Show Preview | Medicine Man Gallery: Howard Post & Mark Sublette

Howard Post, Red Steel, oil, 36 x 36.

Santa Fe, NM
July 26-August 9 & July 19

This story was featured in the July 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Order the Southwest Art July 2013 print issue, or get the Southwest Art July 2013 digital download now…Or better yet, just subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!

Some 21 years ago, Mark Sublette, MD, decided to give up his young career as a doctor to pursue his love of Native American and western art full-time. Eventually he opened his aptly named Medicine Man Gallery, with locations in Tucson and Santa Fe. So it seems appropriate that Sublette marks his 21st year in business with two events—both held at the gallery’s location on Canyon Road in Santa Fe—that bespeak the gallery’s respected reputation as well as the unique creative insights its founder and president has attained.

Howard Post, Between Barns, oil, 36 x 44.

The evening of Friday, July 26, from 5 to 7 p.m., sees the opening of a show featuring more than 15 new oils by celebrated western painter and sculptor Howard Post. “He’s one of our premier artists, and we’ve represented him for 15 years,” says Sublette. Post’s mostly large-scale canvases combine the authentic experience of an Arizona-born “real cowboy” with colorist sensibilities, bringing “a modern vision to the way he interprets the West. Only Howard can make a bluish horse seem normal,” he says.

At the opening reception, Post greets guests and talks about his work in a style as wry and laconic as the rodeo rider he once was, and as well informed and insightful as one might expect from a former university art professor. “Strong patterns of light and shadow are what get me going on a subject,” says Post, who tends to gravitate toward quieter, more reflective scenes and away from western clichés. “You’ll never see bucking broncs in one of his paintings,” adds Sublette.

Howard Post, Boulders Out West, oil, 24 x 24.

What you do see is his unique aerial perspective on iconic landscapes, cowboys in repose, ranch buildings, and the like. “I’m pretty faithful to my interests in the West,” says Post, adding that one of his few possibly surprising new subjects can be seen in a 24-by-24-inch work he’s titled BOULDERS out west. Yes, boulders. “I’ve always had them in my paintings,” he says with a chuckle, “but I’ve never before done a piece that’s just of boulders.” Also at the opening, the artist signs copies of the recently published book Howard Post: Western Perspectives, along with its author, Jerry N. Smith, curator of American and western American art at the Phoenix Art Museum.

And that isn’t the only book available at the gallery this month. From 4 to 5 p.m. the preceding Friday, July 19, the gallery hosts a signing of the hot-off-the-press Kayenta Crossing. Penned by none other than Sublette himself, this is the second book in a projected five-book Charles Bloom Murder Mystery series. It’s set on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The story’s main crime-solving characters—art dealer Charles Bloom and Carson Riddly, a family-practice doctor on the reservation—deftly draw on Sublette’s own realms of expertise. “Mark has a nice touch with storytelling and creating details that are interesting to me,” says Post. “He’s done a great job of putting the art world into a murder mystery.” —Norman Kolpas

contact information
505.820.7451
www.medicinemangallery.com

Featured in the July 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art July 2013 digital download
Southwest Art July 2013 print issue
Or subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!