Dates: July 6 – August 8
The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art is pleased to present Altered States from July 6 to August 8, 2021. Join us for an opening reception on Thursday, July 8, from 4pm – 7pm and for a local Art Walk evening on Thursday, August 5, from 5pm – 8pm.
Altered States is a collection of recent works from gallery artists: Catherine Courtenaye, Sue Dirksen, Krista Harris, Shawna Moore, Christine Nguyen, Kelly O’Connor, Lisa Pressman, Maggie Taylor, and Emmi Whitehorse. The works on view are mostly abstract with the exceptions of O’Connor’s commanding multi-paneled collage and Taylor’s whimsical photographic arrangements. This collection brings the unconscious mind to center stage, unveils inner desires, and creates an experience that is felt as much as it is seen. In essence, the dreams of these artists are on view, however literal or exaggerated they may be. Whitehorse’s paintings are visions and stories that are “purposefully meditative” and merge abstraction with Navajo cosmological perspectives. As in Nguyen’s shadowy cyanotypes, connections are made between our own terrestrial world and that of the cosmos above. Meanwhile, Courtenaye’s practice plays with the shape of written script, and her most recent body of work “seek[s] some sort of equivalence between letterforms, various species of birds, and pure gesture.” Harris’s new works, influenced by mid-century abstract expressionists, show “richly layered and nuanced surfaces [that] keep various ideas in the air, as if waiting to come into focus.” In this way, she lures viewers into re-working what they see in front of them, much as she does during her creative process. “Acknowledging the significance of growth and reinvention,” Moore seeks to understand the nature of abstraction through color exploration while Dirksen plays with color and light in a way that suggests vibrations on the surface. Finally, Pressman’s use of mixed media produces work that is conceptually based, “featuring marks, forms, colors and patterns that are evocative rather than descriptive.” All together, this grouping of mostly new work creates an atmosphere that will both engage and challenge the inner mind’s eye.
