The Company
Interior Design
Art Advisory
Press
Exhibitions
Artists
Links
Contact
Home

 

 

 















 

 


 

 

 

 

 

Riding The Range

Riding the Range showcased the work of over 25 artists in a diverse range of media, including fine art and installation, photography, furniture, music and short film.

The focus of the exhibition was to convey the atmosphere and serenity of Western topography with a collection of finely executed landscape artworks such as Zenaida Mott's "Frontier Memories". It sought to encapsulate the delight and wonder early settlers must have felt upon their arrival at the new frontier and investigated the potency of the cowboy image as an American cultural icon. Ethereal landscapes by Ian Sheldon and Ursula Brenner, sculptural forms by Arthur Comings and fine art photography by Kerik Kouklis were just a few of the artists works on display.

"In a sense, landscape art helped to reinforce the new Western utopian ideal, that here was an uncharted new world, innocent of history and political meaning for the early settlers", said director Claire McGovern. The Western frontier for many symbolized a path of true liberation from the forces of European culture and its development had immense influence on both the national psyche and image of American identity abroad. Landscape art not only acted as a form of pictorial colonization but also allowed the early settlers to record a moment of "true freedom". It conveyed limitless horizons unhampered by territorial boundaries, assisting in a propagandist transmission of the new national identity.

Hence Westward expansion brought new meaning to the genre of landscape art and gave birth to the American Cowboy. Despite its imperialist connotations and the tragic cost to the Native American population that prevailed, the image of the cowboy became a pervasive national symbol. Riding the Range attempted to interpret this historical time and convey the cultural phenomena of the days of the Wild West.

A literary event including readings by esteemed poet August Kleinzahler and other Bay Area writers and poets was staged during this exhibition.

 



back to top