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.

Family Day at the Art Museum this Saturday

Kids and parents work on art projects

during the 2007 Family Day.

Photo courtesy of the Art Museum.

Family Day at the UW Art Museum is this Saturday, July 18, from 10 am - 4 pm. The day begins with an Art Talk by Montana artist Tracy Linder at 10:30 am. Tracy has been an Artist in Residence this week in the Shelton Studio, and has been working with students to create and shape handmade paper during the annual Paint Pony Express classes. The Art Talk is free and open to the public.

Family Day includes free art making activities for artists of all ages. The theme of this year’s Family Day is "Ranch Stories." Families will be able to ask Tracy Linder questions about her work and what it's like living on a ranch and how she came to be an artist. She will be on hand to talk about the unique materials she uses and the subjects that interest her. Papermaking materials are supplied by the Shelton Studio. Participants can learn how to make and cast paper, and create truly unique items from this fun (and wet!) medium. Come prepared to work outside in the sun. Family Day is free and open to the public.

For more information, please call 307-766-3496.

Tracy Linder: Artist in Residence for Paint Pony Express

Tracy Linder's Tractor Hides are currently on exhibition at the UW Art Museum. Tracy will be an artist in residence July 14-18.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Paint Pony Express continues this upcoming week at the UW Art Museum. Montana artist Tracy Linder will be at the museum for an artist's residency throughout the week. She will be in the Shelton Studio working with students and teachers on art making projects, including paper making. Tracy explores themes of ranch life, ritual, the environment and the interconnectedness of plants, animals and people in her work.

Paint Pony Express is an afternoon of free art related activities at the Museum. Art, movement, music, and storytelling are explored during the activities. Students get to explore different artwork at the Museum, including paintings, prints and sculpture, and then get the chance to create their own art. Each day is set aside for a different age group, listed below.

The schedule for next week's Paint Pony Express is:

Tuesday, July 14, 1-3 pm

Ages 4-5 (Please note, parents must stay with children under the age of 6)

Wednesday, July 15, 1-3 pm

Ages 6-8

Thursday, July 16, 1-3 pm

Ages 9-11

Events culminate on Saturday, July 18 with Family Day from 10 am-4 pm at the Museum, where Tracy will be on hand to work with families to create their very own art and she will give an Art Talk at 10:30.

For more information on Paint Pony Express please contact Education Curator Wendy Bredehoft at wbredeho@uwyo.edu or 307.766.3496. Activities are free and pre-registration is not required. Please wear clothes that you can comfortably create in!

Tracy Linder installs Tractor Hides

Tracy Linder stands at the entrance of her exhibition,
Tractor Hides, at the UW Art Museum.
Photo courtesy of the UW Art Museum

Tracy Linder grew up on her family’s sugar beet farm near Billings, MT. The agricultural lifestyle of her youth has rooted her creative work, which explores iconic forms and photographic images that reference the farm life that she understands intimately.

In her installation, Tractor Hides, fourteen individual “hides” stand on end and are 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 imbedded into the collagen and formed over the treads of splayed tractor tires. They embody Linder’s interest in life, death, and decay.

Linder will be an artist in residence for the Art Museum's Paint Pony Express program from July 14 - 18. Two public programs are scheduled that week:

Gallery Walk Through, Friday, July 17, 10:30 am

Art Talk, Saturday, July 18, 10:30 am

These events are free and open to the public.

Summer Exhibitions at the Art Museum

Montana artist Tracy Linder's Tractor Hides, will be on view at the UW Art Museum through the summer. The works are on loan from Banner, WY artist Neltje, and Tracy Linder. They are photo emulsion on animal collagen and lit from within to create pod-like structures.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

The installation of six summer exhibitions will begin this week at the Art Museum, after the closing of The Disappeared this past Saturday. Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational will continue to be on view throughout the city, at the Art Museum rotunda and terrace, and on the UW campus.

From the Museum's permanent collection come the exhibitions Thomas Moran in Wyoming and Thomas Moran: The Eastern Landscape. Each of these showcases Moran's watercolors, sketches and prints from his excursions West, as well as his work on the East coast of the United States. Moran played an important role in visually documenting the west, in particular Wyoming, and his work helped establish Yellowstone National Park as the nation's first National Park in 1872.

Also from the permanent collection is Ralston Crawford: Lithographs and Photographs, which will exhibit 5 recently acquired lithographs and 10 recently acquired photographs. I n addition to these works from the collection, lithos and photos from the Crawford estate will supplement the exhibition. Although primarily recognized as a Precisionist painter, Crawford was also an accomplished print maker and photographer.

Artists from France: Paintings and Prints from the Art Museum Collection features late 19th and early 20th century work from numerous French artists, including Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin. France was the center of the art world at the turn of the century, and many important art movements emerged during this time - most notably Cubism, Impressionism, and Art Nouveau.

Montana artist Tracy Linder's series of Tractor Hides (pictured above) will also be on exhibit. Raised on a sugar beet farm, her work references the importance and history of family farming and ranching. Linder will be artist in residence at the Shelton Studio July 14-18 for Paint Pony Express.

Lia Cook: The Embedded Portrait features 20 works by American textile artist Lia Cook. Using old family photographs, slides and video stills, Cook merges the visual with the physical in monumental sized weavings. The pieces in this exhibition are part of five different series, each of which demonstrates a different weaving technique.

A full list of events and programs can be found on the Art Museum website: www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum or for more information, please call 307-766-6622. Up to date announcements will be posted here throughout the summer!