This posthumous exhibition explores the vast cartographies illustrated by Holup over the last fifteen years. Many of these drawings were created in her studio in Lyons, Colorado.

Although the titles may be familiar or feature well-known places, Holup selectively transcribed her experience of these majestic landscapes into richly layered and selectively sparse drawings. She obscured and abstracted the known through a selected aerial perspective. Visitors are invited to experience these landscapes, not from conventional expectations, but through Holup’s meticulous gestures on vellum.
Her drawings tend to maintain a quiet, somber palette suspended on vellum. But the simplicity and scale of the works evoke the power and elegance of these endless places. Her drawings initiated with a focus on rivers and transitioned into a network of systems such as the Continental Divide works. As Wopo said herself, “Our environment and the vast, inter-connecting structures that sustain it, are of great interest to me. Whether the scale is minute or monumental, the systems within nature that branch, divide, and repeat are infinitely fascinating.” She exalted the natural way of things. She understood the utter beauty in some of the most rugged and weathered places. If nothing else, these drawings constantly reintroduce the savagely elegant natural environment.

Much like her subject matter, Holup was an artist of mighty strength who presented her self and subject matter through a deliberate calm. Wopo Holup was an accomplished teacher, public artist, studio artist, and widely respected in the art community. She was awarded over two dozen public art commissions across the nation, regularly exhibited, and was featured in the New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Rocky Mountain News, and additional publications. Holup lived in both Lyons, Colorado, and New York City. She passed away on September 29, 2017 at the age of 80.

Spring 2018 Exhibitions guest curated by Mandy Vink.