Summer Exhibitions Opening Reception

Additional Information

The University of Wyoming Art Museum will celebrate summer exhibitions with a free public opening reception Friday, June 2, from 6-8 p.m.

The reception will include refreshments and live music by The Moretavistafying House Band, featuring Jack Wallace, Jeff Evans, Jascha Herdt, Birgit Burke, McKay Fleck and Mike Angstadt.

Summer exhibitions now on view are “Hung Liu: American Exodus”; “Jon Schueler: Weathering Skies”; “Skyscapes: Selections from the Art Museum Collection”; “Whence One Comes: The Musings of Travis Louie”; “Beyond the Model: Women Artists and Photographers from the Art Museum Collection”; “Hans Kleiber: The Western Landscape”; and “New Acquisitions: The UW Art Museum Collection.”

“Hung Liu: American Exodus” presents new work by the Chinese-born American artist, well-known for her large-scale paintings based on photographic archives. “American Exodus” is inspired by the Dust Bowl-era photographs by American photographer Dorothea Lange made under the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s.

For Liu, whose photographic references are primarily those of her family or cultural life in China, working from an American photographer’s perspective on the United States during a period of great strife fostered universal connections between the struggles of those displaced by political or natural forces and the underlying humanity and dignity that pervade. The exhibition will be on view through Aug. 12.

“Jon Schueler: Weathering Skies” will be on view through June 24. Organized by the Jon Schueler estate and the Arkansas Arts Center, the exhibition presents 26 watercolors that explore Schueler’s fascination with the power of the sky. The works were made in Scotland or Connecticut between 1967 and 1969. Schueler was a 20th century, second-generation abstract expressionist painter recognized for his abstract impressions inspired by the atmospheric sky.

“Skyscapes: Selections from the Art Museum Collection” presents skyscapes from various artists in an array of media, including photography, prints and sculpture. Depicting representations of the sky, the imagery in “Skyscapes” ranges from abstract to realistic. The exhibition is drawn from the Art Museum’s collection to complement “Jon Schueler: Weathering Skies,” giving a broader context for artistic explorations on the subject of the sky. The exhibition is on view through Sept. 9.

“Whence One Comes: The Musings of Travis Louie” presents works by Chinese-American artist Travis Louie. He creates oddly familiar, yet strange characters from an imagined world of curiosities, monsters and the absurd. His images are influenced by Victorian portraiture, film noir movies and human oddities, such as vaudeville magic acts, circus sideshows, and the monsters and superheroes of horror and sci-fi movies. Narrative in approach, the more recent images are accompanied by their own stories, written by the artist. The exhibition will be on view through Aug. 26.

“Beyond the Model: Women Artists and Photographers from the Art Museum Collection” explores female artists and photographers who have been influential in the history of art. Women have been the subject of the most famous works of art; however, as artists, they have been historically underrepresented. The exhibition is the second part in the series of female artists from the Art Museum collection. The exhibition is on view through July 29.

“Hans Kleiber: The Western Landscape” presents a selection of etchings by German-American artist Hans Kleiber that explores the unique landscape and the abundant wildlife of Wyoming. His images convey a feeling of epic myth with sentimental nostalgia. The exhibition will be on view through July 29, and will be available to tour through the UW Art Museum’s Regional Touring Exhibition Service beginning in the fall.

“New Acquisitions: The UW Art Museum Collection” highlights important acquisitions that the museum has acquired over the last year for its permanent collection. Objects will include paintings by American artist Harold Garde, who is a UW alumnus from the late 1940s; a print by Chinese-American artist Liu; and photographs by American photographers Danny Lyon and William Christenberry, among others. The exhibition is funded, in part, by Pat Guthrie Special Exhibitions Endowment funds and will be on view through Aug. 26.

For more information, call the Art Museum at (307) 766-6622, visit the website at www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum, or follow the museum on Facebook.

Through its “Museum as Classroom” approach, the UW Art Museum places art at the center of learning for all ages. Located in the Centennial Complex at 2111 Willett Drive in Laramie, the museum is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday hours are extended to 7 p.m. February through April and September through November. Admission is free.