Show Preview | Visions of the West

Jackson, WY
Legacy Gallery, August 11-21

David Mann, Lost Canyon, oil, 36 x 48.

This story was featured in the August 2016 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2016 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Legacy Gallery’s Visions of the West show returns to Jackson Hole this month with works by 10 of the gallery’s top western artists: Carrie Ballantyne, C. Michael Dudash, Jim Norton, David Mann, Jason Rich, Loren Entz, Charles Fritz, and Scott Rogers, plus Don Oelze and Joe Kronenberg, who are new to the gallery and showing their paintings for the first time in this show.

“This is our chance to, in a group setting, put our best foot forward with a variety of art and mediums. These are some of our best-selling artists,” says galleries manager Scott Jones. Visions of the West opens with a reception for the artists on Thursday, August 11, from 6 to 8 p.m. Each artist submits two or three new works, so the show features 20-plus pieces of the best of the West.

Artist David Mann, a 16-year veteran of the prestigious Prix de West Invitational show, is at his best with three paintings of Native American figures. “It’s a really good group of paintings. I love the overall feeling and the direction of them,” the Utah-based artist says. Although his subject matter is classic, he plays with light in each painting. In LOST CANYON, a group of Indians from the Southern Plains herds horses through a canyon when the light is low and the shadows strong. Another is a nocturne scene featuring two Navajo Indians on horseback in a canyon surrounded by towering cliffs. The third captures a man from the Southern Plains painting figures on a hide in firelight.

“Mann’s pieces really resonate with people because there’s a story to them,” says Jones. “There are multiple figures, and he incorporates the figures into the landscape well, too. He’s a fixture in our collector community.”

Don Oelze, Moving Down the Valley, oil, 34 x 54.

Mann is known for his exquisite historical detail, which is also central to the work of painter Don Oelze. In his main piece for this show, MOVING DOWN THE VALLEY, Oelze depicts a tribe on the move. The viewer’s eye is drawn immediately to the chief’s daughter, who is holding a parasol. Although this detail may seem anachronistic, Oelze says the parasol was a common trade good in the 1800s. “It’s a complex piece. There’s a lot going on,” Jones says. “There’s a narrative he’s telling in it. There’s a real feeling the tribe is on the move. We challenged him to give us a great first piece, and he did it.”

Although Native American scenes like this one are familiar ground for Oelze, the self-taught painter has recently developed a new technique that allows him to create a tacky, buttery feel in the oil paint from the start. “I can manipulate the paint better, creating effects a lot better,” the Montana-based artist observes. Using this technique, Oelze can render the scenes in even more detail, creating the impression of a thousand blades of grass with just a few strokes of his palette knife.

These works and others from the gallery’s artists offer a compelling start to the fall show season. Visions of the West remains on view through August 21. —Ashley M. Biggers

contact information
307.733.2353
www.legacygallery.com