Eric Ringsby's sublime Rodeo Series

I'll admit I've got a soft spot for rodeo imagery and subsequently have represented a few bodies of work directly relating to the subject. By my love of the genre has nothing to do with the traditions normally seen within it, rather they are a direct connection to personal upbringing and the absurdist nature of the sport. My years in Idaho proved to be filled with unusual entertainment rituals and of course rodeo was one of them. It was really the only solo bonding experience that I had with my father while growing up, as he loved to go to the rodeo and I was the only one in the family that didn't refuse to go out to the stadium with him when the rodeo came through town.

Eric Ringsby was the first artist whose work I witnessed who portrayed the sport in a contemporary vein, my first exposure of which occured at the MCA Denver's Colorado Biennial the first year I moved to Denver (and easily one of the strongest years for that exhibition). Ringsby was venturing into the realm of video, and utilized rawhide canvases to project images of rodeo onto (both in large and small-scale versions), and also exhibited a series of large format giclee prints on canvas that captured single frame video images of riders in action (of wich this piece is from). The pixelization that occurs through this technique lends itself well to the action that Ringsby captures and though I don't like the giclee concept in general, the use of it had a distinct appeal and rationale that fit the works. It is one of the largest pieces in our collection and one that both Karen and I are very fond of. We ended up meeting Eric and his family and since have become close friends. Eric used to be involved in a gallery operation in NYC when we had first opened up in Denver, and we essentially met because of the unusual parallels between our respective positions. Eric was essentially fronting a gallery that had the name "Cornell Dewitt Gallery" while our gallery name was originally "Cordell Taylor Gallery" in honor of my friend and associate Cordell Taylor who was the inspiration for the business. People used to constantly get the two confused, at least here in Denver, but eventually Eric ended up getting out of the business, which was unfortunate as it was a great conduit for Denver artists to the NY market (due to Eric being a Denver native), but ever since he has kept a close eye on Plus Gallery and remains one of the leading authorities in the area on contemporary art, both as a patron and as a collector.

Hunt Rettig's "Back Footpath"

Past couple of weeks have been super busy, likely the next couple will be too but wanted to squeeze in some words on our latest major acquisition, an assemblage piece by Hunt Rettig, part of a pseudo-triptych called "Back Footpath." Rettig is an exciting artist with a gallery backstory that I love to relate. One day late in 2003(I think) I got a call about 15 minutes before hosting a wine-tasting event, something we used to do in the early days to get exposure for the gallery. These were frantic events, a lot of anticipation before and major clean-up (not to mention hangover) the next day. Needless to say I had little patience for anyone calling on other business minutes prior, let alone a brand new artist seeking representation. The artist who called that day gave me a story about being from Aspen and down for the day, he had just visited Robischon (widely considered, both then and now, the best contemporary gallery in town) who had told them that he should contact us and might be a good fit for our program. Now, it is quite often that you get this or a similar line, but usual not in relation to Robischon, so at the time even though I had no desire for an artist visit, I nevertheless gave enough pause for Rettig to find an in. I told him I didn't want him coming inside the gallery because of the event, but would meet him in the alley and take a quick peek, hoping I could dismiss him easily and not have to create a scene inside. I'll never forget that moment, as the artist agreed and took little time in showing me a small sample of his work and shoving a portfolio in my hands with a cover that was pure magic. All I could think was that the only reason Robischon passed him up was due to him being 100% green..... the work had a definite magnetic energy and character that was fresh and full of potential. I told him quickly that I would keep a hold of the portfolio (which I still have to this day) and get back to him. He was a good guy, didn't need to have his hand held or any promises made, mostly I suspect because he knew he was onto something special (and being from Aspen didn't hurt, in fact he had been recognized by the illustrious curator Dean Sobel from the Aspen Art Museum, now director of the Clyfford Still Museum, with his early works). I was pretty excited when I got back into the gallery and showed the portfolio to my associate Gilbert, trying to relate the back-alley conversation as best I could without losing focus on the task at hand. The next day upon further analysis we both agreed that we might give this guy a shot and in fact ended up working him into an exhbition that would mark the first major transition of the gallery the following year, when we brought on board a third player into the gallery, the widely known and esteemed gallerist Ron Judish. The rest of that story is too long to relate here, but essentially Hunt's debut was enough of a success on our end to get excited about his future potential, though issues surrounding the quality of his work did surface, proving Robischon's assesment of his being distinctly green. But the best part of the art business has always been taking risks and honing talent, and Hunt has ended up proving himself greatly......not quite to the extent as someone like William Betts, but his path has been pure and pretty remarkable. I still feel that he has created a very singular concept that cannot be repeated or transgressed through other methods to create a similar result. The best thing as that he has truly come to understand the depth of his technique and how to apply it in different directions that will make him very succesful and highly collectible, in fact he's one of the few artists we represent that has a valued collector list like no other, much of that due to his position in Aspen, one of the hottest scenes in the world. He's still a very cool and humble guy, but with just enough of a randy edge to be worth working with. This particular piece is part of a recent trio called "Back Footpath," which to me signified a distinctly exciting new understanding in his work, particularly at a smaller scale. We were fortunate to pick it up recently, fully knowing that a future acquisition would likely be way out of our price range. The work itself will always be a mystery. Hunt uses thin poly-films in a way that is super simple to understand yet completely incomprehensible in how he wields them to achieve the magical results. Most people think his works are photographs, but once you see how the curved areas capture light to create shifting hot-spots and different colors, you know more or less that there's a lot more in it than meets the eye. Almost impossible to capture the quality of with an image, which to me relates to some of the best art always.

An early Jenny Morgan triptych

The story of Jenny Morgan and our gallery is an astonishing one that we often relate to friends and prospctive clients alike with great fervor, there really has been no other artist that has hit such tremendous personal and career notes in a small time-span. The short version is that she served as our very first intern at the gallery years ago when she was in her final year at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. Jenny was a great intern, though at that time responsibilities didn't extend much beyond cleaning the floor, labeling postcards and serving bar at the openings. Though Jenny was studying painting, she never revealed her work to us during her internship but did invite us to the graduation show at RMCAD where she had a piece on view. Because she was such a delight and always did what we asked of her, we decided to support her show and attended the opening. The painting she had on view was obviously the standout of the show, it was a triptych that had three tightly cropped depictions of a naked female body in a state of flow, with fabric swirling through the body, each panel with a different color-tone referencing various emotional states. She had a precise technique but the cropping and color selections made the piece distinctly contemporary. I liked it enough to ask her to bring it to the gallery and see what might happen, it wasn't necessarily a genre that I would see us getting into but it seemed very appealing with just the right edge we were looking for. Some months later Jenny invited us to her first exhibition at Pirate, a local co-op that long held one of the best reputations in town (thanks to leadership by local legend Phil Bender and a disarmingly good array of talent over the years). It was an honor that Jenny was accepted into Pirate, and of course we wanted to support her first show. The best part was that I was indeed suprised by what she had on view, the exhibition showed great depth and intrigue and the contemporary nature we had assumed she was encompassing was in full view. I was very taken in particular by this "Belly" triptych, it seemed like such an unusual choice for a young artist and promoted a dichotomy in content that I felt was very strong, both repelant yet divine at the same time. The piece was all of $250 and I decided to snatch it up the night of the opening. Since that time so much has transpired with Jenny's career, she has become one of the top artists in our stable and there are many wonderful, exciting stories surrounding her rise in the Denver art scene and beyond, too many to be related here. She just graduated two weeks ago with a masters in painting from one of the best art schools in the country (NYC's SVA) and her work has alrady been secured by notable national collectors such as Howard Tullman and Norman Dubrow. Though she emerged as one of the most promising artists from Denver in the last ten years, she is really just now beginning her real career and time will tell if the magic of her early days will continue as she commences painting in her new Brooklyn studio. I for one am banking that it will.

Bruce Price "Frieze Fragment #3"

Plus Galleries first exhibition with Bruce Price was "The New York Paintings" in 2004 in a pairing that also marked the debut of Michael Whiting. It was a fabulous show with equal recognition given to both artists by the press and public alike, though Price's work was later recognized by Mary Voelz Chandler of the Rocky Mountain News as one of the best exhibitions across the board that year (including institutional shows) and he was also noted as Denver's top Abstract painter by the RMNEWS as well. The major works in the exhibition were diamond-shaped canvases that referenced major cultural figures whose work dealt with concepts of patterning and ornamentation, each pattern on the canvas built up through a hundred or more layers of paint. The effect of building the paint up in this fashion led to an edge treatment that was imprecise and curled over off the edge of the canvas in a highly appealing manner. The surfaces of the paintings had a distinctly rigid, plastic look, a result of the layering and intrinsic quality of acrylic paint and gel medium. The minor pieces including "Frieze Fragment #3" stood out in a similar fashion though with a slightly looser pattern structure and thicker sense of layering. I fell in love with the Frieze Fragments and ended up aquiring one a couple years after the exhibition when finances allowed. They are still some of my favorite works by Price and a period of his evolution that I think will always stand as a high point (including acquisitions from the show by renowned architect David Adjaye during his initial visits to Denver after being selected to design the new MCA Denver).

Michael Whiting's "Greater Times"

Michael Whiting is one of my favorite sculptors that we represent at the gallery and "Greater Times" is from his exhibition "I'm a Square" which took place in October of 2005. It was really one of the most blissed out shows of color and form that we've ever showcased and really a huge development for Michael in terms of the level of complexity and the sheer pleasure inherent in the works. "Greater Times" is one of the show-pieces that really resonated with me from the title itself (which had a lot to bear on our current frame of mind that year) down to the level of execution that is one of the artists first use of three colors within a 3-dimensional work. Michael's concept is to create minimalist forms along the lines of early pixel-based computer technology, primarily with direct references to early video-games. What's truly remarkable about this concept is that it appeals to a wide variety of sensibilities, the gaming reference really only striking a small percentage of his collectors (who are generally more drawn to his exceptional massing and precise construction of forms). Whiting finishes each piece with automotive paint which he then distresses to create a "relic" of modern times. The exhibition was a big success and fortunately my wife decided to buy this piece for me for christmas that year. Michael continues to build upon his premise unabated with major public commissions in the works and two of his most recent sculptures from 2007's "Walk in the Park" having recently been selected for a public exhibition in Colorado Springs juried by the esteemed curator Adam Lerner (from the Lab at Belmar).

Our son Udo in a digital masterpiece

When our son Udo was born in June of 2007, just a couple of weeks later if even that, the Denver-based artist John Bonath contacted us and said that he was looking for a fresh baby to utilize in one of his digital photographs. I was excited by this prospect as I had shown John's work before in a group exhibition and was familiar with his output, he is simply put one of the greatest digital photographers in the world (and I don't say that lightly). The digital medium itself is not necessarily highly sought or regarded in Denver but I've always felt that if John was located elsewhere that he would be huge, his work and ideas really are exceptional. We told him that we'd love to have Udo be involved, for us it was really a way to have Udo connected to art from the very start, and once John explained the magnitude of the piece it was even more exciting to be involved. The finished digital composition is enormous, there are three panels that make up more than twelve feet of space if not more. The effect is absolutely stunning to see in person, and John has hopes that the work will be accepted into the upcoming Rocky Mountain Biennal held in Fort Collins, CO, and of course if it is we'll have fun taking Udo up to see the piece in its full glory. But John is very generous and put together a maquet for us that is on stretched canvas and framed up nicely, it is hung above our bed and the total dimension of the maquet is about 50 inches or so. The more Udo the merrier, that's what I think of the piece though you really have to see the work closeup to tell the extraordinary detail of the multiplications of our son.

K-tabs to make you feel better

This is a small piece that I bought for Karen for Christmas a couple of years back. Its from Ellen Castrone, a UCD student whose work I was introduced to as a result of my being finagled (or hired) to jury the BFA Thesis exhibitions at the downtown Denver school that year. I really enjoyed the duties, and in particular the ability to get in touch with the artists that were part of the program (which is not always considered the strongest in denver but continually has produced exceptional artists and has a truly great teaching staff). I really enjoyed Castrone's work, which was a grid of small paintings all depicting various pills, most of which I had no idea what they were, painted in a dimensional way on top of old dress patterns. Definitely art-schoolish but fun and I where else could I find a piece that could so well represent Karen in an off-beat way? She likes it and it resides above our toilet in our current bathroom (not a bad place at all for artwork, by the way). I haven't heard from the artist since but think she may have moved onto greener or substantially more intense art-pastures.

A reminder to be fit, or to love art?

Back in 2001 when my gallery first opened in Denver, I heard about an operation by the name of Andenken run by Highland Mather. My first exposure to Andenken was actually a book they had published that featured their brand of cutting-edge art, and in one fell swoop I felt that perhaps I had already been made obsolete in my desire to bring a certain style of contemporary art and way of doing things to Denver. Fortunately I didn't let that fact get to me and soon discovered that Andenken was a neighbor to my gallery in the ballpark district and an extremely cool space that would host some of the finest shows ever brought to the city. Hyland himself was an artist and like most artists with their own gallery he had strong opinions and also presented his work to the public on select occassions, but mostly in the form of his "little man" paintings which were inexpensive ($20 each) and scaled to the dimension of an old LP cover. They sold in droves and were a defining point of his operation, which to this day has brought an inexpensive yet highly engaging product to a mostly younger audience. Hyland had way more talent to give as an artist and once another neighborhood gallery with the right aspirations and good taste (Studio Aiello) opened up shop, Mather had a showing of works that were at a higher price point and definitely more substantial that still captured the essence of his style and humor. I was a big fan, and fortunately got to know Hyland a bit though never in as much depth as I'd have liked, but we talked on occassion and he showed an interest in my design and artistic work to the extent that he invited me to participate in group exhibitions that Andenken held (including the seminal porno-themed show that was such an amazing idea and perhaps a defining point in Denver's limitation to engage with truly expansive art interests). We ended up working out a trade for the painting "Fitness" that was held in the back-section of Studio Aiello in their first or second year; it was a delightful body of work in which Hylands traditional figures expressed simple ideas in their clever ways, complete with diode lights hooked up to batteries embedded in the canvas (which was stretched on an unusual steel armature culled from building materials from home-depot). I loved them and felt that I always got the better end of the deal as I traded one of my "Kaos lamps" for the piece. It now sits above my son Udo's crib and has continually given me joy, particularly as I'm a bit loath towards fitness in general, which is what the piece is pretty much about! Andenken recently moved to 29th and Larimer into an absolutely amazing new space and still seems to hold the mantle as the most "rad-i-cool" (to quote Hyland of old) place for art in Denver. Hyland has someone run the operation for him (which includes studio rentals) and is now spending time in Amsterdam where I think he's trying to set up shop for more art and excellent creativity. Truly a visionary person who will always leave a big impact to all who know him.

An early painting by Karen McClanahan

"Blue Vie" is one of the smaller paintings from Karen McClanahan's first solo exhibition with our gallery in 2002. We discovered her work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001 where she was featured in a group show of RMCAD students (at a time when they used to do this sort of thing, and in all honesty it was my wife Karen who first got excited about McClanahan's work) . It was an exciting time for us, we knew that we wanted some fresh talent from Denver to work with at the gallery and the MCA show afforded a great opportunity to really size some of the student work up. McClanahan proved to be a very good choice on our part as we've had a continuous relationship since, her major works on canvas being completely sold out to date with a waiting list for new works. She has proven herself to be an extraordinary talent of depth and great understanding, and a pleasure to work with. While the exhibition that "Blue Vie" was featured in would be considered the first succesful show for our young gallery (at the time) it really would be a credible blockbuster at any point in this artist's career and is a fascinating sidenote to the dynamics of the art business. This particular painting was also the invitation piece for the show and still I think one of Karen's most unique works to date. It is on the small end of her general scale but powerful in terms of her dynamic use of color and her ability to use shapes in an abstract yet imaginative way. What also makes this piece somewhat of an anomaly for her work to date is that the center shape has a gloss finish that contrasts the blue massing of the rest of the piece. I've never asked Karen about this but feel that it is likely unique to all of her work and something that she may have experimented with just on this piece. The line play where diverging colors border is truly exquisite too and something that resonates more over time while living with the piece (as is the case with all of her works and good artwork in general). This piece is also a testament to buying artwork from local artists at a gallery such as Plus, since her prices have at least tripled if not quadrupled since that time and are highly in demand. Since she's really only now at the start of her career (barely 8 years into it) only time will tell what the ultimate value of the work may hold. We have one other major painting of hers in our collection that I'll comment on soon, and a few minor gems that may one-day show up here as well. The amazing thing about McClanahan's career is that everything she has produced to date has really been credible and consistent, even though she has recently honed her focus and changed some of the concepts that define her work.

Just found out that Nick Cave will perform in Denver September 26th

I've always said I won't die a happy man until I've had the opportunity to see Nick Cave perform live. Cave is my favorite, absolute favorite musical talent and peformer for a very long time now. Harkening back to my days as a art-house cinema proejectionist, when the film "Wings of Desire" came out it opened up a whole new world to me both in regards to the director Wim Wenders who had an exceptional back-catalog of films to be cherished, but moreso for his inclusion of Nick Cave performing his material in the film itself. There was nothing more transfixing for me at that time, and upon further engaging with Cave's music it was obvious that this was one of the worlds most rare and talented human beings ever. Cave's early music had a real edge to it, particularly his time with "The Birthday Party" but not the sort of edge that could really be pigeonholed very easily, and in time I learned that his range is incredibly broad while always retaining the essence of what makes Cave undoubtedly unique and so iconic. I've collected his music ever since, and had the opportunity to see him perform when we first moved to Denver but a trip to Ireland came up that superceded that moment and I've been simply waiting ever since for him to return on a tour or get the opportunity to travel to see him peform. My wife karen did get to see the tour that came through denver, which coincided with the album "No More Shall We Part" which in my opinion is Cave's most formidable masterpiece and probably my favorite album of all time. Apparently the audience wasn't expecting such a display of dynamic range and subtlety (he performed the material without the Bad-seeds) and Karen declared it might be a long, long time if ever that he would return to Denver based on the crowds behavior during the show. Fortunately Cave documented parts of the tour where he performed material from that album in European venues, and the resulting DVD is one of the greatest live-peformances ever captured for someone interested in his music. He has released other live-material on DVD, some of it very good and all of it really leaving one wanting to see this musician play live. So now's our chance, its a long time to wait but will give the summer another degree of anticipation on top of our already intense plans for the fall. Cave's new album "Dig Lazarus, Dig!" is easily one of his most pleasing in a while and should make for a rousing live performance. What's also of note with the album is the cover art, which is a photograph of a piece by international superstar contemporar artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster that is essentially a light sculpture that spells out the title of the album. Its an interesting choice, which makes me wonder if the piece existed or was commissioned by Cave for the album. It also brings to mind the Sonic Youth album "Day Dream Nation" of many years back that used a painting by Gerhard Richter for the cover (and of course Richter is now one of the most incredible living contemporary artists).

Nothing against NY, but this piece by Travis Egedy is a recent favorite

A couple of years ago I was asked to critique the students over at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, something I often get asked to do and enjoy very much, particularly since so many of our most succesful and talented artists graduated from there. One of the students who caught my eye that day was Travis Egedy, I was familiar with his work and had included a painting of his (titled..."Football is like so gay") in our group exhibition of emerging artists "The Young Guns" for our 5th anniversary show. He was doing a lot of works on paper, kind of honing a style that was similar to his paintings but much more immediate and with a keen sensibility towards the current wave of hipster art and anything-goes approach. The works felt fresh and vibrant to me, and this one in particular resonated deeply. Travis related how he was just thinking about the NY art scene and how you here so much about having to be there and that the trend is to grind through the young artists, turn and burn them, etc....and that he just felt like it was all so shitty from the perspective of being in art school in Denver. I of course feel more or less the same way about running a contemporary gallery in Denver, constantly having to grapple with how to make artists seem relevant who haven't been through the NYC grind. And so "Fuck NY" really resonates with me and is a piece I adore. We now have a bunch of Travis' works on paper in our inventory at Plus, there are quite a few gems but as FNY says, you have to be huge somewhere else to get people around here to pay money for them.

An old favorite recently taken off the wall

We recently had to take down a lot of artwork from our loft, in order to try and sell it before transitioning into the new space next to the new gallery. Unfortunately realtors are not keen on seeing much art if anything in a space, particularly artwork that is contemporary, and as a result much of our collection is packed up or in storage. This small painting is by Lenka Konopasek and is essentially a self portrait and a nice reminder of our dear friend and also more indicative of her current style of painting. We have several early works by Lenka as well as her husband Cordell Taylor, they were our early inspirations for not only collecting artwork but also for opening up the gallery back in 2001 (you'll see more on them both at a future date). They are both still active and particularly succesful in the public realm (even Lenka, who is currently completing her second outdoor commission in Salt Lake City, where they reside). We don't have too many works this small, but this is a gem for sure and one that makes us think of this exceptional artist, friend and inspiration all the time.

Recent drawings by Drew Englander

I bought two drawings by Drew Englander last Friday, they are from the exhibition "Drawrings 2" at my favorite hipster gallery Rhinoceropolis. Englander is a student at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver, one of the best institutions in the region for finding decent new artists (a place that will likely crop up in this blog many times). I like Drew's surreal style and loose approach, as well as the bursts of color on otherwise traditional line drawings. The works are intended to be tacked to the wall with the remaining image drawn straight onto the wall by the artist at certain points along the border. I decided to purchase two of the works from this show, from a group of maybe 10 or so. These are a small scale, right around letter-page paper size though some were larger and some were smaller and a couple were on a blue-ish toned paper. I am always amazed that more works like this (at exhibitions like those at Rhinoceropolis) are not more widely purchased though the venue doesn't always help when it comes to sales. There does seem to be a disconnect in Denver, however, with where people might purchase some of the younger, edgier talent, if they are buying it at all. My preference is to support the truly budding talent at this level, I feel it really makes a difference to the artists at this point in their careers, not to mention that the work is great (there were many other worthwhile pieces from the same show).

The purpose of this blog is...............

My wife Karen and I are the owners of Plus Gallery in Denver, CO, and I have decided to create a blog that gradually catalogs artwork and media in our personal collection. The intention is to create a long-term forum that will cover as much ground and dialogue as possible, and will occassionally include commentary on other personal interests.