Telluride Arts: October Art Walk Overview

01 Oct Telluride Arts: October Art Walk Overview

Telluride Arts’ First Thursday Art Walk is a festive celebration of the art scene in downtown Telluride for art lovers, community, and friends. Participating venues host receptions from 5 –8 p.m. to introduce new exhibits.

As winter nears join Telluride Art to celebrate the final Art Walk of 2017. Highlights of the event include beautiful leather-bound books created by their hardworking students at the American Academy of Bookbinding; local prolific photographer, Jeff Channell show work at both Baked in Telluride and La Cocina de Luz. Be sure to check out the treasured collection of late, great illustrator Bernie Fuch’s work on display at Telluride Gallery of Fine Art. Also, stop by Telluride Arts HQ to see the US premiere of Apoc’s newest music video with artwork and production props to accompany.

Don’t forget to look for the Art Walk flags to distinguish the participating venues. And Tune into Open Art Radio on KOTO from 12 – 1 p.m. on October 5 to hear interviews with the participating artists. Complimentary Gallery Guides are available at participating venues and offer a self-guided tour that can be used at any time to help navigate through galleries and venues that are open to the public most days.

Art Walk Venues, October: (Specific exhibit information listed below.)

American Academy of Bookbinding
Baked in Telluride
Gallery 81435
La Cocina de Luz
Lustre Gallery
MIXX projects + atelier
Picaya
Slate Gray Gallery
Studio G
Telluride Arts HQ Gallery
Telluride Gallery of Fine Art
Telluride Music Co.
The Turquoise Door Gallery
Tony Newlin Gallery

American Academy of Bookbinding:

This month, the American Academy of Bookbinding showcases the work of its Advanced Fine Binding students. Not only is there an exhibit of their beautiful leather-bound books, students will be halfway through their annual two-week intensive class. Stop by for a chance to see everyone working on current projects at their benches, then admire some of their finished bindings in a small exhibit upstairs.

Baked in Telluride:

Baked in Telluride is featuring the large-scale photography of Jeff Channell. His colorful vistas from atop the San Juans should have viewers admiring the man’s journeys as well as his eye for a great images.

Gallery 81435:

Gallery 81435 presents “Blue,” an exhibit by Margaret Rinkevich  (October through November 2017). The Art Walk reception takes place Thursday, October 5, 5 – 8 p.m.

The color blue has a rich associative meaning. As an expressive agent, it tends to connote despondency and melancholy. At the same time, blue suggests success, achievement, attainment or altruism, selflessness, and stalwartness.

For Rinkevich, the past years were incredibly challenging, including physical relocations; the dissolution of relationships; and the death of several beloved friends, so herchromatic scheme has a very visceral physicality with each variation on the theme carrying nuances that become more complex when interwoven with one another. Blue in all its shade is an attempt to reconcile disconsolation and affirmation.

Rinkevich is drawn to rectilinear forms which dominate her work. Squares and rectangles ground the painting compositionally and create a framework around which all other elements depend. These forms provide something of a foil for the more exuberant passages seen in her canvases.

“I love the sheer mental grind of painting. I love the physical act. There is always the battle between containment and chaos in my work. My paintings make me feel simultaneously satisfied, restless, awkward and honest.”

Margaret Rinkevich has been a resident of Telluride for 16 years. She holds a B.A. in Art History from the University of Arizona, where she specialized in the Italian Renaissance. She is dedicated to the arts and has taught art history to university students and museum docents. Rinkevich is also the author of several publications on tribal art and culture.

In 2015, Rinkevich participated in Ah Haa School for the Arts’ Second Annual Juried Exhibition of Regional Artists, BEST OF 2014 and contributed to The Telluride Painting School lecture series with a talk entitled, “Art of the ‘So What?!’: The History of Still Life Painting.”

In 2016, Rinkevich was one of three jurors for the 3rd Annual Exhibition of Regional Artists. Her work hangs in numerous private collections throughout the US.

The show at Gallery 81435 runs thru November 2017. The venue is located at 230 S Fir Street in Telluride, Colorado. Open daily from 12-6 p.m., or by appointment.

La Cocina de Luz

Like Baked in Telluride, La Cocina de Luz features the fine photography of Jeff Channell (through the end of October.) The show reveals some of Colorado’s finest peaks, alpine vistas, wildlife, remote and scenic areas.

Lustre:

East Valley Icon, by Marshall Noice

Lustre, ring from Masriera collection by Marcos Morales.

Lustre Gallery presents handcrafted art for the home and self that is inspired by a love of nature.

Dozens of hand-painted glass chandeliers by Ulla Darni illuminate the store. Marshall Noice’s vibrant landscapes grace the walls. Fine inlaid woodwork by John Arenskov brings the term ‘‘conversation piece” to life.  Sculptural works and vessels are created by a variety of talented glass, bronze and fiber artists.

Complementing the “jewelry” for the home with art for self, Lustre showcases the work of renowned jewelers: natural diamonds by Todd Reed; pure gold by Gurhan; and art nouveau jewelry by Masriera are examples.

MIXX projects + atelier:

MiXX wraps up the summer season with the group exhibition, “8750 Collective,” featuringfive regional artists including Pam Conrad, Amy Levek, Britt Markey, Meredith Nemirov and Mary Ellen Trad.

Based in Ridgway, Conrad and Nemirov’s practices both highlight the striking landscapes and aspen trees that characterize that area of Southern Colorado; Amy Levek’s interactive, layered pieces blend photography with screen-printing methods. Figurative work by Britt Markey revives classic oil on canvas painting and analog photography with a fresh, modern gaze; Mary Ellen Trad’s concrete wall works explore gestural abstraction, incorporating acrylic paint and metal leaf.

Alongside this group exhibition, MiXX projects + Atelier is launching a silent auction featuring a selection of fine art from MiXX’s in-house collection, That runs through Saturday, October 14.

Picaya:

The featured artist  at Picaya is Cory Widau, a man of many talents. Cory teaches yoga; works in management at the New Sheridan’s Chop House; and does beautiful wire wrapping. On display are Cory’s wire-wrapped necklaces.

Slate Gray Gallery:

Slate Gray Gallery features Nebraska-native and mixed-media artist Tamara Ruiz. Her contemporary body of work reveals intricately layered images that blend the nostalgic style of old postcards and vintage photographs with pop art elements. A romantic head nod to the past, Ruiz mixes ephemera from olden days, open prairies, and small towns with modern surface design and forms of graffiti to create her strong yet wistful works.

Studio G:

Like Gallery 81435, Studio G features artist Margaret Rinkevich. There is an all-consuming mental grind in the creative process and the artist’s objective is to achieve visually arresting images. The goal in this series is to charge the apparently simple relationships of form and color with as much force, feeling and meaning as possible.

Telluride Arts HQ:

Telluride Arts’ HQ Gallery presents work by Patrick E. Felsenthal, a writer, filmmaker, musician, graphic designer and artist. Felsenthal releases music best described as art rap under the name “Apoc” and creates art and design pieces as “PFels.” On October 5, he is launching a show that incorporates both of those projects. Apoc’s newest music video, “Hurricane Goddamn!” enjoys its US premiere during Art Walk. Props, costumes, and storyboards from the production will be on display throughout the exhibition through December 4.

Also being featured is “Optalgia,” a mixed-media body of artwork by “Pfels.”

The Art Walk opening reception will be held Thursday, October 5, 5-8 p.m.

“Apoc’s Hurricane Goddamn!”:

APOC’s Hurricane Goddamn!

A psychedelic journey through a world somewhere between George Melies’ “A Trip To The Moon,” Jim Henson’s “The Dark Crystal,” and 1960s and 1970s sci-fi television.

Apoc’s “Hurricane Goddamn! “is a wild music video in which outlandish woodland creatures must battle a dangerous and fast approaching smog planet.

The striking visuals draw inspiration from the song’s lyrics concerning the aftermath of a hurricane amplified by the effects of climate change.

Directed by Scott Upshur, with production design by Keith Price, and costume design by Shoe Eck, the music video had its world premiere at the 2017 Raindance Film Festival in London September 23. It is screening at the 2017 Indie Memphis Film Festival in November.

Scott Upshur

The video was funded in its entirety via a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign and was created in collaboration with a community of artists and creatives here in Telluride.

A true American independent, director Scott Upshur has been forging new cinematic trails from the cultural (and literal) wilderness of far-flung Telluride, Colorado, for nearly a decade. Working in both the narrative and documentary fields, Upshur has developed a style uniquely his own. While his own films have screened at festivals all over the world, he has also worked on acclaimed projects like Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight”; Netflix’s “The Ranch”; music videos for Jack White, Mumford and Sons and The Foo Fighters; and projects with photographer Annie Leibovitz, and artist Shepard Fairey.

Apoc’s music, art, and journalism have brought him all over the world and afforded Upshur the opportunity to perform alongside many heroes and esteemed contemporaries, from Slick Rick to Busdriver to Lupe Fiasco.

His music’s been featured on TV shows like MTV’s “Jersey Shore” and earned him invitations to festivals like POP Montreal and NXNE.

The song “Hurricane Goddamn!” is taken from his forthcoming album, Progress, We Exalt Thee.

Optalgia by PFels:

Optalgia

Context and perspective frame all human experience, visual or otherwise. Launched on the centennial of the October Revolution, Optalgia questions what the West sees when it looks East.

Using the East/West dialectic as a platform, the show explores not just what we see, but how we see.
Often incorporating elements sampled from the physical world, the most recognizable digital designs of PFels have used details from 20th-century product design of everyday objects and promotional items to construct patterns and symmetries that are striking and altogether new. Upshur’s most recent work builds on that aesthetic, then adds a sense of dimensionality and physicality.

Doors2, Optalgia

Starting out in the medium of graphic design, which seeks effective communication foremost, Upshur’s work looks to engage in conversations with other cultures and epochs. His work is greatly informed by travel, which has become an integral part of the artist’s life, including recent years living in Slovenia, New York, Michigan, and England.

Originally from Chicago, Upshur currently resides in South Florida, but still calls Telluride home. He is a two-time recipient of Telluride Arts Small Grants for Artists.

Telluride Gallery of Fine Art

Telluride Gallery presents a collection of remaining treasures from America’s legendary illustrator Bernie Fuchs (1932-2009). Ranging from original oil paintings to sketches and studies, the selection showcases the artist’s prolific career.

Telluride Music Company:

Former Telluride local Colin Hotz continues to make his presence felt across the national bluegrass scene and Telluride Music is excited to invite him back for the October edition of Art Walk.

As a classically trained guitarist, Hotz brings rare talent and versatility to the bluegrass genre. His accomplishments and diverse musicality provide a deeper musical vocabulary, allowing him to harness the genre’s tradition and push it to its utter limits. In many ways, Hotz reminds us of the Collings D1 A Traditionalma versatile guitar steeped in the tradition of guitar-building that evokes something entirely new.

Tony Newlin Gallery:

The Tony Newlin Gallery features the spectacular limited edition image, captured this winter in Yellowstone National Park: “Frosty Bison.”

The Turquoise Door Gallery:

The Turquoise Door Gallery features original black-and-white photographs hand-painted in oils by Valerie Levy Franzese.