Wyoming Arts Council

“Not your typical Wild West art event”

Featured News | July 10, 2014

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From a National Museum of Wildlife Art press release:

Top contemporary wildlife artists – and collectors – from around the world will be congregating at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyo., this September. With a new “Wild 100” approach to its annual Western Visions fundraiser, August 30 – September 21, 2014, the museum has carefully curated a field of 100 living artists working with animal forms in a variety of media. “Although we’re located in Wyoming, this is not your typical Wild West art event,” says Becky Kimmel, director of programs and events for the museum. “Our Western Visions Wild 100 offers a chance to experience, and purchase, the work of some of the best international talent in the field.”

While award-winning representational depictions of wildlife from familiar Rocky Mountain species to iconic African animals play an important role in the show and sale, Kimmel also points to numerous Wild 100 artists whose artwork takes an innately contemporary approach. The work of Dutch artist Ewoud de Groot, 2014 Western Visions featured painter, for instance, evokes a tension between his modernistic abstract backgrounds and his beautifully precise figurative subjects, often seabirds from the Waddensea wetlands off the northern Netherlands coast. The fluid sculptures of 2014 Western Visions featured sculptor Gwynn Murrill, whose signature bronzes are also represented in the National Museum of Art’s permanent collection, distill animal forms to their essence, at once abstract and instilled with vital personality. 

Other remarkable contemporary wildlife artworks available for purchase through this year’s Wild 100 Show & Sale, which takes place on September 12, include a deceptively simple 10-by-10-inch work on paper by internationally known Western impressionist Theodore Waddell, two iconic ink on limestone birds of prey by New York sculptor Jane Rosen, a 36-inch-square rare elk oil painting by Mark Eberhard, whose work was the focal point of a National Museum of Wildlife Art avian art exhibition, and a minimalist bronze cougar skull inspired by the recent Kenya travels of British sculptor Simon Gudgeon, whose “Isis” can be seen both in London’s Hyde Park and on the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Sculpture Trail.

The “Wild 100” approach allows the National Museum of Wildlife Art to showcase a combination of well-established top-selling artists and emerging talents in an exceptional arts experience for artists and collectors alike. In addition to the Wild 100 Show & Sale on September 12, popular Western Visions events include the chance to meet and mingle with the artists at the Wild 100 Artist Party, September 11 – including the opportunity to experience the work and techniques of featured artists de Groot and Murrill in live presentations – a Jewelry & Artisans luncheon and show and sale on September 3, 4 and 5, and a free Palates & Palettes tasting and viewing event featuring culinary offerings from the Rising Sage Café on September 5.

Other Western Visions activities include the Paintings, Sculpture and Sketch shows and sales, opening August 30, and the follow-up Art a’ Brewin’ browsing and buying opportunity on September 24. For more information and a complete schedule of Western Visions events, visit www.westernvisions.org.

 A complete schedule of exhibitions and events is available online at www.wildlifeart.org. The museum is also active on Facebook and on Twitter at @WildlifeArtJH.

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