BACKYARD PROPHECIES by Cubby West Spain & Ansley West Rivers

OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION Friday, August 30th from 5:00-7:30pm

Cubby West Spain & Ansley West Rivers are sisters who grew up together in Atlanta, Georgia. The few acres behind their home was a magical undeveloped oasis. A place that captured their imagination and allowed them to live barefoot, a bit dirty and with a sense of independence in an otherwise urban environment. As adults, they both sought out the wide open landscapes of the West. With a shared passion for running rivers, hiking tall mountains and roaming undeveloped spaces, both sisters wound up calling Idaho home. 

And as their 'backyard' changed so did their work as artists. 

As a painter, Spain uses pattern & intentional brush strokes to explore subjects such as the seemingly simple flora and dramatic seasonal changes of Idaho's landscapes, as well as, the majestic American Buffalo that once covered the American West.

For the past ten years, Rivers has been photographing American rivers including her own watershed in Idaho's Teton Valley. Using historical photographic techniques and a large format film camera, Rivers layers several shots on each piece of film with masking made in camera to create an expansion on the singular landscape image.

Both sisters share an artistic practice that is centered upon the intention to bring environmental issues into view through the beauty of a landscape unmarred by development. Through their work they explore the sometimes-radical idea that the natural world is best left to itself... like children left to play in their own backyard. 

Spencer Hansen

SELECT WORKS ON VIEW

The interplay between exploration and heritage lies at the heart of Spencer Hansen's artistic journey. His childhood in rural Idaho cultivated an intricate relationship with familial tradition, while his nomadic nature exposed him to diverse landscapes.

 Spencer has been living and working part time in Bali since 2007, where he co-created his main workshop and studio. Within his studio space, Spencer collaborates with Indonesian artisans to experiment with and refine processes, spanning from woodcarving to ceramics, metalworking to design.  His reverence for a handmade approach and his own interest in exploring new processes creates an ever-evolving connection between his team and his creations. 

 His interest in sharing an experience through technical resonance plays a crucial role in his choice of medium, which consists mostly of natural materials. His intentional approach throughout his practice culminates in multimedia sculptures that evoke an otherworldly tenderness within viewers, embodying personas that encompass elements of his playful imagination.

TAP INTO by Sally King Benedict

For the past seventeen years, Benedict has built an impressive following with major solo shows and features in Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Domino and Southern Living. “Teetering between exhilarating abstraction and loose representation, Benedict is able to captivate her audience. Her canvases are vibrant landscapes where the joys of excess are celebrated. She invites viewers to immerse themselves in a world where color knows no bounds and free expression reigns (SVPN, July 2024). “

TAP INTO is Benedict’s latest exhibition with Hemmings Gallery. For the artist, “I have enjoyed experimenting with different mediums for this exhibit in an effort to free the mind from any artistic constraints. Naturally with young children, I have found myself having inner childlike moments sparking from early on when I first learned to build sculpture with clay and paper maché. I have tapped into these memories and fondness in a way that has carried over to the painting and mark-making process on my 2D surfaces. I want painting and sculpture to become complimentary in this exhibit while each piece maintains individuality in and of itself.”

OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION with artist Friday, July 5th from 5:00-7:30pm

In partnership with the fine art studio Aurobora, the gallery also oversees an extensive world-class collection of monotypes by more than forty artists created during Aurobora’s thirty year residency program in San Francisco & Sun Valley. Current artists on display include Clem Crosby, Joanne Greenbaum, LoopmasterM, Lisa Willamson, William O’Brien, Margaux Ogden, Ricardo Mazal and Fraser Taylor.

STRATA by JEFF JUHLIN

Over the course of his forty year career, Jeff Juhlin has spent a great deal of time studying western landscapes.

Based in Utah, Juhlin creates mixed media works consisting of layers of ink, oil paint, paper & wax-- both cold & encaustic.

They are records of time like the landscapes he has long gone to for inspiration.

"My work seeks to reflect a sense of stillness, space and the visual history of time evident in the landscape... In this environment, time reveals itself in the rock strata created by erosion, wind and water-- built up and worn away by the elements in a continuous process.”

Opening December 12th, “Tiny Fruits” is a solo exhibition of oil paintings by artist Sarah Bird at Hemmings Gallery in Ketchum, ID.

To view all the works in the show click here.

Bird is an Idaho- and Oregon-based realist oil painter. She draws on nineteenth-century techniques and seventeenth-century imaginative Flemish perspectives to weave still life and landscape into intimate tabletop worlds that sometimes tip into the surreal.   Historically, still life paintings honored material wealth and colonialism—for example, elaborate feasts featuring exotic fare and rare China, crystals, and silks—but Bird’s paintings instead recenter the natural, local, and marginal: trailside weeds, backyard and feral fruits, found and thrift-store objects. Though done in the studio, her paintings also intentionally evoke and symbolize landscapes, arguing that our experiences of a place are perhaps of greater value than our material obsessions.

In her arrangements, both individually and taken together, one can also see the passing of the seasons and a loose calendar of a year, of a life, emerges.  These pieces are the “tiny fruits” of seasonal pleasures and of painting. Bird paints only with a very small, size zero round brush which makes the process similar to egg tempura painting or needlework: the whole surface is carefully, heavily touched.

Though painted from life rather than from photos, the elements are never all together as they appear in the finished paintings. Flowers wilt and are replaced, dishes and stones move around, as if of their own volition. The paintings are collaged realities, each actively composed and edited over time, an ongoing improvisation in the way of abstract painting. Small touches of the surreal also call attention to the artifice of arrangement and, most importantly, assert the abiding importance of the imagination in how we frame the world. 

Come meet the artist at the Gallery Walk evening reception on December 29th from 5:00-7:30 pm.

July/August 2023  

Ashforth is an artist who spends a great deal of time outdoors, hiking, fly fishing, studying the land & edges of habitats. Her work has been shown in Canada, Europe and across the US as well as featured in Orion Magazine, Carrier Pigeon Magazine, Art in Print, The Adventure Journal & "Headwaters" by author Dylan Tomine with Patagonia Books. 

For her monotypes, paintings and drawings, Ashforth looks with intention to the land and heavily researches the environments she finds herself in. Whether arid basin & range, watershed or coastal wetland, her spare images share memory of place. Her hope is that the subtle tensions observed between land, water & sky will ultimately strike a chord of respect for the raw beauty found in the landscape. 

Come meet the artist and join us for Opening Night on Friday, September 1st from 5:00-7:30pm. 

Hemmings Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Sally King Benedict, the first in her new hometown of Ketchum. For the past fifteen years, Benedict has built an impressive following with major shows in Atlanta, Charleston & New York. Known for both her figurative and abstract work, she has been featured in Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Domino and Southern Living. Benedict's exuberant style is unmistakable and showcases her expert use of color and dynamic brushwork. 
Sally and her family moved to Ketchum from Atlanta in 2021.

She's thrilled to present her first body of work inspired by life in the Wood River Valley. In her words, "I have come to realize that the ways I now recreate have also in fact re-created me. This body of work reflects my transition as an artist to a new home over the last two years with imagery inspired by a totally new landscape…one which exists simultaneously between humans and Mother Nature. I have experienced a new viewpoint amongst this community, all while bringing a new baby into the world. I am in a constant state of exhale and disbelief that we get to live here. These paintings reflect my respect for the community here and the way people surrender to the earth and its abundance."

Come meet and celebrate the artist on opening night Friday, July 7th from 5:00-7:30pm!