Shop showcases local artists

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Aug 1, 2008 | by Mark Arnest

Like most cities its size, Colorado Springs suffers from a disconnect in its visual arts scene: Artists live and work here, but don't get exhibited much here.

It's a situation Roberto Agnolini, manager of downtown's elegant and eccentric Bryan & Scott Jewelers, regrets.

"People from here go to Chicago or Santa Fe to buy art," he said.

"But we have a wonderful group of artists in this town."

Agnolini's response is "Fresh Voices," an occasional series of exhibits at Bryan & Scott featuring local artists. This year's exhibit is the largest yet, with six new artists joining nine returning artists. The freshest voices are Jeff Brown and Catherine Porter-Brown, Ken and Tina Riesterer, Reba Lee Savageau and Anna Blake. The Browns and Riesterers are among the region's most illustrious creative couples. Jeff Brown is known for his found- object constructions -- in this case, small boxes that are an irreverent take on santos, the traditional Southwestern religious artworks -- while Catherine Porter-Brown paints luminous, translucent surrealist portraits.

Ken Riesterer is one of Manitou Springs' foremost landscape painters, and also makes the pottery to which his wife Tina adds finely painted glazes featuring joyful erotic imagery.

Blake, a metalsmith and jeweler, has also collaborated with Tina Riesterer for this show.

"Tina made small porcelain tiles -- some are an inch square, some bigger, some smaller -- that I set in silver and 14 carat gold," said Blake. "There's a range of things: Pendants, a pin, earrings and a bolo tie."

Savageau's brightly colored landscape paintings evoke the spirit of Fauvism -- the brightly colored modern art movement led by Matisse and Derain a century ago -- but with a cheerfulness that was rare among the Fauves.

The returning artists are painters Betty Ross and Rita Zimmerman; photographers Carol Dass and Barbara Sparks; sculptors Pard Morrison and Sean O'Meallie; printmaker Jean Gumpper; and painter/sculptors Mary Armour and Laurel Swab.

Nothing ties the show together stylistically or thematically.

They're just artists that Agnolini particularly admires.

Armour's work alone looks as though three different artists could have created it.

A traditional bronze of a standing woman stands next to a light- hearted painting of a pig; above them looms a riotous rooster sculpture, encrusted with whimsical knickknacks.

"She has a wonderful sense of humor, and it reflects in everything she does," Agnolini said.

Agnolini makes the exhibition even more irresistible by including a few works by other national and international artists.

These include five lithographs by Chilean painter Roberto Matta - - "his work is in the millions," Agnolini said -- paintings from the 1950s and '60s by local abstract expressionist Ken Goehring, and geometric wall-hangings by Agnolini's friend, Igino Legnaghi, who teaches art in Milan, Italy.

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fresh voices

When: Opening 5-8 p.m. today; regular hours 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; through Aug. 31 Where: Bryan & Scott Jewelers, 112 N. Tejon St. Admission: Free; 633-9316