Telluride Arts, Art Walk: Mozart Guerra’s Sculptures + Sloane Street Bling

29 Jul Telluride Arts, Art Walk: Mozart Guerra’s Sculptures + Sloane Street Bling

Telluride Arts’ First Thursday Art Walk is a festive celebration of the art scene in downtown Telluride, Participating venues host receptions to introduce new exhibits. August Art Walk takes place Thursday, August 1, 5 – 8 p.m.

Telluride Gallery of Fine Art presents the photographic work of father and son artists, Carl and Caleb Cain Marcus. For details, please scroll down the page.

Gallery 81435 presents Micheline Klagsbrun’s latest body of mixed media work on paper which originated in a found object: a ledger containing observations of the 1874 Transit of Venus, a phenomenon occurring every 243 years when the planet Venus moves across the face of the sun, twice.

MiXX Projects + Atelier features work by Sarah Winkler, Ellen Koment, and Katie Heffelfinger. “Grounded” explores the titular concept from physical, cultural, and geological perspectives across a variety of media.

And Slate Gray Gallery presents “Gone Global, “an exhibit featuring Brazilian-born sculptor Mozart Guerra, and a fine jewelry collection by the mother-daughter duo, Sloane Street.

Go to Telluride Arts to read about the work  in all of the participating galleries.

Mozart Guerra doing his thing.

He is not the scatological young genius who made Salieri’s life a living hell. (At least according to Broadway and the silver screen.)

He is not that Mozart

But his given name does suggest that he, like the deified music maestro, is “Beloved of God,” blessed with a special gift. But in the case of Mozart Guerra that gift has nothing to do with tickling the ivories.

This Mozart is a sculptor, whose work touches the borders of taxidermy, but then detours onto a path less traveled. His work is featured at Telluride’s Slate Gray Gallery throughout the month of August

Taxidermy began in England in the early 19th century. An increased demand for leather meant that tanning or turning an animal’s skin into preserved leather became a thing, and that made preservation of species catalogued by naturalists commonplace. However, early taxidermy mounts were stuffed with sawdust and rags without real regard for actual anatomy. Not so with the work of Mozart Guerra, who churns out lifelike sculptures of animals (and much more) using simple found objects: nylon rope and styrofoam.

Little Target Rhino

Primate Smoking

Yanomami Target

Women from Kyoto

Funky, fun, modern, and quirky, Mozart’s works  – apes, monkeys, rhinos, rams, parrots, also geishas, flora, even portraits – are also subversive. Bottom line: the sculptural pieces subtlety underline the ambiguous relationship between man and nature, a dynamic that for centuries has seesawed between mutual destruction and admiration, underlined by the mere fact of taxidermy  – and variations on the theme like Mozart’s work.

Mozart Guerra appears to be completely himself in three dimensions, alternately a magician, comedic entertainer, and a tinkerer, with a gift for constant reinvention and an artist’s grasp of tactility in his forms. Born in 1962, Mozart studied architecture at the University Federal of Pernambuco. His resume includes working as a set designer for theater, cinema, and TV, while developing his sculpting skills.

Mozart moved to Paris in 1992, where he currently lives and works, taking part in various individual and group exhibits all over Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Spain.

Sloane Street Bling, a trunk show:

Mother & daughter team behind Sloane Street Jewelry.

Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher

Diane Ladd and Laura Dern.

Ingrid Bergman and Isabella Rosselini.

Goldie Hawn and Kat Hudson.

Donatella and Allegra Versace.

All of the above are widely accomplished –  and gorgeous – mother/daughter combos.

Feel free to add Frances and Charlotte Gadbois to that list. They are the mother/daughter team behind the Sloane Street by Gadbois Jewelry collection, featured at Slate Gray in a trunk show during Art Walk.

The Gadbois’ story is all about making lemonade from lemons.

The business started in 2014 when Frances had just sold her partnership in JudeFrances Jewelry and was determined to begin a new venture, either continuing in jewelry or returning to interior design. Charlotte was pursuing a a degree in TV journalism. However, when a beloved mother/grandmother succumbed to the ravages of Alzheimers Disease, the two women joined forces, finding solace – and purpose – in unity.

The company they formed, Sloane Street by Gadbois Jewelry, evolved into classically chic, 18K gold and silver jewelry lines featuring rare and luxurious colored stones, diamond-and-gold staples, and one-of-a-kind couture pieces.

Why Sloane Street? The collection is named after the fabled London address which borders Knightsbridge, Belgravia, and Chelsea, home to some of the world’s best shopping. Some of the Gadbois’s fondest memories were formed during mother-daughter weekends spent at that address. Their business is a reminder that there is still dazzling color in the world to brighten and lighten even the darkest of times.

Sloane Street’s tribute to a mom/grandmom is given further heft in the. Gadbois’ material commitment to finding a cure. Frances and Charlotte have designed a signature collection with 100 percent of the profits donated to the Alzheimers Association in loving memory.