RAPID CITY, SD (Sept. 11, 2017) – The Apex Gallery at SD Mines is featuring an exhibit titled “Introspection: The Birds and the Bees,” from now-Sept. 22 with a closing reception and gallery talk from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22.
The exhibit includes two well-known Montana based artists:
Bev Beck Glueckert’s art has been widely exhibited throughout Montana, the Pacific Northwest and nationally. She has served as adjunct faculty in drawing and printmaking at The University of Montana and The University of Great Falls.
Her current body of mixed media works employs various printmaking techniques (relief, intaglio, collagraph, stencil) combined with drawing and collage materials, including rice papers, transfers, tissue paper, vellum, etc.
“Much of my work is based on ideas of survival and transformation, focusing on the simple yet complex nature of organisms and how species evolve and exist. I’m interested in exploring the interrelationships between humans and our natural environments. Issues of transition and mortality are central. I am drawn to the use of multiple images that printmaking offers. By making numerous small plates, I'm able to carry through with a continuity of imagery and concepts in my studio. The processes of ordering and arrangement, patterning, and surface- layering are integral to my work,” says Glueckert.
Renee Taffee, Education Curator at the Missoula Art Museum in Missoula, Mont., is also an accomplished artist whose images express her deep love of that natural world. It’s no surprise she is an avid outdoors woman.
“Nature, real or imagined, has always been a source of visual inspiration and information for my art work. I glean images from observation, plein air sketches and from memory.
I get great joy from the throngs of birds and pass through Missoula valley in the spring and early summer and try to capture their essence in my work. Birds are my backyard companions and songsmiths that never cease to amaze me,” says Taffee.
“My process is both additive and extractive, layering line and color and scratching away the surface to find and redefine the image. It is a process of discovery which allows me to work intuitively and with more physicality,” she adds.
“These images are my way of getting closer and gaining understanding of the fluttering forms that visit my area. I have a greater awareness of bird dynamics—flying, foraging, mating and nesting and in return, I am awed and humbled by their beauty and presence. This past year, in addition to being visual subject matter and lively entertainment, they have also been a source of solace from events happening in the political arena. I hope some of this is conveyed in my art,” says Taffee.
The public is invited to attend the closing reception and gallery talk from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22.