It’s an exciting time to be living in Denver, especially by way of the increasingly robust Denver-Boulder art and design community. On the front of contemporary art spaces, The David B. Smith Gallery exemplifies what it means to add a new level for contemporary art appreciation in Denver. Formerly known as Limited Addiction Gallery, which existed as an online collector community, the David B. Smith Gallery now brings some of those works into the physical realm. David Smith, gallery owner, says he is interested in presenting regional, national and international contemporary artists to the Denver community. Emphasizing the relationship between artist and collector drives the gallery’s mission.
The David B. Smith Gallery continues to run Gregory Euclide's 'New Works' exhibition through the middle of November. Gregory Euclide, based in Minneapolis Minnesota, works with a range of mediums to create his interpretation of nature, or rather, how humans relate to their natural environment through culturally based constructs. Euclide challenges the way humans are almost expected to relate with nature by drawing the viewer away from more traditional scenes, such as landscape paintings, wildlife documentary and travel guides and into a more authentic experience. In his artist bio, Euclide speaks to these nice, clean views of nature by saying, “In this way it becomes impossible to have a true, non-mediated experience of nature even though we may long for it.”
The pieces in this exhibit contain a mixture of painted images shaped into sculptures with imagery drawn from memory, photo transfers, abstract areas of raw paint, and actual artifacts such as pine needles and moss. The use of materials that are non-biodegradable, such as foam that has been weathered by nature, further emphasizes the invasiveness of the commercial world in which we live. It is this tension between the realistic and the representational, between the pristine and the changed that makes the work so engaging. Pools of thick, blue liquid paint mimic the properties of the rivers and streams they are used to represent, calling into question the illusion of representational art. Similarly, the exaggerated folds of thick watercolor paper transform the flat, framed image of the traditional landscape into a dimensional topography with many points of view. The three-dimensional forms of these pieces—painted on both sides and containing hidden vignettes and small treasures—encourage the kind of exploration and excitement that might be found in experiencing nature rather than in viewing a traditional picture.
Special to the David B. Smith exhibition, Euclide has performed and intricate installation, where he engages his unique process of ‘capturing’ nature. Arriving in Colorado prior to the exhibition opening and working to complete his installation, he spent a day in the mountains cementing terrestrial impressions of nature using Eurocast. He says this specific installation frames his own work in a new way, as the viewer has a chance to literally step into the piece and into the role of nature viewer. Simultaneously resembling views from the Hudson River School and a chemical spill, the work creates a tension that asks the viewer to think about the irony and political motives behind things like the scenic turnout.
The Capture series, references Robert Smithson and the tradition of landscape architecture started in America by Fredrick Law Olmsted. Smithson created works of land art where he poured glue on the surface of the earth. Olmstead completely fabricated the pastoral, picturesque, and formal landscapes of New York City’s Central Park from an inhospitable swamp. Euclide takes paint and pours it on the land, capturing the local flora and terrain in the paint. On top of the paint, Euclide builds a diorama, depicting the concept of the idealized landscape framework. What the viewer sees in these pieces is more than any one concept—it is the interaction and interconnection between the actual land, the cultural idealization of the landscape, and the art-making process itself. Through this tension, these pieces address the issues of regeneration, recycling, growth and decay, the synthetic and the organic, and the very cycles driven by nature.
Euclide received his MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and he has recently been awarded two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants through the National Endowment for the Arts and a Jerome Foundation Residency through the Blacklock Nature Society. In 2008, his work was featured in Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape at MASS MoCA. Euclide has recently had solo exhibitions in Seattle and Los Angeles, and he has been featured at international art fairs. He grew up in rural Wisconsin, where he developed a strong connection with the natural landscape. These experiences are the guiding force behind Euclide’s work.
Be sure to experience the creative works of Gregory Euclide firsthand by visiting the Opening Reception, free to the public, on Friday October 23 from 7-10pm. The exhibition runs through Saturday, November 14. http://www.davidbsmithgallery.com/
Gregory Euclide.
Warped frame, intricate detail.
Capturing Process.
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Installation in progress.
"Capture #13": Acrylic, cedar, cigarette butts, eurocast, foam, found plastic, galvanized steel guardrail, goldenrod, hair, hydrangea, lichen, moss, organic material from river bed of Clear Creek Canyon, pea gravel, sedum, spong, steel 55 gallon drum, treated lumber.
Video:
Words: Melissa Belongea + Dave Smith
Images: Melissa Belongea + Dave Smith + Gregory Euclide
