Show Preview | Denman, Rambadt & Moore

Jackson, WY
Astoria Fine Art, August 1-20

Jay Moore, Going out in a Blaze of Glory, oil, 20 x 60.

This story was featured in the August 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

THIS MONTH Astoria Fine Art hosts two must-see shows featuring three of its top artists. From Thursday, August 1, through Sat-urday, August 10, the Jackson, WY, gallery hosts a two-person show for contemporary wildlife artists Andrew Denman and Don Rambadt. Then, on Sunday, August 11, a 10-day solo exhibition opens for landscape painter Jay Moore. “We’re picking the best of the best,” says Greg Fulton, Astoria’s managing partner. “August and September are our two biggest months of the year, so it’s important for us to have shows that represent the best of the gallery.”

Don Rambadt is “right at the top of that list,” says Fulton. The Milwaukee, WI, artist’s welded metal sculptures have received numerous accolades over his 20-year career, and in 2017, he was recognized as a Master Artist at the prestigious Birds in Art exhibition. Meanwhile, Andrew Denman’s paintings of birds and other animals can be found in prominent collections such as the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum and the National Museum of Wildlife Art. The gallery is dedicating nearly half its exhibit space to showcasing about 20 new pieces, collectively, by these accomplished artists. Entitled Between the Lines, the show reflects each artist’s interest in composition, line, and form, says Fulton, as well as their works’ popularity among collectors of both traditional and contemporary art. “Andrew’s paintings really stand out in the gallery because he has a wonderful eye for design,” he says, “and that’s often the same compliment I get for Don, whose sculptures are one-of-a-kind.”

: Andrew Denman, Playing the Field, Study #1, acrylic, 8 x 8.

: Andrew Denman, Totem #8: Stacked Crows, oil/acrylic, 48 x 24.

: Andrew Denman, String Theory #4: Vermillion Flycatchers, acrylic, 11 x 14.

Since moving from his native California to Tucson, AZ, recently, Denman has seized the opportunity to portray Arizona birds like the vibrant vermilion flycatcher, which frequents the riparian area around his new home. He’s also enjoying a roomier studio that’s conducive to working on a larger scale. The artist brings several sizable paintings of birds to his show, including a 48-by-24-inch depiction of five crows standing one upon the next in a somewhat wobbly column. It’s the latest installment in Denman’s ongoing Totem series, in which he depicts birds and other animals precariously stacked upon one another in a “modern reinterpretation” of Native American totem poles. His tension-filled columns are “a deliberate nod to the plight of animals in our modern world,” says Denman, who aims to create fun but also thought-provoking imagery. “I am an artist who uses wildlife as a springboard for metaphor.”

Other new works by Denman represent a continuation of his String Theory series, in which he depicts birds interacting with geometric forms and color fields, creating visual tension by juxtaposing abstraction and realism. “So they are very bold, very graphic, and very modern pieces,” he says.

: Don Rambadt, Ruby, welded bronze/silver/copper, h15.

: Don Rambadt, Prime Lie, welded bronze, 34 x 82 x 8.

: Don Rambadt, Uncut 2, welded bronze 7 x 11 x 3.

Also greatly inspired by birds, Rambadt works with bronze and other metals that reflect the natural coloring of his feathered mus-es. His welded sculptures are harmonious in form, with clean, flowing lines and symmetrical patterns. But in a relatively new series he calls Uncut, the artist has added another stylistic approach to his oeuvre. “Usually I’m going over a piece meticulously with sanders, grinders, and hand files,” Rambadt explains. “These particular sculptures are very raw and untouched. The only tool I use is the welder.”

The resulting works display coarse textures, rough edges, and even scratches. “There’s a wildness to them that I enjoy,” the artist says. “I’ve been working in this really refined fashion, where everything has to be just perfect, but the Uncut series is forcing me to step back and see the beauty in the material that’s already there, instead of imposing my own vision of beauty.” Rambadt, an avid fly fisherman, has also been depicting fish in his work “to represent that part of my life,” he says.

Parker, CO, artist Jay Moore—the gallery’s “premier landscape painter,” says Fulton—brings 10 new oil paintings to his solo show, including a Southwestern scene and multiple Rocky Mountain landscapes, some of which contain wildlife. “One painting I’ll call the showpiece is a remarkable 40-by-60-inch oil of the National Elk Refuge here in Jackson Hole,” says Fulton. “There must be 100 elk in this painting.”

: Jay Moore, At Home Beneath the Sleeping Indian, oil, 40 x 60.

: Jay Moore, Elements of Winter, oil, 9 x 12.

: Jay Moore, Gallatin River Secrets, oil, 30 x 40.

In the distant background of Moore’s tour de force, entitled AT HOME BENEATH THE SLEEPING INDIAN, he portrays a mountain peak known locally as the Sleeping Indian, so called for its resemblance to a Native American man lying on his back. The artist observed the sweeping winter scene during a visit to the area last March. “I could see more elk than I have seen in a field at one time in my lifetime,” he says. “It was the right time of evening and the right time of year. That’s how a lot of my paintings come about—it’s serendipity. You just get out there and start exploring and see what’s wonderful.”

Moore views each of his landscape paintings like a vintage wine; each work captures not just a specific place he has visited, but also the characteristics of that place during a particular day, season, and year. In his show, adds the artist, “there are a lot of different color palettes, from fall to winter to summer. Almost every painting has a different color scheme so that, when you look at them on the wall, it’s almost prismatic.” —Kim Agricola

contact information
307.733.4016
www.astoriafineart.com