gifted to the Art Museum earlier this year and is accompanied by the recently published catalog, Ichiro: Master Netsuke Carver (Paragon Books, 2009; Norman Sandfield and Huey Shelton).

Netsuke scholar Norman Sandfield will conduct a Gallery Walk Through followed by a book signing on Fri., Sept. 11, at 4 pm. The opening reception for this and other new exhibitions is from 6 - 8 pm that evening.

For more information, visit the Art Museum webpage.

Florida artist Brian Burkhardt on campus next week

Brian Burkhardt's glowing Dome
sets the stage for his fabricated hybrid
plants and organisms to be presented
at the UW Art Museum.
Photo courtesy of Gallery Diet.

Florida artist Brian Burkhardt will be in Laramie next week to assist with the installation of his solo exhibition, moss doesn't grow on rolling stones . . . a vision of nature by Brian Burkhardt. Dome is the studio in which this rather "mad-scientist/artist" has playfully re-figured nature. His Office Plant series offer hybrids of plants and office machinery--cell phones and fax machines.

For his Wyoming exhibition, he has created a new work, Take Heed, an installation of caterpillers that include in braille "take" and "heed."

Three public programs are scheduled during Burkhardt's residency, all on Thurs., Sept. 3:

10:30am
Gallery Talk Through

6:30pm
Art Talk

7:30pm
Panel: Scientists View Nature Through the Lens of Art: The Seen and Unseen
UW faculty scheduled to respond to Burkhardt's work include Naomi Ward (microbial genomics, Molecular Biology), Carlos Martines del Rio (ecophysiology, Zoology), Pete Stahl (microbial and fungal ecology, Renewable Resources), Stephen Jackson (director, Program in Ecology) and Jeffrey Lockwood (natural sciences and humanities, Philosophy).

Information may be seen on the Art Museum webpage and its press release.

Sculpture Documentary to air on WY PBS

Patrick Dougherty's site-specific sculpture, Shortcut, is one of 18 sculptures included in the exhibition Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational. The exhibition, and Dougherty, were highlighted in a documentary by UWTV that will air in September on Wyoming PBS.

Photo courtesy of the Art Museum.

A documentary by UWTV, Imagine Learning from the Masters: Public Art and Community Partnership will air on Wyoming PBS on Sunday, Spetember 13 at 5:30 pm. The film, narrated and filmed by UWTV's Mary Jung, features interviews with several of the artists who contributed work to the exhibition, Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational. In addition to hearing from artists such as James Surls, Patrick Dougherty and John Henry, the documentary includes comments from UW and city administrators.

Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational was organized by the UW Art Museum in the summer of 2008, during a time when the Museum's galleries were closed for renovation. The exhibition has sparked an over-year-long discussion on public art and continues to receive enthusiastic responses. A public art symposium was held in April, during which time the documentary was first shown.


Be sure to tune in Sunday night, September 13 to hear insider stories about the installation process, artists' motivations and a discussion on the positive aspects of having public art in Laramie.

Sculpture Exhibition to Continue

Linda Fleming's Refugium on the plaza west of the

Classroom Building will remain in the exhibition.

Photo courtesy of the UW Art Museum.

With the ongoing positive response from the community and the university campus, the Art Museum has extended the loans on many of the sculptures in the outdoor exhibition, Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational. Over the coming years, some works will be removed from the exhibition and new works will be added, creating an evolving program that offers changing configurations of artwork and opportunities to bring new artists into the program.

The first sculpture to be returned to the artist was Deborah Butterfield's Billings which has been on view in the Art Museum's lobby. The second work to be removed will be Steven Siegel's it goes under, the 125-ft long earthworm-like work along the Laramie Greenbelt. Removal is scheduled for mid-September.

For information on the exhibition and links to download the audio tour (use your cell phone to listen to information about each of the works in the exhibition!) and the locator maps of the sculpture in the exhibition and works permanently on view at UW and in Laramie, visit the museum's webpage.

3 Weeks until the Deadline for 20:20

The deadline to submit images for 20:20 is just three weeks away - Wednesday, September 9. This means that there is still plenty of time to sign up to give a presentation! Images must be submitted in a PowerPoint format to Assistant Curator Rachel Miller at rmiller@uwyo.edu. They can also be mailed on a CD to Dept. 3807, 1000 E. University Dr., Laramie, WY 82071 or dropped off at the Art Museum. Sign up is on a first come, first served basis.


This 20:20 is for statewide visual and performing artists, art organizations, educators, musicians and writers. It is being held in conjunction with the Wyoming Arts Council Art Summit, so the hope is to get a diverse group of presenters! 20:20 will be held on Wednesday, September 23 from 7-9 pm at the Little America in Cheyenne. If you're attending the Arts Summit, registration is that same evening, immediately preceding 20:20.


20:20 is a program that was begun by the Art Museum in April. The idea behind the program is to provide Wyoming artists a forum for presenting new works, projects and accomplishments. It's a chance for folks from around Wyoming to stay up to date with the arts, network with colleagues and share ideas. Presenters are allowed 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, resulting in a 6 minute and 40 second presentation. The format allows for multiple presentations within a short (usually 2 hour) time period.


For more information, or to sign up, contact Rachel at 307.766.6621 or rmiller@uwyo.edu.

New Master Teacher at the Art Museum

Master Teacher Heather Bender started this week at the Art Museum.

Heather Bender has extensive experience in museums and education, including classroom teaching, curriculum development, and teacher training that utilize museums as original resources for educational benchmark goals. During her five years at the Buff alo Bill Historical Center in Cody, she developed and implemented the Museum Discovery Program, a partnership program with Cody High School. She taught social studies at Powell Middle School, Wyoming, and Maces Lande Middle School, Cambridge, Maryland. Most recently, she was the director of the LCSC Center for the Arts & History, Lewiston, Idaho. As master teacher, she will work with faculty and teachers statewide to integrate coursework goals and school benchmarks using the museum as a primary resource for a variety of disciplines. She holds a BA in Art and History with an Education minor from Salisbury University, Maryland.

Last Week to See Cook, Crawford, Linder Exhibitions

Lia Cook, Traces: Amuse, 2003, 99 x 54 inches, cotton, woven, Jacquard power loom, multiple color warp rotation, lent by the artist

Photo courtesy of the artist

This is the final week to see three summer exhibitions at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. Scheduled to close on Sunday, August 23 are Lia Cook: The Embedded Portrait, Ralston Crawford: Lithographs and Photographs, and Tracy Linder: Tractor Hides. These will come down in preparation for new fall exhibitions, which open on September 11.

Lia Cook: The Embedded Portrait is the first exhibition to examine in depth the multifaceted aspects of Cook’s embedded portraits. Drawn from different bodies of work, twenty woven hangings depicting larger-than-life children illustrate Lia Cook’s exploration of the visual and physical realm where photographic likeness and textured textile meet. Cook takes the venerable early 19th-century Jacquard weaving technique into uncharted territory, wedding it to sophisticated computer programs. Beginning with slides, photographs, or video stills, she develops her imagery, couples it with digital technology, and creates specifically designed weaves that allow her to build the image thread by thread.

Ralston Crawford: Lithographs and Photographs includes the five lithographs and ten photographs by Crawford that were recently acquired by the Art Museum. The exhibition is enhanced by additional works on loan from the artist’s son, Neelon Crawford. Collectively, the exhibition reveals Crawford’s skill and artistic eye for rendering subjects in a language of planes, lines, and shapes. The underlying emphasis on structure in his work indicates his deeply intellectual, almost analytical approach, coupled with personal reaction and experience. The subjects and style of his lithographs and photographs reflect these two approaches.

Tracy Linder: Tractor Hides consists of fourteen individual “hides” that are stood on end and lit from within, creating pod-like forms. Using animal collagen as the primary material, photographic images of the land, plants, farm machinery, humans, and animals are embedded into the collagen and formed over the treads of splayed tractor tires. They embody Linder’s interest in life, death, and decay. Tractor Hides honors family farms while bringing to the fore the political and economic shifts that are changing this way of life. The sculptures resonate with a sense of ritual and tradition of farming and ranch life.

Be sure you make it to the Art Museum this week to see these three incredible exhibitions before they close! For more information, please call 307.766.6622.

Final Days for Moran Exhibitions

Thomas Moran (English/American, 1837-1926), Bluffs - Platte Riv. Wyoming Ter., Not dated, Pencil, 6-7/8 x 9-3/4 inches, Gift of Fritiof Fryxell, University of Wyoming Art Museum Collection, 2009.3.6

Only three days remain to see two Thomas Moran exhibitions at the UW Art Museum. Thomas Moran in Wyoming and Thomas Moran: Pastoral Views and Seashores will close this Sunday, August 16. That leaves only today, Friday and Saturday to view these great exhibitions. The Museum is open 10 am - 5 pm all three days. Admission is free.

Thomas Moran in Wyoming presents sketches, prints and chromolithographs that Moran created while traveling through the state. Several works depict nearby landmarks, like the Red Buttes south of Laramie and the colorful geologic features of Green River.

Thomas Moran: Pastoral Views and Seashores shows images from England and the east coast of the United States, where he lived and worked extensively. The exhibition contains prints and drawings of sand dunes near East Hampton, lighthouses and stormy seas.

These two exhibitions are a great way to see the work of one of the West's best-known artists and see his skill in a variety of media. For more information, call the Museum at 307.766.6622.

New Curator of Collections at the Art Museum

The Art Museum has hired Nicole Crawford as the Curator of Collections, a new position at the Museum.

Nicole Crawford is the former gallery director at the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe. During her eight years with the gallery, she supervised staff , conducted research and worked with numerous collectors. In her role as curator of collections for the Art Museum, she will oversee the development of the museum’s collection, curate exhibitions from the collection for the museum’s exhibition programs, enable internship opportunities in collections research and scholarship, and chair the museum’s Collections Advisory Committee. Crawford has an MA in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Nebraska. Her scholarship focus is American Modernism, but she has conducted research and written extensively on many other art genres, including Western American Art.

New "Visual Arts Series" Announced

The University of Wyoming Art Department and the Art Museum are pleased to announce the new Visual Arts Series, a joint effort to promote the arts on campus and in the Laramie community. Both art entities are leaders in bringing contemporary artists on to campus and this new partnership allows for further promotional and educational opportunities.

The Visual Arts Series is a string of events including Art Talks, Gallery Walk Throughs, hands-on demonstrations by contemporary artists, and more at the Art Museum and at the Fine Arts Building. A complete list of events for the fall is below. Look for posters around campus and town, and in your mailbox in the coming weeks.

Please join us this fall for one, some or all of these great art events! For more information, call the UW Art Museum at 307.766.6622 or the UW Art Department at 307.766.3269.

09.03
Gallery Walk Through: Brian Burkhardt
10:30 am
Art Talk: Brian Burkhardt
6:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Scientists View Nature Through the Lens of Art: The Seen and Unseen
7:30 pm
University Art Museum

09.10
Art Talk: Kwang-Young Chun
6:30 pm
University Art Museum

09.11
Gallery Walk Through: Kwang-Young Chun
10:30 am
Gallery Walk Through and Book signing: Norman L. Sandfield
4 pm
University Art Museum

09.14
Readings and Book signing: Red Desert: History of a Place
5 pm
University Art Museum

09.21
Art Talk: James Victore
7 pm
Fine Arts 111

09.23
20:20 Statewide
7 pm
Little America in Cheyenne, in conjunction with the Wyoming Arts Council Arts Summit

10.03
Art Talk: David Carson
6 pm
Arts and Sciences Auditorium

10.05
Netsuke Carving Demonstration: Nick Lamb
6 pm
University Art Museum

10.13
Gallery Talk: Ina Kaur
7 pm
Gallery 211

10.19
Art Talk: John Grade
6:30 pm
Fine Arts 111

10.24
Art Talk: James Surls
11 am
Coe Library

10.27
Art Talk: Norman Akers
7 pm
Fine Arts 111

New Artmobile Exhibition on View

Don Wiest (American, 1909-1995), Untitled, 1946, Watercolor, 14-15/16 x 19 inches, Gift of Dr. Elizabeth H. Wiest, University of Wyoming Art Museum Collection, 2005.2.19

Photo courtesy of the UW Art Museum.

The UW Art Museum has launched a new Ann Simpson Artmobile exhibit, Where We Are is Just the Beginning, which will travel the state through June 30, 2011. This exhibit features 14 prints and paintings from the Art Museum’s permanent collections that depict a variety of neighborhoods and time periods from across the country. Urban or rural, industrial or pastoral - each artist's perspective helps us think about our own favorite places.

By knowing our neighborhood, can we know the world? Can artists’ perspectives of other places help us better understand our own place? Can multiple perspectives of a single place enrich our experience and understanding? How are artists' perspectives similar to those of others, such as scientists' and historians'? These are just some of the questions we’ll be exploring during the next two years as the Artmobile travels to schools and communities in Wyoming.

Where We Are is Just the Beginning is currently on view in the Centennial Complex Gallery, located at 2111 Willett Drive, Laramie. It will be on view through Wednesday, August 12. It’s a great time for teachers and art educators to preview the exhibition and consider the possibilities of bringing it to your school or institution.

Artmobile Curator, Beth Weztbarger, works with teachers to design lesson plans and creative activities that support essential learning in the classroom and align with district and state education standards. For more information and to schedule the Artmobile contact Beth Weztbarger, Artmobile Curator, at (307) 399-2941 or e-mail artmobile@uwyo.edu.

Funding for the Ann Simpson Artmobile Program is provided by the Julienne Michel Foundation, the FMC Corporation, Helga and Erivan Haub, and Ann and Alan Simpson. The Ann Simpson Artmobile van is provided by FMC Corporation and the McMurry Foundation. Additional support provided by the Ann Simpson Artmobile Endowment and the Wyoming Arts Council through the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming State Legislature.

Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational Continues

A coordinated effort is required to make Jesus Moroles' 

Granite Windows on Prexy's Pasture turn

Photo courtesy of A. Trent

Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational, the major exhibition of public art installed across Laramie and the University of Wyoming last year, has been extended for an indefinite period of time.  The exhibition, originally planned to end in August 2009, has been positively received, encouraging the University of Wyoming Art Museum, which originated the exhibition, to request loan extensions from many of the artists represented.  

Several works are scheduled to be removed from the exhibition: Deborah Butterfield's Billings, a welded metal, larger than life work in the museum's rotunda will be returned to the artist after August 15.  Steven Siegel's long, linear construction, It Goes Under, installed along the Laramie Greenbelt, is planned for removal the middle of September.

For information on sculpture locations, a Walking/Driving Tour Guide is available on the Art Museum webpage. 

Last Chance to see Thomas Moran at the UW Art Museum

Thomas Moran (English/American, 1837-1926), Castle Geyser, 

1874, chromolithograph, 11-9/16 x 16-3/16 inches, 

gift of Fritiof Fryxell in memory of John D. Fryxell, 

University of Wyoming Art Museum Collection, 2009.3.18

Photo courtesy of the UW Art Museum

The University of Wyoming Art Museum is featuring the artist Thomas Moran with two exhibitions of his work this summer, Thomas Moran in Wyoming and Thomas Moran: Pastoral Views and Seashores. Both exhibitions are scheduled to close on August 15.

Thomas Moran spent much time in the Wyoming Territory during the 1870s. He traveled frequently to the Green River Area and completed many sketches and watercolors of the topography of the region. Moran joined the government-sponsored Hayden Expedition to the Yellowstone Region in 1871. He made numerous sketches of Yellowstone’s geological features. These images, and photographs of expedition photographer William Henry Jackson, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s first park, in 1872. Thomas Moran in Wyoming presents watercolor sketches, drawings, and prints made from his many trips to Wyoming that convey the various forms of producing images for publication at the time. Also included are drawings of the Laramie Plains, the Red Buttes area south of Laramie and the Platte River.

Thomas Moran: Pastoral Views and Seashores explores the etchings Moran made of the seashore and the sea. The effects of water and light were an inspiration for Moran and he traveled to many locations to study the work of such artists as J.M.W. Turner, who was also inspired by sunlight and water and an inspiration to Moran. He was the first artist to build a studio in the East Hamptons, a residence and studio where he and his wife Mary Nimmo Moran summered and worked after 1884.

For additional information on the exhibitions, call the UW Art Museum at (307) 766-6622 or visit www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum.

Netsuke Carver to Give Demonstration at the Art Museum

Nick Lamb, Netuske carver
Image courtesy of the artist

Nick Lamb will be at the Art Museum on Monday, Oct. 5, to give a demonstration on carving netsuke from 6 - 8 pm. Netsuke are small carvings used in traditional Japanese clothing to counterbalance pouches hung over the belt of kimonos.

The demonstration is scheduled to coincide with the exhibition, Ichiro: A Life's Work of Netsuke, The Huey G. and Phyllis T. Shelton Collection. Ichiro was a 20th century carver and the Shelton collection is the largest known collection by a single netsuke artist. It was gifted to the University of Wyoming Art Museum this year. The exhibition runs from Sept. 12 through Dec. 22, 2009.

Lamb was trained as a graphic designer at the Berkshire College of Art in his native England. He started woodcarving in 1973; by the early 1980s, he was winning woodcarving prizes. He carved his first nestuke in 1983. Since then, he has become one of the most celebrated non-Japanese carvers of netsuke and other traditional Japanese miniature forms.

Lamb's work has been exhibited internationally, including the British Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, the Museum of East Asian Art in Berlin, the Chiba City Museum of Art in Japan, and the Museum of Art & Design in New York. He is a member of the Society of Animal Artists.