Exhibitions

Gary Komarin's paintings walk the line between expression and avoidance of reason.  Komarin's layering of paint in child-like form, conveys beauty that is not limited by the constructs of language.  Although abstract, Komarin's paintings sometimes contain shapes that are quite legible - a wig or a hat, for instance - but more often they tend to suggest many things without getting specific about any of them.  In conversation, the artist is not eager to make them any more specific.  The forms resonate when they are at once strange and familiar.

Born in Manhattan in 1951, the son of a Czech architect and Viennese writer who fled the Holocaust, Gary Komarin received a graduate teaching fellowship at Boston University where he studied with Philip Guston. Komarin was offered his first University teaching position at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in 1978. He has subsequently taught at The University of Oregon, Southern Methodist University, and The University of Iowa.

Komarin received The Joan Mitchell Prize in Painting in 1999. He has also received the Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship in Painting, The Elizabeth Foundation, New York Grant in Painting, The Rutgers University Fellowship in Innovative Printmaking, a Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Philip Hulitar Award in Painting in 1988.  He has been exhibiting his work here in the US and abroad since 1979 and in galleries around the world. Komarin's work has also been exhibited at the Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University, and the Newark Museum as well as the Kunst Art in Zurich.  Komarin's paintings are in numerous private, corporate, and museum collections including: Microsoft, AT&T, The Nordstrom Corporation, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Montclair Museum among others.

I have painted the many forms that snow can produce in Idaho for a long time. The light that changes with the sun and time of day, it is of endless interest to me and I hope to others. This study leads me to wonder just what color we really see in snow. The center of my exhibition, “The Color of Snow”, focuses on subjects that will be familiar to anyone who knows the area around Ketchum. But the light and the many kinds of color that snow can carry is the real subject. . - James Cook

James Cook’s impasto painting technique  offers  a blend of realism, impressionism and abstract landscapes that seem familiar to even the first time visitor. Cook’s love of the greater Wood River Valley is evident in his current paintings of the surrounding mountains and close ups of the winter terrain.

Margaret Keelan explores the endless possibilities of clay with variances in construction and surface. Reminiscent of the past, these treasured possessions, appearing once discarded, now come alive in their apparent fragility. Renowned for her trompe l’oeil use of clay to create sculptures whose surfaces remind one of ancient wooden sculptures – Keelan’s sculptures provide underlining emotions and subtle questions.

Linda Christensen       Beach Oil on canvas    60” x 70”

"I have spent the last year streaming. This means letting images and spirits come out without conjuring them. I am hungry for something elemental – primitive – truthful. Spirits live in circles. Magic and mysticism happens in circles. Figures dance and dream in circles. X’s are mysteries. This work is part of an essential search. The search has no end and it began for me before I was born. " -David deVillier

David deVillier’s paintings have a distinctly narrative quality. He introduces characters and places them in dramatic settings, inviting viewers to interact with his subjects in their space. His work sets the stage for two of his iconographic figures, combining characteristics of birds and  the human form. In his latest work, these human forms are influenced by primitive stone carvings and the paintings of Bill Traylor & James Castle.