Aspen Chapel Gallery will host “Safe Passages,” a mixed-media show and artist talk in partnership with Roaring Fork Safe Passages, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Aspen Chapel Gallery.
The evening will pair art with a community conversation.
Roaring Fork Safe Passages Executive Director Cecily DeAngelo and Director of Communications Tucker Vest Burton will speak, with Andrew Travers moderating. Travers is a senior manager and Penner manager of Educational Programs at the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies.
Greg Poschman curated the show. Born in Aspen to a family of skiers, outdoor enthusiasts and artists, Poschman spent 30 years in photography and filmmaking before turning toward a different kind of image-making.
“I decided that I was no longer interested in taking photos in focus,” Poschman told The Aspen Times. “I still love street photography, combining photography with painting, and I still love to make movie biographies, but my current passion is to develop ways of evoking emotional responses with paint.”
That shift shapes the exhibition. Poschman said he invited Roaring Fork Safe Passages into the show because of the group’s work within the valley and because he wanted to put the issue in front of as many supporters as possible.
Wildlife-vehicle collisions, he said, deserve far more urgency than they usually get.
“Anyone who has collided with an elk, deer or moose has a certain level of PTSD, a totaled vehicle and a horrific and unnecessary death to think about,” he said.
He asked participating artists to approach “safe passages” as an abstract idea rather than a literal scene — and to answer it with abstract art.
“I’m eager to see what they come up with,” Poschman said. “I hope this show gets us closer to a compassionate solution to the carnage on our highways, and the drought of compassion and empathy that seems to be shading the entire planet, as well.”
The exhibition is the gallery’s 269th consecutive show since it opened 41 years ago.
The artists being showcased include Cam Burns, Katalin Domoszlay, Dave Durrance, Erin Ely, Julie Grimm, Cary Guy, Nancy Kullgren, Poschman, Willow Poschman, Tamara Susa, Pam Weber and Ellen Woods.
A painting by artist Katalin Domoszlay.Courtesy image
Roaring Fork Safe Passages is a not-for-profit, citizen-led coalition dedicated to developing and implementing a comprehensive, valley-wide plan to mitigate wildlife-vehicle collisions. The group coordinates stakeholders, advocates for wildlife and helps turn research into solutions on the ground.
The Aspen Chapel Gallery is on the lower level of the Aspen Chapel, off the roundabout, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
For more information, contact gallery co-directors Tom Ward, 970-925-8367, and Michael Bonds, 970-925-6083, or the Aspen Chapel at 970-925-7184 and aspenchapelgallery.org.