This exhibition features the works of Richard Carter, Jody Guralnick, Charmaine Locke, and James Surls, four Colorado artists from the Roaring Fork Valley who have pursued rich and varied courses of art throughout their careers.

About the artists:
Richard Carter is primarily a superb colorist probing imaginary shapes. Through his practice, he seamlessly integrates a range of influences and sources of inspiration, from science and math to geology and art history. Carter spent his early years in Aspen working as an assistant for artist Herbert Bayer, a leader of the Bauhaus movement. The straight clean lines in Carter’s works echo Bayer’s artistic approach.

Jody Guralnick literally and artistically feels nature. Her close-up examinations of seed pods and plant forms grab our attention and ask us to marvel at what we have previously overlooked. Guralnick speaks the language of algae and fungi, the building blocks of our planet. Her abstract paintings explore the vast networks that connect all life forms. Elements of her works appear ghost-like, floating on colorful backgrounds with depth that draws the viewer into her paintings.

Charmaine Locke is distressed by the current state of the world. Through her work, she seeks to sound the alarm about the cruelty and oppression that exist around us. Locke’s energetic paintings of wars and violence barely contain the contentious warriors and swirling tornadoes that threaten to burst forth from the frames. Her red, devil-like sculpture purposely scares us into recognizing the chaos of the world.

James Surls’ work has soul. His sculptures are a contradiction of terms. A mixture of rugged, refined, mystical, threatening, and disquieting sensibilities surround his pieces. Surls redefines the assumed meanings of his favored motifs of houses, flowers, and knives by imbuing them with anthropomorphic characteristics ranging from delicate to threatening. No matter what he creates, the works have a visceral character that surprises and delights.

Julie Augur, Guest Curator, earned her degree in art history from Barnard College in New York in 1969. She then worked at Parasol Press publishing limited edition prints by Brice Marden, Sol Lewitt, and Agnes Martin, among other artists. Augur moved to Aspen in 1977. She has curated many exhibitions for the Aspen Art Museum. In 1982, she curated a collection of 150 works of art auctioned at Christie’s which was to raise money for Creative Time, an arts organization in NYC.

She has served on numerous boards and committees for arts organizations, including: the board of Wave Hill, Riverdale, NY; the drawings acquisition committee for the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the artist grants award panel for the National Endowment for the Arts; the Collections Committee of the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and the board of the Clyfford Still Museum, Denver. Since 2005, Augur has served as Adjunct Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawings at the Denver Art Museum.