Colorado Wolverine

M56, the juvenile wolverine tagged in Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyo., in April of 2009 and believed to have walked to Colorado soon after, still is ranging in Northern Colorado. Here he eyes a photographer on April 22, 2012 near Guanella Pass. (Cameron Miller, special to The Denver Post - follow link to see more of his work and support this photographer)

This morning's Denver Post has an interesting article about the first wolverine seen in Colorado for 90 years - called M56. According to the article at the Post, only 250 wolverines are estimated to exist in the lower 48 states. There are talks of re-introduction of the species into Colorado - with hold ups from various "shareholders" (skiing, mining, etc). Like many people, I love a good underdog or lone-wolf story - I think that's part of the lure of the West. In 2008 I wrote about a possible wolf in Rocky Mountain National Park and this story of M56 closely relates - both in the rarity of the species in Colorado and the talk of possible re-introduction. For more information, check out the Wolverine Blog.

Art's New View: The 12 best Colorado artists 35 and under @ the Denver Post

I was one of the 12 artists featured in the Denver Post's "12 best artists under 35" yesterday. Read the list here. Also, the blog iheartphotograph recently featured one of my works.

Autism: Unlocking Mireya's World via the Denver Post

My wife works at the Firefly Autism - about which the Denver Post did a long front-page story this Sunday. It also included the film embedded above. The school is currently gathering funds to purchase iPads which are being used as communication tools for students with difficulty communicating. You can donate to Firefly here - a very worthy cause.

The art of enigma

Kyle MacMillan of the Denver Post reviewed my current exhibition this morning -you can read it here.

Bill Amundson's Christoph Heinrich portrait

My good friend Bill Amundson did the above portrait of Christoph Heinrich for this Sunday's Denver Post. Read the accompanying article here.

Update

The opening on Friday was a well-attended success. Thanks to everyone who came out. There was a article in Sunday's Denver Post about the part of the exhibition that I curated in which Kyle MacMillan wrote that it was a "welcome burst of freshness" and that I had chosen six artists "who share [my] meticulous attention to detail and fascination with the less obvious, sometimes indistinct aspects of the world around [me]."

Emerging Artist of the Year!

Denver Post Fine Arts Critic Kyle MacMillan named me Emerging Artist of the Year! He writes,

Abels, a promising 29-year-old artist who moved to Denver in 2007, grabbed the local art scene's attention in January with a solo exhibition of paintings at Rule Gallery that exuded an alluring sense of emotional detachment and mystery. An additional boost came last spring when Heinrich awarded him a juror honorable mention at the Foothills Art Center's "Colorado Art Open."

Guest Blogger - Bill Amundson

Bill with his piece the "Nervous Patriot" at the Denver Art Museum

work in progress (two days in)
Working title-TEEN EXCAVATION

work in progress (two days in)
Working title-TEEN EXCAVATION

A recent review in the Denver Post said this of Bill, "Bill Amundson is such a familiar figure in the Denver art scene that it's easy to take him and his art for granted. " I've posted his work several times on this blog, and I asked him to share a list of thing he's been influenced by or interested in lately. As with his artwork, Bill did not disappoint:

5 Artist's I look at all the time...

1. Peter Bruegel the Elder.

2. Ivan Albright (The first, perhaps only, artist my parents took me to see.)

3. Roger Brown (along with fellow Chicago icon H.C. Westermann)

4. The great draftsman and mama's boy Achilles G Rizolli

5. Illustrator/humorist Bruce McCall

5 artist's I've been looking at a lot recently...

1. Wayne Thiebaud (based on multiple visits to his current show in Loveland.)

2. Peter Saul (cause it's always good to revisit the real King of Bad Taste.)

3. Frank Magnotta (especially his big, BIG imaginary structures.)

4. Mental patient artist extrordinaire Adolf Wolfli.

5. Glen Brown's recent obsessive abstract paintings.

5 musicians that are really important...

1. All Randy Newman (he's my real hero and role model.)

2. Cleveland's Per Ubu (their first 3 recordings from 75-77, DATAPANIK IN THE YEAR 0, THE MODERN DANCE and DUB HOUSING.)

3. Yo La Tengo (I play their noise rave up I HEARD YOU LOOKING at least once a day.)

4. Steve Reich (especially Music For 18 Musicians. It's perfect for repetitive work. repetitive work.)

5. Any and all George Jones.( aka the non Clapton God.)

I'm also currently streaming the great New Jersey free form station WFMU a lot.

10 Movies that I must like cause I've seen them 5 times or more...

1. Jacques Tati's Playtime l967. (The best art film ever made, and one of the great social satires to boot!)

2. Gates of Heaven 1978. (The first, and still the best, of Errol Morris' documentaries. Everyday life is god's weirdest invention.)

3. Robocop 1987. (The original one. The other best social satire. Oh, besides Doctor Strangelove.)

4. Roadhouse 1989. (Swayze teaches us men what it means to be a MAN.)

5. Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory 1957. (Kirk Douglas teaches us how to be men in war!!)

6. Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries l957. (Victor Sjostrom teaches us what men should think about before they die.)

7. Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity 1944. (Fred MacMurray teaches men about women that should really be avoided.)

8. Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr 1928. (Buster teaches us how to survive a hurricane with artistry and aplomb.)

9. Jiri Menzel's Closely Watched Trains 1966. (Male coming of age during war, Czech style.)

10. Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures 1994. (The downside of being creative and imaginative.)

Some Television?

I'm obsessed with AMC's Breaking Bad (The only show I've been obsessed with since Deadwood.)

I also enjoy the Marty Stuart Show on RFD, Johnny Qwest reruns wherever I can find them, and local Fox News broadcasts, especially Libby Weaver's aztec sundial jewelry and Leland Vitter's beloved hair and laptop.

The best novel I've read recently (on Cd, of course) is Jonathan Miles Dear American Airlines, which is really funny and also terribly moving..Non fiction book (not on Cd). Umberto Eco's On Ugliness.

And finally, I also tune in to KHOW radio's Dan Caplis almost every afternoon so I have something to direct my substantial hatred towards. Keeps a fellow young and vital!

Coyote "Hazing"

Beautiful photo by flickr users Carly&Art

Last week Christopher N. Osher of the Denver Post wrote, "Denver parks officials say killing and trapping are ineffective approaches to nuisance coyotes and they plan instead to educate the public to start "hazing" the animals....Targeted mailings have gone out to neighborhoods of southeast Denver telling residents to "haze" coyotes by making loud noises and threatening gestures when they see them."

"Stills" in the Denver Post

I have copied my new review into this blog - fully illustrated, in case you unaware of some of his references:

Nathan Abels' own stamp

Haunting imagery permeates young painter's exhibit at Rule Gallery

By Kyle MacMillan
Denver Post Fine Arts Critic

Posted: 01/16/2009 12:30:00 AM MST

Nathan Abels, an Indiana native who moved to Denver in 2007, is spotlighted in his first solo exhibition at the Rule Gallery. Among the 12 works on view is
"Central City," 2008, acrylic on panel, 24 by 36 inches.

The shadowy silhouette of a building and the glow of a dozen or so windows are all that can be seen through the fog in Alex Katz's hushed nighttime view of New York City, "New Year's Eve" (1990).

Borrowing some of the innovative approaches he employs in his more widely known portraits, Katz merges representation and abstraction in the oil on canvas, a highlight of Denver Art Museum's collection of modern and contemporary art.

Alex Katz, "New Year's Eve"

Nathan Abels, a highly promising 28-year-old artist who moved to Denver in 2007, takes up

where Katz left off in "Stills," a striking new group of paintings on view through Jan. 31 at the Rule Gallery.

Indeed, "Not Lightness, But Darkness Visible," a 16-by- 20-inch acrylic on canvas with three glowing windows in an invisible building piercing an otherwise unbroken blackness, can be seen as a direct echo of Katz's painting.

Nathan Abels, "Not Lightness, But Darkness Visible"

These dozen peopleless works, which can be categorized loosely as land- and cityscapes, all exude a sense of emotional detachment and mystery while never seeming distant or cold.

A few of these pieces, such as "A Lot of Little Rain," even possess a gently romantic quality. In the gray, monochromatic 16-by-20-inch oil and acrylic on canvas, the faint, dreamlike outlines of pine trees and glow of rain drops can barely be seen.

Nathan Abels, "A Lot of Little Rain"

Abels, an Indiana native with a master's degree from the Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design, is clearly aware of the many styles and movements that have rocked the art world in recent decades. Like Katz, he fuses abstraction and representation, but the younger artist injects his works with a subtle conceptual edge at the same time.

All this gives his paintings a decidedly contemporary feel. He can be counted as part of a recent surge of painters who are reincorporating narrative into their works, though his story lines are more remote and his style considerably more nuanced than many of his peers.

While speaking to the present, he also conjures the past. It's

Echoes of Edward Hopper can be seen in Nathan Abels' "There, There," 2008, acrylic on panel, 24 by 36 inches. (Rule Gallery)

nearly impossible not to look at many of these pieces, especially the nocturnes, and not think of precedents in American art history, such as the shrouded landscapes of Ralph Blakelock at the turn of the last century.

Ralph Blakelock, Moonlight, 1885

"There, There" (2008), a spare, straight-on view of a lonely house with a barren tree in front, is reminscent of similar forlorn compositions by Edward Hopper, such as "House By the Railroad" (1925) or "Ryder's House" (1933).

Edward Hopper. (American, 1882-1967). House by the Railroad. 1925. Oil on canvas, 24 x 29"

Rather than full-on depictions, many of Abel's compositions offer little more than a glimmer, a glimpse, an enigmatic hint at something larger — an isolated fire in "Nothing Is Fair or Good Alone," a section of chain-link fence in "Somnambulism."

In others, though, the subject matter is evident. The exhibition's largest selection by far — "Overpass," a 3-by-8-foot acrylic on panel, depicts a prototypical expressway interchange.

Nathan Abels, "Overpass"

But in Abels' hands, even this recognizable scene remains elusive and distant. Other painters have taken on similar imagery, but he puts his distinctive stamp on it, giving this expansive work a haunting presence.

Here and elsewhere in the show, the young artist successfully marries concept with craft, matching his distinctive creative vision with deft, well-honed paint-handling skills.

"Stills" demonstrates again that gallery owner Robin Rule's eye for talent remains keen. Abels possesses all the ingredients necessary for a significant artistic career.

Kyle MacMillan

Article on Denverpost.com here