THOM ROSS
As a preview of his upcoming solo exhibition this July, Hemmings Gallery will feature a select group of paintings by artist Thom Ross. A true original, Ross is best known for his striking depictions of the American West. Packed with vibrant colors and bold brushstrokes, his paintings contain a deep questioning of history. For Ross, “I want my work to bring people closer to the American experience to understand its complexities, its beauty and its darker sides. History is never as simple as it seems.”
Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ross has worked in various media over the years, including large-scale site installations. His 2005 work “Custer’s Last Stand” was a reenactment of the Battle of Little Bighorn, consisting of hundreds of individually painted, life-sized plywood sculptures at the original site of Medicine Tail Coulee in Montana.
With his paintings, Ross restores a liveliness and complexity to often stale and over-simplified depictions of the American West. His decades-long fascination and respect for his subject is palpable: “The American West is a canvas, a place where history and myth collide. I paint it because it speaks to something primal in all of us—both the mythic and the real.”
TERRAIN
Hemmings Gallery is pleased to present TERRAIN, a group exhibition that explores the idea of the artist as navigator of both external and internal landscapes with an openness to discovery and learning. TERRAIN seeks to go beyond the surface-level elements of the artist’s work and delve into what lies beneath, to highlight the journey the artist undertakes to gain new insights into themselves and their work. Featured artists include:
ADAM SHAW
Hemmings Gallery will feature a selection of Shaw’s oil paintings from his “I Stood Still and Was A Tree” series. Shaw’s thick textured, heavily layered canvases reveal time spent building the work, adding & subtracting materials over long stretches. “As a contemporary artist I dance between these two poles, striving to create the artifice of immediacy, urgency, but with surfaces built up and broken down often over the course of years, or even decades. So the painting feels like it ‘just happened’ or is ‘happening now’ yet the surface reveals layers of history, construction, destruction and repetition.”
FRANCES ASHFORTH
Frances Ashforth’s spare paintings, drawings and monotypes reflect the geography and geology of intersecting habitats that she has visited and studied. She often orients her compositions along a strong horizon line, exploring its relationships within land, water and sky. Her work can appear deceptively simple yet by focusing on the details and editing the composition, Ashforth’s work evokes memory and knowledge that can only evolve from the focused study of a particular landscape. “Our landscape defines us… My hope is that my work, my simple memories on paper, will help instill the desire to respect and remember what the land continues to give us in all its variety, grit and beauty.”
JAN FREEMAN LONG
Throughout her work, Jan Freeman Long’s artistic pursuit remains the same: “I am interested in the mysterious nature of what endures, both within an internal landscape and what surrounds us in the natural world.” As a student of painting at the California College of the Arts (CCA), Long was quickly attracted to working with abstraction. Today the fascination remains, “I am interested in visual relationships that express what I don’t have the words for– a territory that is enigmatic, open for exploration– that is my form of visual poetry.” The gallery will feature both her larger works on canvas alongside smaller collage pieces from her Signpost series.
HALLIE MAXWELL
Hallie Maxwell is a Japanese American interdisciplinary artist based in Idaho and current resident at the James Castle house in Boise. A descendant of survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Maxwell’s work studies themes such as generational trauma, loss, and disconnection from cultural identity. A recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s 2023 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, Maxwell’s mizuhiki cord sculptures feature numerous hand-tied awaji knots—a traditional symbol of the wish to be tied to someone forever. For Maxwell, “My work tends to be very repetitive so I’m really interested in how by making something over and over again, you are connecting to tradition.”
Captions:
Polo Player
by Thom Ross
acrylic on canvas
72” x 60”
Moonrise, Sundance & Butch
by Thom Ross
acrylic on canvas
60″ x 60″
The World is For You
by Adam Shaw
oil on canvas
60″ x 54″
Prairie Study Looking NE
by Frances Ashforth
oil on panel
30″ x 40″
Gesture 09
by Hallie Maxwell
9″ x 15.5″ x 10″
Hemmings Gallery
340 Walnut Ave. | Ketchum
208.254.1097
hemmingsgallery.com
