Show Preview | 30th Anniversary Show - Southwest Art Magazine

Scottsdale, AZ
Legacy Gallery, November 3

John Moyers, The End of a Season, oil, 30 x 40.

This story was featured in the November 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

For 30 years, Brad Richardson and his wife Jinger have been keeping art in the family, and they’ve been helping other families do the same. Back in 1988, the couple opened Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ, with the help of Jinger’s mother, Marilyn Murray. Today, with their daughter Janell Grady serving as marketing manager, the Richardsons also run a second gallery location in Jackson, WY, with the same specialty in western fine art for which Legacy has become known. “When we named the gallery, the meaning, for us, was not only about our personal family legacy as a multigenerational business,” says Brad Richardson, “but also about someone being able to buy a piece of art that could be handed down in their family from generation to generation.”

: Glenn Dean, Of the High Country, oil, 30 x 30.

: John Coleman, Pariskaroopa –The Dog Dancer, 1834, oil, 55 x 33.

: Ken Carlson, Watching Game, oil, 30 x 40.

And indeed, with its stable of sought-after artists like Ken Carlson, Martin Grelle, and Kyle Polzin, the gallery offers some of the finest heirlooms to collect in western fine art today. Those artists and many others take part in Legacy Gallery’s 30th anniversary art show and sale in Scottsdale, AZ, on Saturday, November 3. Titled A Timeless Heritage, the show gets underway at 9 a.m. with a presentation by artist C. Michael Dudash, whose former career in illustration informs his talk on the impact of illustration on western fine art. Then, at 10:45 a.m., artist John Coleman takes the stage with a figurative sculpture demonstration that gives collectors a lively peek into his brainstorming process. The grand opening kicks off that evening with a reception at 5 p.m. in the gallery’s upstairs showroom, where all pieces are sold by draw or in a silent auction.

In addition to Carlson, Coleman, Dudash, Grelle, and Polzin, the show brings together 25 other heavy hitters in western fine art, each of whom created two to four artworks for the show. “There’s going to be a lot of fresh new work,” says Richardson. “We’re excited about featuring not only some of the artists we currently represent, but we’re also inviting back artists like Scott Christensen, Jeremy Lipking, John Moyers, and Terri Kelly Moyers—artists who have shown with us at one time or another over the past 30 years.”

: Michael Dudash, And the Land Will Forever Remain, oil, 36 x 48.

: Tom Browning, On the Banks of the Little Bighorn, oil, 30 x 47.

: Kenny McKenna, A Clearing Storm at Sunset, oil, 44 x 44.

“This show is going to be a knockout, I’m sure,” says Coleman, who joined the gallery’s distinguished stable 20 years ago. “Legacy Gallery is at the top of the heap in the western art world, and I’m just delighted to be a part of it.” In addition to a 4-foot-tall bronze depiction of a Crow chief flaunting his horsemanship skills, the artist brings two oil paintings, including a portrait loosely inspired by 19th-century artist Karl Bodmer’s famed portrayal of a warrior chief performing a Dog Dance ritual. For Coleman, getting the historic details right in his work is essential, from costuming to narrative, but his work is also about “the music, the poetry, and the emotions,” he says. “And then you throw in the realism and the craft. That, to me, is what makes a great piece of art.”

Dudash, another longtime Legacy artist, showcases a few of his signature portrayals of the 19th-century American West, including a depiction of Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains entitled AND THE LAND WILL FOREVER REMAIN. The Native Americans pictured in the foreground add to the painting’s subtle meaning, says Dudash. “The title really implies the timelessness of the geography,” he adds. “No matter what happens, the land will always be there. For the natives, it was a part of their life and their spirit. They didn’t have a word for owning the land—there was no concept of that. This painting has that sense of infinity, with the land going on forever.” —Kim Agricola

contact information
480.945.1113
www.legacygallery.com