Featuring works from The Art Center’s Permanent Collection
Curated by Gayle Gerson
March 5 – April 9

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” - Henry David Thoreau

Mixed media art describes a visual art form that combines a variety of media in a single artwork. Mixed media artists choose to work with this variety of materials because it allows them to stretch the boundaries of their creativity.

Although mixing charcoal, ink, and pigments was commonplace among the Old Masters and manuscript illuminators of yore, mixed media as a recognized art form came into its own in the early 20th century when Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque (and later the Dadaists) began to push the envelope of what art could be made from and decided it could be made from anything—even envelopes!

Gayle Gerson examined pieces from our Permanent Collection that demonstrate this art form and decided that many of them have a landscape quality, hence the title of the exhibit, Landscapes Reimagined. She has added pieces she has created in response to the collection and has asked members of the Permanent Collection Committee who work in mixed media to contribute as well, making for a thought-provoking and very well mixed art exhibit.

Gayle Gerson has been teaching Mixed Media Art classes at The Art Center for over a decade. She has made the art museums of the world her study halls and loves to talk, teach, and think about art. She especially enjoys the medium of collage because it allows her to use the stuff of everyday life in the form the paper scraps, advertising, text, and ephemera to embed evidence of our culture directly into the art pieces she creates. She considers herself an experimental artist and in her studio is always asking the question, “What will happen if I do this?”

She is a signature member of the Colorado Watercolor Society, the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, and the National Collage Society. She is also a founding member of the Rocky Mountain Collage Society. Her work has been in many national juried shows and featured in Kolaj Magazine, Watercolor Artist, GV Magazine, Incite-The Best of Mixed Media and on the cover of the UNESCO World Heritage Forest Report for 2011. She shows her work in many venues nationwide and maintains a studio in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her art is in many private and public collections.

Please visit her website at gaylegerson.com to see her artwork and artistic resume.