Solo Exhibition | Jackson, WY
Altamira Fine Art Jackson is pleased to welcome Dennis Ziemienski for a solo exhibition at the gallery, "Wyoming Postcard".
Please join us for an Opening Reception, Tuesday, July 28 from 5:30-7:30pm.
To arrange a private tour of the show, please contact the gallery, (307) 739-4700.
Wyoming Postcard
We all love the romance of travel and seeing new places. Revisiting those places through remembrances—old postcards, photographs, vintage travel posters—is something we all do to transport ourselves. That is the theme of this show. Having been the 2018 Fall Arts Festival Featured Artist, I found merit in returning to the idea of traveling back to Jackson Hole. I was trained as an illustrator; I went to school for graphic design and illustration. About 20 years ago, I stopped illustration and started focusing on fine art. This show is about returning to my roots as a designer. My illustration career was marked by the look of vintage travel posters, which has been hard for me to get away from artistically. I’ve been trying to suppress that instinct, but once you do that, it explodes later. I told myself, “Don’t refrain from doing what you like doing.”
Each painting in Wyoming Postcard shares a strong relationship to design—bold and dramatic. Some even have type incorporated into their compositions. Wyoming affords a marvelous repository of material—endless in fact. So while all of the paintings are defined by bold, dramatic and strong design, because they’re set in Wyoming, they’re also beautiful.
About a decade ago, someone told me my work reminded them of orange crate labels. I loved that idea so much I began collecting images of vintage crates, and even did a show dedicated to imagined brands. This felt like the right moment to return to those images and also include inspiration from vintage travel posters and ski resort advertisements from the U.S. as well as Europe.
These paintings have a tendency to be like billboards. I used to teach illustration and painting and would tell my students, “Your work should read immediately. Pretend that they’re billboards that catch your eye at 65mph. Or a favorite postcard stamp that you love so much, you don’t send it, so tiny but so indelibly legible.” That’s what I mean by bold and dramatic. Each one of these paintings have a limited amount of information in them juxtaposed so it works artistically.
Pre-sales available.
For more information and pricing, please contact (307) 739-4700, connect@altamiraart.com.
