SEP TEMBER VHAY
May 24 – June 4, 2022 Jackson Hole Opening Reception | May 26 | 5:30–7:30pm
SEP TEMBER VHAY Vhay & Vhay
Jackson Hole | Scottsdale | AltamiraArt.com
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Zorro Charcoal on paper | 30 x 30 inches Enquire
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SEPTEMBER VHAY September Vhay is testing her tolerance for abstraction—a route she’s wanted to take for a long time, an approach empowered by her series of sumi-ink drawings. The red horses— studies of equine essence—convey character in select, serene brushstrokes.
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Such distillation requires courage and confidence on the part of the artist. “Telling the whole story is safer, expected,” September says. And rendering detail satisfies her observant character. “I love the nitty gritty, of rendering every eyelash so the eyes glimmer.” And yet, restrained eloquence speaks to her sense of spirit and gesture. In the past, she’s fallen in love with her compositions half-finished, when the psyche of the subject suddenly surfaced from the crosshairs of her marks. In those moments, there’s a freshness, a looseness that remains. Now, she is stopping there, a gutsy move considering the resolution collectors have come to expect of her work. Such risk-taking taps the 20 years she’s spent working as a fine artist. “I’m trusting myself more,” she says. “It’s hard to do on purpose. It’s hard to step away and say, ‘It’s finished. I’ve said what I need to say.’”
Harkening back to her academic training as an architect, she likens the approach to minimalist architecture—typified by Mies van der Rohe—where the form is the function—no extraneous elements, all raw sophistication. On canvas, the concept translates into transparency: the personality of a Black Angus bull, rendered in raw charcoal, emerged just as September was roughing in the shoulder blade. So she stopped, leaving visible her guiding marks, the penciling of his flank and leg. “People respond to the vulnerability” of both subject and artist revealing themselves. The viewer must engage with the work, filling in details as they desire. She invites their questions: What’s happening here? Why did she end there? A dialogue develops between the work and the viewer. “When a piece of art represents a clear gesture, there is a sense of surprise which leads to wonder. The viewer completes the piece.”
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Ferdinand Charcoal on paper | 40 x 48 inches Enquire
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Above Joy 27 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire Right Joy 26 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire Joy 28 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire
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Vdara and Spice Charcoal on paper | 40 x 42 inches Enquire
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Constellation Charcoal on paper | 30 x 30 inches Enquire
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Pascal Charcoal on paper | 40 x 48 inches Enquire
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Joy 22 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire Joy 24 Watercolor on paper | 8 x 8 inches Enquire
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172 Center Street | Jackson WY AltamiraArt.com | 307-739-4700
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