Artist Happenings

Martha Russo is preparing for two exhibitions with the social justice centered art collective The Artnauts.:Adaption, Universidade Federal do Amazonas Manaus, Brazil and Dis(Placement), La Galeria, Bogota, Brazil. She has been a member of the Artnauts for 28 years, exhibiting in 290 exhibitions in 26 countries. She currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors.

Caprice Pierucci solo exhibition, Synchronicity, at Callan Contemporary runs from January 4 to February 22.

Allison Svoboda’s ‘radical plein aire’ paintings will be shown in a solo exhibition at OS Projects in Racine, Wisconsin.  ‘In Defense of Beauty’ will be up from February 8th through April 12th opening is February 8th 1-3pm.

Farida Hughes showcased her “Below the Surface” light-box artwork at Baltimore Theatre Project on February 1, 2025, in a live performance with percussionist Matt Keown. A coinciding exhibition, “Resonant Currents,” is on view in the John Fonda Gallery at Baltimore Theatre Project through February 16, 2025. The exhibition features work by Farida Hughes, Caryn Martin, and Artemis Herber. The artists weave a shared vision that celebrates creativity as a force of transformation and connection.

A large body of work by WFA artists Karin Schminke and Bonny Lhotka has been acquired by the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art. The collection documents their pioneering work integrating digital tools into artist’s studios from 1994-2004. Working as the Digital Atelier, along with Florida artist Dorthy Simpson Krause, they documented their processes in their book “Digital Art Studio” published by Watson-Guptill in 2004. The work created in their book became a traveling exhibition, “Work from the Digital Art Studio” sponsored by the American Print Alliance. All 35 works of the exhibition are now in the Museum’s collection. The Museum has created a webpage for the collection which documents the work in historical context and provides a look at some of the processes used. 

Fabrications, a solo exhibition by lens-based installation artist, Melanie Walker, will invite viewers to experience immersive installations that are simultaneously eerie and poetic. The ephemeral images suggest something real and something imagined belonging to a curious space between or unknown to the viewer. Melanie uses photography in a way that transcends how we think about the printed image. The material quality of the work and the variety immerses viewers into a new way of experiencing photographic imagery. This exhibition is on view through March 26, 2025 at the Art Gallery at Red Rocks Community College. 

Heather Patterson's work was recently featured in Miami Art Week at the Art Miami Fair with Andrea Schwartz Gallery.  Here's a little peek at the booth and Heather's piece that sold at the VIP Opening of the fair.

Sharon Strasburg and 3 long-time friends Alicia Bailey, Catherine Chauvin, & Melinda Laz are presenting their first exhibition together celebrating their common influence of nature and landscape.  “Perseverance” at the Curtis Center for the Arts January 11-February 22.

Every three years, all 10,000 square feet of the Arvada Center Galleries are filled with a celebratory survey of Colorado Artists' incredible diversity, quality, and depth of work. After its start in 2013 and iterations every three years, Art of the State 2025 continues its legacy as a juried exhibition showing off the powerful scope of contemporary art across the state.

The jurors worked diligently to select a comprehensive overview of work that strives to capture a wide scope of art from across the state. From those entries, 148 artworks by 145 artists were selected!

Give me the basics.
I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and moved to Denver after I finished high school. Living in the West, I’m influenced by the wide-open horizons and the incredible diversity and beauty of the various landscapes here. 

Tell me about your art journey.
My maternal grandmother was an oil painter and sometimes she would give me a small canvas board or two to paint on while she was working on her own. Of course I didn’t realize it at the time, but there was something about the smell of the paints and the idea that you could take a blank canvas and create a scene of your own making that was tremendously influential in my development.

I’ve always loved making things with my hands. I was one of those kids who was always coloring and drawing and noodling around with things. In elementary school, my favorite part of the day was when we worked on an art or craft project. We made endless drawings and paintings, plus crafts like animals made with macaroni and silver spray paint, woven potholders,  and “stained glass” from waxed paper and crayon shavings. I never thought of any of this as art, though; it was just part of daily life.

At some point, I became self-conscious about my drawing skills. I took one art class in high school, but I didn’t think I was any good at it, so I didn’t continue. I didn’t realize there were ways to make art other than a perfectly-rendered representational drawing or painting. I had no idea that art was something you could study for a career.

When I went to college, my first degree was in Computer Information Systems & Management Science. But while the technical side of things was my primary focus in school, I used my elective credits requirements to take drawing and painting classes. Twenty years later, after continuing to make art on my own, I decided that this was something really important to me, and I went back to school and got my BFA.

While painting is my main focus, I’m also interested in exploring different aspects of mixed media work, including collage, textiles, and 3d work. In addition to Walker Fine Art, I’m represented by The Marshall Gallery in Scottsdale and Chandler Art Gallery in Houston.

What inspires you?
I’m attracted to surfaces that bear the marks of time and transformation. Buildings and objects made by human industry, left in the environment, are affected over time by weather and human activity. The breakdown of metals and paints, oxidation and rust, watermarks and graffiti, all of these are added in layers over time, resulting in surfaces of unintended but profound beauty. 

At some point, I learned of the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi, which I think explains why a lot of people are drawn to these things. Wabi-sabi has no exact counterpart in the western world, but part of what it entails is a reverence for impermanence and the expression of a balance between the love of life and the melancholy sadness of life’s passing. Wabi sabi celebrates the asymmetry and random imperfections of the natural world. All things are in a constant state of flux; they evolve from nothing and devolve back to nothing.

I’m also interested in written language from every culture, as well as the marks humans put on things. Graffiti is one example of this, but also markings made in the course of daily human industry, such as handmade signs or construction directions made in the road with spray paint. Printed or hand-written letterforms and words combine to make a texture or pattern or are just fascinating on their own.

What are you most proud of in your art career? 
I would say my most memorable experience was winning and completing a public art project for AnyThink Libraries, specifically a branch that serves small towns in eastern Colorado. This project had the theme “Life on the Eastern Plains,” and it involved interviewing and recording oral histories from local residents for their memories of and perspectives on living and working in the area. I collected materials from each person that had a special meaning to them and combined them all into the finished piece, a large textile work titled “Horizon 18: Plainsong” (part of a series of works I did featuring horizon lines and inspired by western landscapes.) 

What are you looking forward to this year?
I plan to do a lot more exploration of different media, especially concerning repurposing found objects and materials. It’s important to have time to try different things and expand one’s knowledge and experiences. I love what I do and feel very fortunate to be able to spend my days making art.

Come visit us!
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11am-5pm
Street parking is available during gallery hours.
Additional parking for events is available across the street in the MegaStar lot. 
 
Event Hosting
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