“ADAPT (Iteration 2)”Terry Maker · Omar Chacón · Ted Larsen · Wendi Harford · Betty Merken   Terry Maker “I am keenly aware and want to be responsive to the latest developments of our present-day trials and crises.  My work sometimes has acerbic humor that addresses our particular and contemporary ultimatum - to adapt or succumb to futility and despair. The need for creating a defiant response to despondency is on our plate. We will adapt by being the creative humans that we’re called to be right now – to rise to the call to redesign, transform and adapt.” – Terry Maker  

In conjunction with her recently reopened solo exhibition at the Longmont Museum, Robischon Gallery is pleased to present Terry Maker’s resin and mixed media works as part of the gallery’s summer series of abstraction. The artist further expands her interest in amalgamating unconventional materials such as jawbreaker candy and the ongoing embrace of the circle-form as her subject. Maker states, “I intend to pull viewers into universal tensions, to stimulate novel, transcendent responses to the existential questions behind humanity’s search for meaning. One circle at a time, I invite viewers to engage and explore our mysterious universe.” 

In her inspired and insightful manner, Maker imbues common forms or objects with a unique transformational power. While offering an interpretation of human desire through her willingness to marry unconventional materials with the everyday, Maker keeps a focus on the foibles and missteps that are inherent in the human condition. The subject matter of the sculptural works on view, in both symbol and scale, address issues of desire and humans’ ceaseless voracity to accumulate and protect material goods and the status they signify. Known for her conceptual yearning to discover what’s inside or at the heart of her subjects, both physically and metaphorically, Maker’s process has often involved slicing through artist-amalgamated layers of materials such as jawbreaker candy embedded in resin or plastic drinking straws or coffee stirrers as found in her “Diviner” series which remind us of threats to the earth. Ever experimenting with forms, materials and language, with the “Diviner” series, Maker introduces the concept of actual and implied spiritual thirst by employing the plastic straw as a modern day “divining rod.” Longmont Museum DirectorKim Manajek notes, “In the time of an anti-straw movement, where straw bans are happening across the country, Maker’s use of material is no accident…which move her oeuvre from sheer novelty to important cultural commentary. Maker’s composites cultivate the art of slow looking, they invite the viewer to get in close for a deeper understanding.” Seen through the eyes of an artist-as-seeker, Terry Maker’s considerable offering to the viewer, is a thoughtful dialogue both personal and universal.   

Terry Maker received her BA from McMurry University, Abilene, Texas and an MFA from the University of Colorado, as well as an MA in Education from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Her work has been exhibited in many solo museum exhibitions including: Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO; Museum of Art Fort Collins, Fort Collins, CO; Littleton Museum, Littleton, CO; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and Museum; and Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, CO, along with exhibitions at the Denver Botanic Gardens, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, among other venues throughout the United States. An expansive solo exhibition, “Terry Maker: Because the World is Round” runs through September 13, 2020 at the Longmont Museum, Longmont Colorado.

Omar Chacón “Adapting within the process of making art is a path of learning.  Every painting is its own theory or Universe; it is a world onto itself.  It is an infinitely radical galaxy according to its own rules. In some metaphysical but organic way, you are seeing the group mind and I cherish this solidarity with my colleagues and especially with the history of painting.  Being responsive to change is not only an inherently creative act in the studio but with both invention and integrity as the goal, art and life holds the most promise, the most reward!” ­­– Omar Chacon  

In his first solo exhibition at Robischon Gallery, New York artist Omar Chacón brings his exuberant, meticulously constructed paintings on canvas and paper. Uniquely composed, the artist densely layers thousands of his pre-made elements – hardened drips, pours or over-painted linear segments of bright, glossy acrylic paint. Peeled and then collaged onto canvas, each element acts like an individual brushstroke slowly adding to the glistening sheen of the aggregated whole. Candy-like and joyful in palette, the rich, jewel toned paintings beckon toward discovery and further asks us to consider what part we each singularly contribute to the greater whole. Deeply influenced by Latinx heritage, familial ties, international connections and art history, the artist states, “I liken my works to a social gathering, a global nation comprised of a diverse blend of culturally different peoples, living amongst each other with a sense of unity, yet maintaining individuality; each unit, each drip is unique. Though greatly absorbed with art-historical reference, at its core my work deals with subjects that shine from my heart; baroque in thought, fruitful in being and orgiastic in beauty.” 

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Omar Chacón received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, CA and his BFA from the Ringling School of Art and Design, FL. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in cities such as Los Angeles, Milan, San Francisco, New York City and Mexico City. Recently, Chacón participated in exhibitions at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York, NY and the Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, AL. In 2009, Chacón was selected as part of the Queens International Four at the 2009 Biennial at the Queens Museum of Art, New York. Chacón received a public commission from the NYU Langone Art Program and Collection in 2017. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2007 William and Dorothy Yeck Award through the Miami University National Young Painters Competition and the 2008 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. His paintings have been reviewed in Art & Antiques, Artnet, Art in America and Artweek Magazine, among others. 

Ted Larsen  “We are living in challenging times. We have many issues to address and we must figure out the best and most reasonable solution to them. It will require all of us to come together similar to how I considered the secret boxes all joined together for each “Buddha in Repose” or “Stand Up, Buddha” sculpture. But purity also comes from distillation. Through a process of removal, things become more clear. What is removed can be as important as what remains. Life is about winnowing the chaff to find the good."– Ted Larsen 

Robischon Gallery is please to present New Mexico artist Ted Larsen’s new and recent small-scale, free-standing and wall sculptures that offer another dimension to his well-recognized series of signature wall works. In his previously exhibited wall sculpture, an on-going series, the precision-cut, repurposed steel, was often layered over volumetric forms. Unlike the earlier series of wall works with wooden armatures, the sculptures in the current exhibition take shape though the artist’s manipulation of the metal itself to create multiple fastened box forms joined in intimate scale. With his characteristic sophisticated stance and strong tendency toward the ironic, Larsen’s use of geometry in his work is typically in dialogue with revered tenets of art history including the movements of Geometric Abstraction, Minimalism, Op Art or Constructivism and is ultimately located between the abstract and reductive. With his “Buddha in Repose” and “Stand Up, Buddha” series, Larsen shifts; intuitively interjecting something akin to a figurative quality which is uncharacteristic to what previously had been a solely formal abstract approach. 

The individually constructed elements of the sculptures – repurposed steel that is sun-faded, pigment-chipped, scratched or rusted from the original life of the object – are then bricolaged; stacked or leaned and joined to form each piece. In considering our tumultuous era, Larsen notes, “We are living in challenging times. We have many issues to address and we must figure out the best and most reasonable solution to them. It will require all of us to come together as we must "stand up" to our responsibilities” or be still in repose in order to come to terms with a rapidly shifting world where strength can come from either taking a righteous stand or offering healing composure and tranquility; small, but deeply felt gestures both. This work, Larsen posits, “has a message, one which will hopefully be interpreted with humor, joy, and optimism.”  

Ted Larsen graduated magna cum laude from Northern Arizona University and is a recipient of the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Award, the Artist Stipend Award, Wichita Falls Art Council, Texas, Surdna Foundation Education Travel Grant, New York, United States Representative to the Asilah Arts Festival, MoroccoRepresentative and the Edward Albee Foundation Residency Fellowship. His work has been exhibited in solo shows at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, Albuquerque Museum, Amarillo Museum of Art, TX, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO, Northern Arizona University Museum, Flagstaff, AZ, along with exhibitions at art centers and gallery venues across the U.S. and internationally. Larsen’s work is in the collections of the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, The Edward F. Albee Foundation, Procter & Gamble, Fidelity Investments, National Broadcasting Company, The Bolivian Consulate, Reader’s Digest, PepsiCo, The University of Miami, Krasl Art Center, Dreyfus Funds, JP Morgan Chase, Forbes and Pioneer Hi-Bred, Inc.

Wendi Harford  “I have gained a new appreciation for the making of these paintings. The nature of the material itself, making its way without any intervention. The repetitive, almost ritualistic process has become more of a meditation. I am fortunate to be able to experience that. The current events that have taken place in the last few months have turned everything upside down, altering the sense of time as I’ve known it. Painting, being a personal and solitary endeavor was at first unchanged. Yet, this period of isolation feels different.  As weeks passed, the isolation intensified the sense of time shifted.  There is a feeling of a widening or expansion of space. This has created the opportunity to relax a bit, step back, reflect; to rearrange and adjust.  I believe creative pursuits inspire and encourage hope. It is my hope art will do that, even if only for a brief moment, and offer a bit of positive relief.”  – Wendi Harford   

As a both an artistic meditative practice and a formal exploration of color, abstract painter Wendi Harford fully utilizes the physicality of her chosen medium.  Making evident the optical resonances between bands of vibrant colors, Harford creates mesmerizing results by coaxing and allowing gravity to take hold with each unique piece in her “Drip” painting series. Reminiscent, at first, glance, of Color Field painters such as Gene Davis, Harford rejects the hard-edged precision of such antecedents to investigate what is least easily controlled, the speed at which each drip falls in her process and the distillation of paint as one color slips over another; each flowing edge abutting a different color to ignite a charged perceptual visual experience even as the cultural metaphor for the coming together as one seizes the power of the tumultuous moment. 

A BFA graduate of the University of Denver, Wendi Harford also attended the Parson’s School of Design and the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Her paintings have frequently been included in exhibitions at Arvada Center for Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CO, Carbondale Center for the Arts, Carbondale, CO, Denver International Airport and Republic Plaza, Denver, CO and most notably her work was included in the Metropolitan State University’s Center for Visual Art important exhibition entitled “Colorado Women in Abstraction” which coincided with Denver Art Museum’s groundbreaking “Women of Abstract Expressionism.”  

Betty Merken “I’m always asking myself, “How many ways can this unfold?” “How else can I work this?” I donot use a computer as drawing tool, although I know that it would be much quicker. I’m a classicist at heart and for me the classic use of a pencil, with a soft eraser nearby, leaves previous lines and forms as pentimento traces, which I find compelling. And sometimes an unexpected drip occurs and by itself it anchors the painting. Painting takes time. And love takes time. Time has been realigned by the unexpected pandemic within our midst and by its effects on our lives and on our creativity. More than ever I want to make something I haven't seen before.” – Betty Merken

Robischon Gallery is pleased to present Betty Merken’s oil on canvas and monotype abstractions. Known for her luscious oil on paper monoprints of pure luminous hues, Merken’s paintings also explore a geometric unfolding with deep colors placed next to each other in an illusory juxtaposition which strikes a balance between painterliness and pared-down formalism. Merken states, “My work interfaces along a continuum of painting, printmaking and sculpture. I am inspired by observations of the manner in which light affects color with its passing movement and changes. I am fascinated by the power of color to evoke emotion and to encourage contemplation, allowing the viewer to essentially become the subject of the work.”   

Betty Merken received her B.A in Arts Education from the University of Washington and has participated in programs with organizations such as Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in over one hundred solo and group exhibitions in galleries throughout the United States, Japan, China, and Italy,  and can be found in the permanent collections of major museums including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the de Young Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor), the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles,  CA, the Portland Art Museum in Portland, OR, the Long Beach Museum of Art, CA, and the Civita Institute, Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy. Merken has been honored with fellowships from the Pinea-Linea de Costa Foundation, in Rota, Spain, the BAU Institute in Otranto, Italy and New York and the Civita/Northwest Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy. Her work can be found in numerous private and public collections in the United States, Asia, and Europe, including the United States Embassy Phnom Penh, Cambodia, General Electric, Brussels, Belgium, Neiman Marcus Corporation and Nordstrom. She is the co-author with Stefan Merken of “Wall Art, Megamurals” and Supergraphics (Philadelphia: Running Press, 1987).