The artists involved in Studio &’s upcoming “Bound” show pose for a picture recently at the Main Ave. gallery. The show, which opens Friday, pairs 24 artists tasked with collaborating on two pieces./Courtesy photo 

Bound and unbound

Simultaneous exhibits explore traditional, experimental sides of art

by Stew Mosberg

From its earliest days, the Durango Arts Center has put together an annual juried exhibit. This year’s show, opening Fri., Feb. 20, marks its 39th year.

The idea of judging works of art and eventually selecting one for an award can be dicey at best. Taste in art, after all, is subjective. So it stands to reason that careful consideration goes into choosing a juror.

Based on recommendations by DAC’s Exhibits Committee, Exhibits Director Mary Puller chose Farmington artist Elizabeth Stannard as this year’s juror. 

A working artist who grew up in Southern California, Stannard received her BA in art at Fort Lewis College. Since 1984, she has been living and working in Farmington, where she is known as a staunch advocate for the local art community and has developed numerous exhibits and art walks for the city.

With little more than a day to evaluate the show’s expected 140 to 150 pieces, Stannard will have her hands full. Although she herself is primarily an oil painter, she does work in other mediums and promises that she will not lean in any one direction when making her selections. 

“I have not been given any criteria,” she said. “According to Mary, I create (criteria) myself.”

For the past 10 years, artists not accepted into the DAC’s Barbara Conrad gallery space have the option of being admitted into the Salon des Refuse, held across the street at Steamworks Brewing.

“Arts, brewing and culinary endeavors go hand in hand,” Steamworks CEO Kris Oyler said. “We also believe in being good neighbors. We want the DAC to thrive.”

As a testament to this commitment, Oyler was once on the DAC Board of Directors and served as its treasurer.

Like its Impressionist era predecessor, the Salon des Refuse provides a showcase for art that, for whatever reason, didn’t make the cut. Oyler acknowledges those 19th century artists in the original exhibit that went on to spawn great artistic movements. “(Those) works were rejected because they were different,” he said. “We too, are opening minds to pieces that the DAC jurors might not be partial toward.”

Oyler said it is a win-win, not just for the general public, but artists, his establishment and the DAC as well. “More artists get to display work and get feedback (and) more art continues to justify the existence of the DAC,” he said. “Steamworks gets to support the arts and bring in some fun work.”

A similar partnership of artistic endeavors will simultaneously be taking place a few blocks away at the always-inventive Studio &. Opening the same evening as the DAC show, Studio & has gathered 24 creative forces to collaborate in pairs on works of art. Cleverly titled “Bound,” the exhibit is the culmination of weeks of innovative and creative work by some of the region’s most celebrated artists.

Tim Kapustka, co-owner of Studio & and the originator of the “Bound” concept, explained the idea. “We like to challenge the artists and try to take them out of their comfort zone,” he said. “Something that we’ve always liked to do at Studio & is to encourage collaboration. We like the idea of pairing artists together and seeing what happens.”

Part of the experiment included matching up artists to create a unique dynamic, one that would result in a new paradigm for each. Kapustka admits that the actual execution of the pairing process was difficult. “I know most of these people personally,” he said, “and there are so many factors that come into play when putting them in pairs: medium, process, personality, just to name a few.” In some instances, he paired polar opposites as far as mediums and at other times, he paired people who do virtually the same thing. The only rules for the artists were that they had to work in collaboration with their partner to produce two pieces of art. “I’ve got so much respect for all the artists involved in this show, it takes guts to say yes to these shows and a maturity and confidence in yourself as an artist to try this stuff,” said Kapustka.

Many of the artists involved described their experience as formative.

Peggy Karauser’s mixed-media painting “Missing Vivienne” won  Best of Show at the DAC’s 2014 Annual Juried Exhibit. Some 150 works are expected to be submitted for this year’s show, which opens Friday night at the Arts Center. Those works not selected by juror will be given the option to display across the street at Steamworks’ “Salon des Refuse.”

John Grow, who was paired with Darcy Alden, commented that for him the process went, “way beyond” routine art profiles. “You are touching upon the essentials of creativity, interpersonal relationships and trust,” he said. While his and Alden’s work habits are fundamentally different, he said he enjoyed adapting to a fresh point of view. “There was no problem in merging our approaches,” he said. “We started by brainstorming freely. The initial discussions were encouraging because, even if the immediate ideas were not used, we proved that we could spark abundant ideas off of each other. There was never any doubt that we could come up with ‘something.’”

As far as the physical productivity, Grow said he and Alden struck a nice balance working together as well as independently. “The greatest material productivity was done alone,” he said. “We met or wrote frequently, however, to discuss every idea.”

Artists Minna Jain and Jeff Madeen said they have similar working habits. “We’re both unafraid to try new things and willing to make messes along the way,” said Jain. The two explained that they are constructing a simple viewing machine with “elements of a large-scale narrative block print,” and that they will be presenting them as two unified pieces. The two parts are titled: “Open Country” and “Bandwidth and Brainwaves” and focus on themes of access, anonymity and collective identity. Asked what she gained from the collaboration, Jain said she learned about how television alters brain waves, the history of our educational system and online social movements engendered by the website Anonymous. Adding as an aside, “I’ve (also) learned how to weld and how to use a router as a carving tool.” 

Another unlikely pairing of artists who took up the challenge was textile artist Ilze Aviks and painter Elizabeth Kinahan. Speaking of her experience, Aviks said, “We decided to go outside of our comfort zone and hoped to be surprised by the result (and) discussed the things we have in common, such as love of repetition.”

Ultimately choosing “nature clashing in suburbia,” as their theme, they used photography and sculpture as their mediums. 

Aviks summed up a common belief among all the artists when she remarked, “Working with Elizabeth has reminded me to be open to random contributions from the world around us. We worked in agreement about images and each of us worked on objects separately. The collaborative process was slightly ‘magical.’ We found we could say something and riff on that and then ... become delighted!”

 Other “Bound” artists include: Dan Garner and Tony Holmquist; Tim Kapustka and Shay Lopez; Dan Groth and Crystal Hartman; Maegan Crowley and Susan Reed; Sandra Butler and Miki Harder; Thomas Kipp and Clint Reid; Scott Dye and Chandler Wigton; Kyla Jenkinson and Joan Russell; and Brett Masse and Haz Said.