Beginning Friday, July 7, the Ann Korologos Gallery on Midland Ave in Basalt will present a new, two-artist exhibition titled “Andy Taylor and Dan Young: Perspectives” which highlights the works of two prominent Colorado landscape artists. Featuring more than 30 large-scale paintings and studies, the exhibition will have an opening reception on July 7 from 5 to 7pm and the works will be on view through July 25.
Taylor and Young have a lot in common, and details that set them apart. “Each has studied and painted Colorado landscapes for many decades, and each brings his own perspective to what he sees, what he notices, how it makes him feel, and how that feeling is depicted with abstract qualities,” praised Sue Edmonds, director of Ann Korologos Gallery.
What’s also special about this particular exhibition is that both Taylor and Young have been featured in the gallery for 29 years — from when the space was the Basalt Gallery to now.
Located in historic downtown Basalt, Ann Korologos Gallery has been showcasing contemporary western art for over 20 years in a wide variety of media. Painters, sculptors, printmakers, ceramic artists and more have all shared a space in the gallery, exhibiting their unique works inspired by both frontier culture and the natural beauty of western landscapes. Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Ann Korologos purchased the former Basalt Gallery in 2007, with the goal of creating a space in which one can be transported into an artist’s moment.
Sadly, Korologos passed away in January of this year. However, her legacy and her vision for sharing “art you love to live with” will not be forgotten. Each month, exceedingly talented artists of the West, like Young and Taylor, give life to the space she worked to create.
Recently featured at the Ann Korologos Gallery in March, Carbondale-based painter Taylor uses a gestural style with rich colors to convey the mood and emotions elicited by the view of a particular landscape. His works usually begin with incomplete pen and ink sketches of scenery, which form the bones of his paintings and from which a larger piece often evolves. However, while Taylor has been painting locales within the Valley for five decades, his choice of scenery is also very particular.
Taylor eschews the grand views of peaks Valley residents might be used to seeing on postcards, and instead chooses to document “insignificant scenes,” spotted en route to bigger landmarks — intimate, brief moments which one might ordinarily pass by on the way to a hike. Drawing on his memories, Taylor uses deep saturation and strong forms to vivify these passing moments in large oil landscapes, often forgoing acute detail for evocative, indefinite regions of color.
Young was born in Denver and raised in western Colorado. He has been painting full time in his home state since 1989. Featured last July, Young is also a landscape painter, primarily an impressionist who works plein air (outdoors). A camper and a fisherman, Young also brings his sketchbook, paint and brushes with him into the natural world.
While still impressionistic, Young paints in a more concrete and realistic style than his co-exhibitor, with colors vividly reflecting what he sees in the wild. Young also often chooses subject matter familiar to every Coloradan — snow-capped mountains challenging blue skies, rivers lined with cottonwoods and dotted with the occasional fly fisherman, horses grazing in wide valleys of brush.
Many paintings sell during the night of the reception, so interested collectors should be sure to attend and get to know the artists in the meantime. In addition to the gallery show, Young and Taylor’s work can be viewed on www.korologosgallery.com
“Three Times” by Andy Taylor, oil on linen. Cloudy patches of deep color are characteristic of Taylor’s evocative style. Courtesy image