Western Art Collector Previews Summer Small Works Exhibition

All in the Scale

This summer, Maxwell Alexander Gallery will mount a small works show featuring a number of its gallery artists. The show will have no particular theme, other than size, so the style and subject matter represented is far-reaching. Artists will include both contemporary and Western, and some who blur the gap. Among them are Teresa Elliot, Danny Galieote, David Grossmann, Matt Smith and Kim Wiggins. Over the past 30 years, much of Wiggin’s work has been focused on symbolism and his painting A Song in the Garden of Taos fits that bill. The work, which is part of his Voices Series, “centers on the isolated surroundings of Taos, New Mexico,” he explains. “By the end of the 19th century, American artists were searching desperately for a place and a subject that would set their work apart from the European school of art. The remote village of Taos soon emerged as the purest symbol of unblemished America…as if a fabled American Garden of Eden.

 In Autumn Cottonwood and River View, Grossmann depicts one of his favorite cottonwoods. “It grows on the banks of the Colorado River in an open space that is filled with the sound of water and rustling leaves,” he says. “I especially love going there to paint this tree in the autumn when its leaves are radiant, caught in the breeze, and spreading the air with gold.”

 Another landscape painting in the show is Smith’s Peralta Cliffs, which was inspired by an area the artist has painted and hiked for 35 year. “The day I set out to paint this piece, my goal was to focus on the cliffs,” says Smith. “Everything changed when I came across the dramatic, cast shadow on the arm of this lone saguaro. The cliffs were still present, but the plant ruled.”

Galieote has a love of old Hollywood cinema including vintage Westerns. It came about from his family having horses and a clothing store on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1940s through the 1960s. “Even though I wasn’t around to visit the store, I have my grandfather’s home movies. All the old film footage and his stories combined together to create this natural attraction and understanding of this era,” he shares. “I’ve always liked to glean stylistically from this period’s artistic design sensibilities as well as use them as my vessel to address timeless sociocultural themes in my work. In this case, my narrative revolves around this tough, independent cowgirl passing through for an afternoon libation.”

To view the work in the exhibition, click here.

Western Art Collector Magazine Previews John Moyer's Debut Exhibition

John Moyers has found a great place to reside within Western art: his work has a traditional feel to it, especially in his incredible paint quality that’s loose and evocative, and yet he has an experimental streak in him that pushes his work into the contemporary wing of the genre. 

“I’ve always tried to do my own thing, to paint different stuff,” Moyers says. “I paint for myself. And sometimes experimentation comes out of it because I would be bored out of my mind if I couldn’t experiment.”

Moyers will have a new show, “Echoes of the Land,” opening June 15 at Maxwell alexander Gallery in Los Angeles. It’s his first solo venture at the gallery, where he has previously had work available in the group shows. Of the eight new works that will be available will be new Native American portraits, and several new cowboy paintings, including “Turbulence,” which shows a rider valiantly clinging to his bucking horse.

“I try to do one or two cowboy pieces a year, so when I do them I want them to be very different. Of course, over the years there has been so many cowboy paintings, so it can be a real struggle to really develop a unique painting, so I fiddle with them for a long time. I like this one because it’s a variation on the bucking horse,” Moyers says, adding that he and his wife, painter Terri Kelly Moyers, recently moved from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to California. “The move kept us busy for a long time, so I’m excited to once again be doing more cowboy pieces like this.”

While the cowboys remain an important part of Moyers’ studio, it’s his depictions fo Native Americans for which he is most widely known and respected. The new show will include pieces suck as “Chinook Winds” and “Kooteney Man”, both of which feature the artist’s experimental use of color. In both paintings he’s uses warm colors and their complementary hues-including electric blues, lightly applied pinks, and glowing oranges- to create magnificent portraits that present these historic figures in a more contemporary style, one more similar to Andy Warhol than Frank Tenney Johnson.

 “I love playing around with complementary colors, just really focusing on them, even substituting colors in where they work best,” he says. “This is where experimentation is really fun for me because I can dial in all these different colors – I use a really high-end color wheel- in really unexpected ways. I’m trying to stay away from these, romanticized, cookie-cutter Native American figures. I want them to feel more spiritual and unexpected.”

To view more work by John Moyers and the exhibition, click here.

WESTERN ART COLLECTOR MAGAZINE TAKES A LOOK AT THE FORTHCOMING "OUT WEST" EXHIBITION

Three Perspectives

Three artists of the American West, each with his own take and unique philosophy, will show their latest work in an exhibition at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, March 9 through 30.

Howard Post was raised on a ranch in Arizona, became a cowboy, competed in rodeos, received his MFA and worked as a commercial artist before dedicating his life to portraying ranch life in his oil and pastel paintings.

Gary Ernest Smith grew up on a cattle ranch and farm in rural Oregon where “the demands of farm life taught me the values of discipline and self-reliance.” After receiving his MFA he painted murals and later turned to studio painting of rural scenes inspired by the work of Edward Hopper and Maynard Dixon.

Bryan Haynes grew up among the rolling hills of Missouri and later received his degree in commercial design. He returned to Missouri, appreciating its character in a new way and with a new appreciation for the way regionalists like Thomas hart Benton responded to it. He considers his work a continuation of the regionalist tradition.

In his Sledge Crew, Haynes depicts a once-common occurrence in rural America— the circus coming to town in a time between the wars. The graceful rope walker, exotic animals and clown parading in front of the giant tent are brightly lit in celebration of the festive experience. In the foreground, forming a shadowed frame are the behind-the-scenes workers, driving a spoke into the ground. Haynes’ sinuous line and soft palette recall those of the regionalists who preceded him.

Smith often reduces a scene to its elements with a strong emphasis on design. His portraits are often isolated against a plain ground, focusing on the character of the individual. In Sitting Bull, the Lakota Sioux leader who united his people to defend their land is depicted in profile with a single eagle feather in his hair. He stands in front of a painted buffalo hide showing scenes from Native versus government conflicts.

Post paints the nearly timeless life of the cowboy and rancher. Although there have been changes in their lives, the hard work continues. It includes constant maintenance of the ranch buildings and fences. Known for his paintings from a bird’s-eye view, in Vintage Pens, he takes an uncharacteristic perspective from below the shed and pens on the hill. The high, hot sun casts short shadows illustrating one of the many extremes the pens have endured over time, repaired and rebuilt over and again by the ranch hands.

Western Art Collector Magazine Highlights Maxwell Alexander Gallery

Maxwell Alexander Gallery is located in the South Park district of downtown Los Angeles, just a couple streets over from the Convention Center and Staples Center. In recent years, downtown LA has become one of the most sought after locations in Los Angeles. Maxwell Alexander Gallery is continuing its service to out-of-state clientele but has also gained a group of new collectors this past year who are new residents of downtown LA. As a result, sales have doubled in 2018 and the gallery looks forward to continue the trend in 2019. Keeping things interesting with multiple exhibitions running each month in its front and south galleries, the gallery’s primary focus is on high-quality art. “I can say with confidence, no other gallery in the Southwestern market has a roster as strong as ours. We are developing new artists’ careers, but we are lucky to have the biggest names all under on roof,” says Beau Alexander, president. In March, Maxwell Alexander Gallery is hosting a three-person exhibition featuring legendary painters Howard Post, Gary Ernest-Smith and Bryan Haynes. In April, an exhibition will be held for Grant Redden, his Los Angeles debut. In May the gallery hosts the thirst consecutive solo exhibition for Eric Bowman.

Western Art Collector Magazine's Overview of Upcoming Michael Klein Solo Show

Roaming the shores

For 400 years, wild horses have roamed the shores of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Early explorers from Spain, put in a difficult spot, had to ditch their cargo, including horses, and the creatures have thrived on the island ever since. These majestic creatures are the subject of Michael Klein’s upcoming solo exhibition at Maxwell Alexander Gallery.

Klein stumbled upon the theme after moving from New York City to North Carolina. “These horses have been doing the same thing for hundreds of years, just grazing the lands, and as a subject they haven’t changed at all,” Klein says. “The imagery is really incredible. It felt very European, and very historical, and yet it exists right in front of us.”

In Kindred Spirits, Klein portrays his wife, admiring two horses in a stall. “These are private horses, where a guide will take you on a ride to see the wild horses,” he explains. “The image alludes to my wife’s tenderness.”

A group of the coastal horses congregates on the shore in Winter Survival. They graze on the dormant grass, half covered in a layer of snow. “These horses were basically untouched until the 20th century, and then they got diminished because of a bounty set on them in the 1930s,” Klein says. “Now, there are a few nonprofits that protect them.”

The show also features work from outside the horse theme. Future Legacy, San Carlos was inspired by Klein’s visit to the San Carlos Nation Apache Reservation in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I went with a friend who was born there to help do some construction,” he says. “The experience made me think about the future of the reservation, and it gave me inspiration to do something that would give respect to that part of the Western market.”

Klein’s show at Maxwell Alexander opens December 8, with a reception taking place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Western Art Collector Magazine Interviews Danny Galieote on upcoming exhibition

Modern Americana

With his statuesque, Pop Art figures, Danny Galieote creates paintings that feel timeless. At Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, he will show his works in a solo exhibition that takes place November 3 through 25.

Afternoon Pastoral is a farm panorama that exemplifies the American Dream, showing men and women working the land to put food on the table for their families. “It’s a cinematic film pan across the farm,” explains Galieote. “It’s only 43 inches, but I can imagine it being 43 feet, as a grand landscape with those sculpturesque figures.”

Galieote is inspired by the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s. “My mom’s dad was in the Navy during those times and traveled the world. He would tell me those stories when I was a kid, so I feel like I sort of grew up in that era.”

The artwork of the time was incredibly touched by the Works Progress Administration, which commissioned artists to complete thousands of murals. “Murals read well from a distance when they are well designed, and they have a sense of flow and fluidity. That’s really what I’m going for,” the artist says.

Featuring a crowing rooster, Country Morning harkens back to a simpler time. Galieote grew up in Los Angeles, but on a small farm with horses and chickens. “Every morning at 5 o’clock I’d wake up to Mean Joe,” he laughs. “Even though I was living in contemporary, modern LA, my childhood had a really traditional Americana feel.”

Western Art Collector Magazine Previews Brett Allen Johnson Showcase

Interpreting the Southwest

Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles bills itself as “A contemporary realism gallery with modern visions of the past.” Their artists, inspired by the great Western painters, blaze their own trails. Brett Allen Johnson—influenced by Maynard Dixon, the Taos Society and even, Georgia O’Keefe— says, “I’m excited to pull from them my own views of the Southwest.” Johnson is literally inspired, breathing in the atmosphere of the West and the scenes that also inspired his heroes. It becomes part of him, allowing him to portray a different sense of the reality of the West, not merely copying it. “I am not often a painter of literal places,” he explains. “I regular invent entire works, or paint them from memory. I like to invite observers into a world which is merely similar to the one they know—an adjacent world.”

Johnson lives in Utah. He studied design and abstract painting in college but left early to paint out of doors and to bring his sense of design and abstraction to his own interpretation of the landscape. “These badlands and deserts, the arid canyons, the playas and great basins,” he says, “these are where my work began, where it begins.”

His latest paintings will be shown at Maxwell Alexander Gallery November 3 through 25.

The weather is a dramatic as the scenery in the southwest. Johnson turns the drama into a convincing hyperbole in his Midsummer Drama, a 21st-century version of Thomas Cole’s grand scenes of wild, untamed America.

A finely rendered horse and rider are in the foreground of Through Good County. The middle ground and distance are expressionistic splashes of color, no longer a “literal place” but “an adjacent world”—one in which he asks us to see differently.

Grant Redden's cover of Western Art Collector Magazine

Congratulations to Grant Redden for landing the cover of Western Art Collector magazine for October 2018. Be on the lookout for a show of his new paintings at our gallery this coming Spring 2019.

Western Art Collector Magazine Previews Natalie Featherston exhibition

Artful dodger

Natalie Featherston has been working on a series of paintings on and off for 15 years. It first began when the Trompe l’Oeil artist was inspired by her young niece’s crayon drawings and wanted to represent them through her own oil paintings. “I’m trying to keep the feeling of a child doing them,” says Featherston of the ongoing series called Young Artist Shows Promise. The paintings themselves look remarkably like crayon doodles and include subject matter like cowboys, horses, sheep and cowgirls playing the guitar. While originally inspired by the artwork of her niece—who is now an adult—the drawings are now sketched by Natalie herself. She traces over the sketches with Sharpie, colors them in with crayon, and then uses those as real-life references for her paintings.

Featherston will showcase new works in this series in an upcoming exhibition at Maxwell Alexander Gallery from October 6 to 27. Other paintings apart from this series will be displayed in the exhibition as well, including Trompe l’Oeil paintings of collages of animals in their natural habitats. “My new body of work has a strong Western theme, especially featuring animals. I love the wilderness and beauty of the American West; portraying the wildlife is a fun way for me to connect with that theme,” says Featherston.

Reflecting on her technique, Featherston says, “I love working in this genre because you share this inside joke with the viewer as they discover whether or not what they’re looking at is really three dimensional, or if it’s painted on canvas. Trompe l’Oeil naturally lends itself to humor and whimsy because of its artful deception, both of which are... elements I strive for in my work.”

The show will also feature a pair of paintings of rough-and-tumble cowgirls, guns drawn, contrasted with surrounding burlap and cut paper flowers.

“There’s plenty of darkness in the world,” says Featherston. “I like to make paintings that connect with lightness, humor and joy—Trompe l’Oeil is a great vehicle for that.”

Western Art Collector Magazine Previews Mian Situ Exhibition

Cowboy focus

Mian Situ prides himself on the variety of his interests in the Western world. “I like so many subjects,” he says. “Chinese-Americans, mountain men, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, historical scenes...I love all of it.” For his newest show, opening September 8 at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, the accomplished painter will be laser focused on cowboys, the most iconic figures of the American West.

Situ, who’s originally from southern China, has been acquainted with the American cowboy nearly his whole life, even before he first lived in Canada and now the United States. “The cowboy was a legend even in China. We knew about them and were attracted to them, how they dressed, how they lived and how they acted,” the California-based painter says. “It was John Wayne really. And Tom Mix and all these actors that appeared on the posters. We didn’t see many of the movies, but we knew who they were from the magazines and the posters.”

The painter permanently settled in the United States in 1998, and since then he’s slowly absorbed the cowboy experience, including on location at ranches in the Southwest, as well as at rodeos where he’s seen roping and riding up close and at ferocious speeds and skill levels. The Maxwell Alexander show will feature Spring Time in the Rockies, which shows two riders roping a calf during a spring roundup as a majestic mountain range fills the background. In Ridge Riders, Situ paints two cowboys on a rocky butte with a vast mountainous background that seemingly envelopes the men in the landscape. While the new paintings often exemplify the cowboy experience, they also elevate another Western icon, the cowboy’s horse. “I want to show how important the horse was,” Situ adds. “They are magnificent animals, especially to paint.”

In Coffee at Dusk, a man prepares to call it a day as he sits next to a glowing campfire under fading light. The cowboy is certainly a central figure in the painting, but the horse commands more attention as it occupies more real estate and it leads the viewer deeper into the painting thanks to Situ’s stunning composition, which features an interesting diagonal posture of the horse as it stands on a slightly declining hill.

“For me, the challenge for that one was the color. Nighttime is such a romantic feeling that I wanted to capture it for the painting,” he says. “The lighting leads your eye in and lets you focus on the subject. The contrast also helps make the painting look more colorful. It’s interesting to play with light in these ways, but it’s difficult to capture with your models—the light is so hard to get right.”

Situ, whose works are in some of the most important Western collections in the country, recently won the coveted museum purchase award at the Prix de West in June. His show will be on view at Maxwell Alexander Gallery through September 29.

Western Art Collector Previews Eric Bowman Exhibition

Eric Bowman endeavors to capture a sense of romance in his Western artwork. It’s not about historical accuracy or highly detailed portrayals of cowboys performing realistic duties; rather, it’s about depicting that heroic, iconic view of the cowboy that has grown in popular culture over the years-the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood figures. Bowman’s upcoming show at Maxwell Alexander Gallery, titled Storybook Cowboy, will be on display from Jun 2 to 30 and includes Western landscape paintings of “the adventurer cowboy-the ones little boys look up to,” says Bowman.

The primarily self-taught artist is dedicated to developing his individual style, explaining that the new Western art market has evolved into something that looks more closely at the telling of a story instead of a strict historical representation of a certain time period.” Even though my work is clearly representational art, I’m saying more with color, line drawing, brush-style artwork that with [specific details],” Bowman says. In more recent years, the conversation around the Western art market has taken on a broader acceptance of a more contemporary approach, he explains.

Echo Canyon, oil has probably the most heroic pose of those pieces. The horse and rider, cast in partial shadow from the canyon behind them, are set in the foreground, putting them at the center of the viewer’s attention. In Green Mountain, that storybook feeling comes from the grand, epic mountain behind him, Bowman says, while Night Watch features a rising moon in dramatic light.

“The cowboy I grew up watching on TV or in the movies….there was always that dichotomy of good and evil, and the cowboy was always the good guy. As a kid, it was something I always looked up to,” Bowman says.

Having begun painting Western scenes in the past three or four years, Bowman says he hopes viewers can see a maturity in his work and subject matter. The California painters are a major source of inspiration, but that he aims to take that influence and blend it with his own voice and style. “There are different ways to say essentially the same things over and over and over,” Bowman adds. “In the end, it’s about expression without hindrance, allowing the character of the subject to “impact” the viewer in a positive and intriguing way.”

For more work by Bowman, click here.

Western Art Collector Previews Cumulus Show

Sky Sonnets

Maxwell Alexander Gallery is hosting a group exhibition titled Cumulus starting March 9 and continuing through the month. The show highlights cloud- centric works featuring brand new paintings by Tony Abeyta, Eric Bowman, Scott Burdick, Glenn Dean, Phil Epp, Danny Galieote, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Bryan Haynes, Brett Allen Johnson, Michael Klein, Ed Mell, Eric Merrell, John Moyers, Terri Kelly Moyers, Dennis Ziemienski and others.

Bowman’s submission, Levels and Degrees, was inspired by the artist’s recent work done on a trip to southern Utah. “The monumental land formations there are really amazing in both size and shape, and support the focal subject and vertical design of the large clouds in this composition,” says Bowman. “They give it more of an overall large-scale, heroic feel. I also wanted to show the juxtaposition of land masses that are eons old, surrounded by vaporous entities that were just born that very morning.” Using textured layers of paint to forge out a depth and sense of scale, Bowman distills the sensation of wonder and awe when surrounded by such grand natural scenes. “I like to idealize the flow of the line, and clouds that allow just that. They come in all shapes and sizes, so I was able to not only create the scale and shape I wanted, but also build texture upon texture by allowing drying time in between painting sessions.”

Inspiration for Ziemienski’s piece Regarding the Trail came while exploring the majestic red rocks of northern Arizona and New Mexico. “What I found to be most exciting was the mysterious light and shadow of the rocks inspiring a balance with the dramatic upheaval of the clouds—a world where you can lose yourself,” the artist says. Evoking an almost surreal sense of place, the painting’s small subjects stroll beneath a massive cloud, which looms over the canyons with an opposing, yet awe-inspiring, presence

Tranquil and serene, Epp’s Hilltop Trio captures a restful moment between a small team of wild horses as they gaze at a distant horizon. “I have the privilege of living near large ranches that house large groups of horses,” says Epp. “Horses on a hilltop with a big sky backdrop is something that I personally observe on a weekly basis. I’m always inspired by the view and the painting subject.” Epp’s passion for sprawling sky scenes is particularly apparent in this recent work, with bright, vivid blues and buoyant whites dominating the landscape. “This painting is more about western scale, open space and distance than it is about horses,” he explains.

Burdick’s Grandma’s Clouds tells the story of a girl and her family from Shawnee, Oklahoma. Last year, the artist visited his painting’s subject, Serena, at her grandmother’s house to do a series of drawings of her and her relatives. Serena, who is half Choctaw and half Ponca, offered the opportunity to capture this scene. “In between drawing sessions, we would go outside on the ranch and take photographs, which are what I did this painting from when I got home to my North Carolina studio after the show.” From his references, Burdick set out to build a sense of communion between land and sky. “For this painting, I wanted to create a dynamic composition where Serena was an integrated part of the landscape and the clouds. My hope was that the varied angles in the grasses, plus the thick application of paint, would create a sense of movement in the scene. I wanted the abstract chaos of the grass to act as counterpoint to the refined painting of Serena’s face and the soft serenity of the sky. The fact that she was looking into the distance beyond the frame of the canvas hopefully creates a bit of mystery for the viewer to wonder about.”

The Cumulus group exhibition will open March 9 at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, California.

 For more work from Cumulus, click here.

Logan Maxwell Hagege Featured on the Cover of Western Art Collector

Logan Maxwell Hagege's painting " Pursuit of Happiness" is featured on the cover of February 2018's Western Art Collector Magazine. This painting will also be on display at the Autry Museum this February. Congrats to Hagege on another excellent piece.

To view more work by Logan Maxwell Hagege, click here.

WESTERN ART COLLECTOR COVERS "TAOS" GROUP EXHIBIT

The small town of Taos, New Mexico, has provided inspiration for Western artists since Joseph Henry Sharp first visited there in 1893. The art haven is the subject of a new group show at Maxwell Alexander Gallery, which opens with a reception from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on September 23 and remains on view through October 7, and features the artwork of Danny Galieote, Kim Wiggins, David Grossmann, John Moyers, Tim Solliday and Logan Maxwell Hagege.

“The mix of cultures in Taos, its history and its beautiful surroundings make it a fascinating place to paint,” Grossmann says. His painting Clouded Sunset, Taos, captures an adobe structure called La Morada on the outskirts of Taos, which was part of a Catholic monastery dating back to the late 1700s. “The evening that I did this painting, the silence of La Morada seemed to carry a hidden history, a feeling echoed by the clouds that veiled the glowing sunset. I wanted to capture the sense of deep solitude and the way that the adobe walls seemed so connected to the land.”

In Galieote’s The Watchers, three protectors watch over their Pueblo family. “I wanted the figures to conjure a feeling of order and stability and that nothing could get past their glistening inscrutable eyes,” Galieote explains. “The middle figure seemed to naturally take his place as the wisest and the one who will have the final word to carry forth in war or in peace.”

Taos is an alluring subject for Wiggins. The landscape and the history imbue a sense of importance in his work. “My work, One Night at Taos Pueblo, centers on the iconic San Geronimo de Taos Mission located at the Taos Pueblo,” he explains. “In the painting two beautiful Pueblo children stand outside the mission under the light of a full moon. This painting is both symbolic and ethereal in nature hopefully capturing the very heart and resilience of the Taos people.”

View the show preview HERE

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