Jackson Hole Events
Jackson Hole, WY
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is already known as one of the great art destinations in the country, but every September it goes a step further by packing in a little of bit of everything, including museum exhibitions, gallery openings, several auctions and a popular quick draw event. This year is no exception as a number of events converged in Jackson Hole in September.
Anchoring much of it is the 12-day Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, which is itself bookended by the Western Visions exhibition at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, which brought out more than 1,600 people and many of the top Western artists in the country, and the September 13 and 14 Jackson Hole Art Auction, which this year realized more than $5.6 million. One of the highlights of the week is the Jackson Hole Quickdraw Art Sale & Auction, held September 14 and now in its 25th year. Dozens of artists are given 90 minutes to create an original work of art from scratch, after which the works are sold in a live auction. The highlight from this year’s quick draw auction came from Kathryn Mapes Turner, whose featured artwork, Of Earth & Fire, was sold alongside the quick draw pieces. It became the top lot when it sold for $60,000.
A new addition to Jackson Hole this September was the Jackson Hole Fine Art Fair, from September 12 to 15 at the Snow King Sports and Events Center. The fair brought out more than 50 exhibitors to offer artwork across a vast field of styles and categories. More than $2 million in sales resulted from the weekend, with dealers noting they had found many new customers during the four-day event.
“We unveiled to the art world, tailored to the aesthetics of Jackson Hole and the Rocky Mountains, a curated and integrated cross section of art genres which is something you never see at art fairs,” says Rick Friedman, who pioneered the event. “We offered a fluid and dynamic conversion with the juxtaposition of the likes of Maynard Dixon, Frederic
Remington, Charlie Russell and Raymond Jonson with Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Alexander Calder, Deborah Butterfield and Thomas Hart Benton… this is the ultimate boutique fair.”
Noteworthy works that sold at the event included a Dixon and Frank Tenney Johnson from Medicine Man Gallery; works by Howard Terpning, Eanger Irving Couse, William R. Leigh and Dixon by Redfern Gallery; a Fritz Scholder by Stevens Fine Art; many works by John Nieto from Nieto Fine Art; and, at the Montana Trails Gallery booth, a work from David Frederick Riley that had to be sold by draw due to interest from three buyers.
Friedman says he noticed several key trends at the inaugural show. “This is a substantial acquisition market for blue-chip work— $100,000+ and fairgoers who knew what they were looking at,” he says. “There is also a huge demand for artists of the New West, as well as contemporary with a Western [and] wildlife flavor. We are seeing how the more traditional two- and three-dimensional wildlife art is metamorphosing into works with a contemporary [and] abstract sensibility, and I see this trend growing. Even the prestigious National Museum of Wildlife Art is acquiring more contemporary works.”
Additionally in Jackson Hole were a number of gallery openings, including Glenn Dean and Greg Beecham at Legacy Gallery, Turner’s solo show at Turner Fine Art, a group show at Mountain Trails Gallery, and solo shows for Mark Maggiori, Thomas Blackshear II and Bonnie Marris at Trailside Galleries.