Indian Market Honors
Hopi potter Jacob Koopee Jr. won the Best of Show award at August’s Santa Fe Indian Market, sponsored by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts. The Artists’ Choice award went to Dawn Wallace (Aleut), and the following artists were honored with Best of Classification awards: Vernon Haskie (Navajo), jewelry; Koopee Jr., pottery; James King (Navajo), paintings, drawings, graphics, and photography; Aaron Fredericks (Hopi), wooden Pueblo carvings and sculpture; Tony Lee (Navajo), sculpture; Anita Tsosie (Navajo), textiles and basketry; Kevin Pourier (Oglala Lakota), diverse art forms; Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty (Assiniboine), beadwork and quillwork; and Venus Etsitty (Navajo), youth.
Last Call Auction Results
Altermann Galleries’ August sale at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, NM, exceeded $550,000 with more than 220 lots sold out of 287 available works. Fremont Ellis’ oil painting distant view of the ortiz mountains was the top lot, fetching $14,950. Other top sellers were sculptor David Manuel’s the recall at $13,800, Ellis’ mountainscape at $13,225, and navajo lady from shiprock by painter Ray Swanson at $11,500.
Record Sales at Western Rendezvous
Adding up to nearly $500,000, total sales at the Western Rendezvous of Art in Helena, MT, in August surpassed the previous record by about $100,000. Attendance was strong at all events, including a 600-guest sell-out at the Quick Draw. The John Scott People’s Choice Awards went to Greg Beecham for his oil painting out of the main stream and Rosetta for her sculpture red fox. Huihan Liu won the Ben Stahl Artists’ Choice Award for his entire body of work, and Don Prechtel took home the Heritage Award for punitive expedition. Jim Morgan’s spring meadow—sandhill crane was recognized with the Legacy Award and added to the Montana Historical Society’s permanent collection. Morgan, Carolyn Anderson, Paul Mullally, Matt Smith, and George Strickland received Awards of Excellence.
Out & About
Medicine Man Gallery celebrates the grand opening of its second location in Tucson, AZ, this month with a show of work by Ed Mell and Gary Ernest Smith on November 19 from 3 to 6 p.m. The new gallery is located at 2890 E. Skyline Drive…. The Peterson Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, acquired Charlene Cody Gallery in October. The new space, located at 130 W. Palace Avenue, is called The Peterson-Cody Gallery and represents work by Bruce Cody, Randy Pijoan, Craig Nelson, Jane Jones, George Alexander, and others…. Trio Fine Art opened in Jackson, WY, in July, at 545 North Cache. The gallery represents artists such as Molly Martin, Kathryn Mapes Turner, and September Vhay.
Artsy Bumpers
License plates featuring art created as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration in the 1930s are now available through the New Mexico Community Foundation as a fund-raiser for community arts programs for local youth. Images by New Mexico artists Louie Ewing, William Penhallow Henderson, Nils Hogner, Raymond Jonson, and Pablita Velarde grace the plates. For more information, call 505.820.6860 or visit www.nmcf.org.
High-Rise Gallery
A 19-story residential building in Marina del Rey, CA, is the first building of its kind in the United States to display a major art collection. Azzurra, which opened in August, exhibits a permanent installation of more than 160 works by 50 artists associated with the Los Angeles art scene of the 1960s and ’70s such as David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, and Peter Alexander. The works, which are owned by Azurra builder Colony Capital, hang in the lobby, mezzanine and rooftop lounges, spa and fitness center, and in public areas on all residential floors.
Sale Results
Bonhams & Butterfields’ auction of California and American paintings and sculptures, which was held in San Francisco and Los Angeles in August, earned more than $4.5 million. The top lot was october-november evening, crow reservation, montana by Joseph Henry Sharp, which sold for $858,750. Other highlights included Edgar Payne’s a lone rider leading pack horses by a sierra lake at $226,250 and home for christmas by Frank Tenney Johnson at $215,250.
Featured in November 2005