UCROSS ART GALLERY LAUNCHES NEW EXHIBITION, CAFÉ

Ucross Art Gallery announces its new exhibition, The Shape of Time: 16 Photographers and Their Creative Paths, which opened during the Ucross Arts Festival on August 20 with 300 attendees exploring the show, meeting the curator, and visiting the artists throughout the afternoon. The new Ucross Café, which opens today, will offer visitors another reason to visit Ucross, explore the exhibition and learn more about the organization’s mission. 

The Shape of Time, guest curated by Keith F. Davis of Sheridan, Wyoming, features 16 alumni of Ucross’s acclaimed artist residency program in northern Wyoming. The exhibition explores the nature of the creative process: where ideas are born and how — and why — an artist’s vision evolves.

“I think and hope that every viewer will find this show enriching,” Davis said. “The work is wonderfully varied in style and subject, and the overall theme gets to the heart of the artistic process. Each artist is represented by two works — one early, one more recent — and a statement on the journey in between. Years of work and thought are represented in the gap between the selected works, revealing so much about each artist’s approach. This exhibition allows us to appreciate what these superb artists have done as well as giving us special insight into how they think.”

The works in The Shape of Time range widely in both subject and technique. The featured artists embrace landscape and the historical resonance of place; notions of the self and family; the quality of our public spaces; politics and the state of contemporary society; and the nature of the photographic medium itself. The works included range from gelatin-silver and inkjet prints, negative images, time-based video works, and sculptural installations. In this variety, the exhibition suggests the vibrant state of photographic practice today.

The participating artists include: Barbara Bosworth of Stow, Massachusetts; Laura Cobb of Lincoln, Nebraska; Christina Fernandez of Norwalk, California; Anthony Hernandez of Fairfield, Idaho; Nicole Jean Hill of Eureka, California; Michael Kolster of Brunswick, Maine; Jin Lee of Chicago, Illinois; Serge J-F. Levy of Tucson, Arizona; Susan Moldenhauer of Laramie, Wyoming; Janet L. Pritchard of Mansfield Center, Connecticut; Victoria Sambunaris of New York, New York; Carla Shapiro of Kingston, New York; Joni Sterbach of Brooklyn, New York; Elizabeth Stone of Bonner, Montana; Youngsuk Suh of Berkeley, California, and Incheon, South Korea; and William S. Sutton of Boulder, Colorado.

Davis has been an art historian, author, and curator of photography for 45 years. He oversaw the Hallmark Photographic Collection from 1979 to 2005 and was founding and senior curator of photography at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, from 2006 to 2020. He has curated more than 100 exhibitions, written or contributed to 50 books and catalogues, and lectured on various aspects of art and photo history across the U.S. and abroad. Davis was an artist-in-residence at Ucross in 2022.

Starting today, Ucross Art Gallery visitors will discover the new onsite café, which offers beverages featuring espresso by Snake River Roasting Company of Jackson, Wyoming, and freshly baked pastries by Ucross Chef Jackie Vitale. 

“We’re excited to provide the public with this taste of our artist residency program,” said Ucross Director of External Relations Caitlin Addlesperger. “Typically, our chef cooks and bakes exclusively for the 115 writers, visual artists, composers, and choreographers throughout the year, allowing them to focus on the creative process. Now, for the first time, we are sharing this culinary artistry with guests beyond the residency program.”

The Ucross Art Gallery is located at 30 Big Red Lane in Clearmont, Wyoming, and open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, thanks to generous support from the Wyoming Arts Council and Arete Design Group. The Ucross Café is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Learn more.