Category: Exhibitions

A collaborative project by Schoph + Jamie Lynn

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 31st, 2019
7-11pm

Exhibition: January 31st- March 2nd, 2019

“Cut From the Same Cloth” – (idiomatic, of two or more persons or things, Very similar; possessing many of the same fundamental characteristics)

An art show brought to you by 1910 – the collaborative works of Jamie M. Lynn and Schoph Schofield.

Working together under the name 1910, Schoph and Jamie bring a showcase selection of the past years works .The collaborative work of the pair go hand in hand and together, or apart, they have one of the most recognizable styles in the snow industry today.

Through all the creative material being forged on the daily, Jamie Lynn strikes a chord throughout the industry. His legendary status and decades working alongside Lib Tech, Vans, Volcom and Dragon has produced some of the most iconic / famed artworks in the snow world. Inspiring and laying down a path for generations to come.

Over the past few years Jamie teamed up with close friend and renowned global artist Schoph. Yorkshire, UK born, a polarizing figure in the snow and skate scene and today is more influential for the snowboard art community than just about any other artist out there, curating group shows bringing industry artists together, along with producing years of work for mutual long standing benefactors Lib Tech, Vans , Volcom, and Dragon to name a few.

Schoph’s distinct bold style compliments Lynn’s as they go back and forth. The two are equal parts creative as they are elusive and mystifying, an unstoppable force where their works are concerned.

Together they are 1910, two mates having a good time all the time, showcasing creativity and having an opportunity to share the good times through artistic endeavors to like-minded individuals. They both welcome you to “Cut from the same cloth”, a selection of works of originals and print”.

Photo Credit – Amanda Tipton Photography

re: mix
Paintings by Cymon Padilla

Opening Reception: December 1st, 2018 7pm-11pm

Exhibition: December 1st, 2018 – January 26th, 2019

Leon is excited to present the first solo exhibition of Cymon Padilla’s paintings in Denver, CO. Cymon’s work exudes an irreverent and giddy wit, through the sampling of iconic images that span multiple centuries, while also invoking modern day pop culture. Diverse and dissonant elements are distilled into lean, impactful compositions, which themselves reference various artistic movements such as Dada collage, AbEx formalism, Surrealism, or Pop Art illustration, then morphed by the technological tools of computerized manipulation.

Artist Statement

My current body of work aims to fuse disparate elements of our shared visual culture, whether seen through screens connected to vacuum tubes, the pixels on a phone, or the pages of an art history book. Using traditional oil painting techniques to represent collage, digital manipulation, and trompe l’oeil, I combine, collapse, and remix the imitated world onto the flat surface of the picture plane, mashing classical European figurative work with the golden age of Disney, Saturday morning cartoons, pop art, and vintage advertisement.

Bio

Cymon Padilla was born in Colorado Springs in 1983. He received his Associate of Arts from Pikes Peak Community College in 2012, and has shown his work regionally ever since. When not at his day job or in the studio, Cymon spends much of his time wondering what his dog is thinking.

IG: @cymonpadilla

June 16th – July 28th, 2018

Paintings by Patrick Wilkins

Fresh from a successful group exhibition at Chicago’s Heaven Gallery, Patrick Wilkins, a recent MFA recipient in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will be mounting his first solo exhibition at Leon on June 16th, 2018.

The exhibition will run for six weeks from June 16th, through July 28th, 2018, and will feature a wide variety of paintings created by the artist over the past two years. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, June 16th, from 7-11pm.

The focus of Wilkins’ work is the expression of stress and anxiety that comes from leading two very different lives: holding down blue collar jobs and being a painter. Wilkins utilizes a formal painting language and cartoon imagery to create and unstable cacophony of patterns, colors, and marks. Adding to the compositions, he collages found objects, drawings, and craft materials into his work. The results have a bright and playful façade that upon further inspection reveals a contradictory critical content. Although the final result may be seen as a compromise, there is both a clashing discordance and a unifying harmony to be found in his deft balancing act.

Patrick Wilkins was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. He earned his BA in Painting and Printmaking at Purdue University, and his MFA in Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently lives and paints in Chicago, Illinois.

Photo Credit: Amanda Tipton Photography

Travis Hetman’s Tom Waits Tuesdays – a limited edition print release

Tuesday, June 5th, 2018 – Tuesday, June 12th, 2018

Opening Reception – Tuesday, June 5th, 2018 5pm – 10pm

35 different prints in editions of seven.

Edition #1 of 7 of all 35 drawings are gathered together into a one-of-a-kind comprehensive collector’s edition portfolio – $2,000

Edition #2 of 7 of all 35 drawings are available as framed prints for $100 each.

Editions #3 through #7 are available as unframed prints for $50 each.

The music that spans across the years of Tom Waits’ career creates a labyrinth that I’ve come to be pleasantly lost inside while making art. There is an almost bottomless well of little poetic moments that beg to be illustrated and expanded upon.

For the pure joy of it I began posting drawings on the occasional Tuesday on my Instagram. The images were undoubtedly drenched in the stuff of particular Waits tunes, and it quickly became a tradition known as “Tom Waits Tuesday.” In a first-come-first-served style the original drawings were all posted, sold, and shipped to their various destinations. It only felt right to perhaps drop the needle on some vinyl, pack them all together into the proverbial station wagon, and head to Leon!

And so now, the entire collection gathered together here, and on view as one big happy family, all of the thirty-five Tom Waits Tuesdays original drawings are now released as limited edition prints. Get them while you can. When these numbered and signed limited edition prints are gone, that’s it, you’re SOL.

– Travis Hetman

All Photograpy by Amanda Tipton

Artist Statement

I am the last of the fast vanishing nomadic Mongol ethnicity.

I am a Mongolian American cross-disciplinary artist merging visual art and film, born on the vast steppes of Mongolia. I grew up in societies of parallel cultural and political/societal dysfunction having been raised in Hungary and immigrating to the United States with my family at the age of 8.

My identity as a first generation Mongolian American migrant allows a life of duality where opposing values and norms of Eastern and Western spiritual and social traditions constantly clash and fuse – creating a marginal periphery of absent power origin. My ever-revolving dual identity as a first generation Mongolian American nomadic voyeur profoundly shapes my artistic process. I am interested in expressing the embattled emotional middle space of the marginal human devoid of identity. I seek to explore the conflicting psycho-spiritual, cultural and disjointed effects of globalization on marginalized identities with attention to woman’s issues; one who perpetually lives both in war and peace within two worlds, in both of which more or less a stranger.

My work is about history and tradition, identity censorship, mythology, folklore, dreams, spirituality, death, and nature set in contemplative scenarios that transform into symbolic allegories for socio-political issues. Within these (psychological mind) spaces, where the fragments of memory, dreams, and the residues of formative experience intermingle with contemporary mythology – I present a space for the renegotiation of identity and the realignment of desire. By revealing the strange and curious inner-workings of the human condition, I aim to examine the fluctuating operations of human identity, desire, horror, wonder and fantasy.

My artistic process derives from a balance of intuitive and concept driven method of experimental creation. In my drawings, I seek to create visual tension through automatic and intended mark making. I like to fuse binary concepts and techniques of representation, from contrasting languages of wet and dry textures, precision and chaos, into stimulatory layers as to create conceptual proximity between forces of opposition and displacement.

I experience my artistic production as an act of creative play between subject and object, and aim for a convulsive spontaneity in the journey of their creation. Similarly, I express my ideas and concepts through cross-disciplinary mediums of painting, writing, installation, multimedia and filmmaking.

My art acts as a transparent extension to my life and my perpetual search to identify and empower through the power of empathy and inspiration.

Artist Bio

Eriko Tsogo is a Mongolian American visual artist and filmmaker born on the steppes of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Eriko grew up in Budapest, Hungary and immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 8. She is an alumni of Denver School of the Arts, having attained her B.F.A (2012) from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Tufts University. She currently lives and works between the paradigm spheres of Colorado, California and mindscape Mongolia.

Eriko is represented by Leon Gallery in Denver. She has had numerous art shows throughout the United States. In her alter life; she divides her time between her art practice and working as an inter-cultural arts administration professional at the Mongolian Culture and Heritage Center of Colorado. She is also a published author, and the founder/designer of “HiliteDreamer” contemporary unisex apparel collection. She is currently in process of completing her first international documentary animation film project, due to release in 2019.

Eriko’s art explores the conflicting psycho-spiritual, cultural and gender specific embattled emotional middle space of the marginalized identity; one who perpetually lives both in war and peace within two worlds, in both of which more or less a stranger. Her work is influenced by her dual identity as a first generation Mongolian American where opposing values and norms of Eastern and Western spiritual and social traditions constantly clash and fuse – creating a marginal periphery of absent power origin.

She utilizes mediums of drawing, painting, writing, performance, and multimedia as confessional means to shed light on her experiences of insight recollected from living on the margins. She likes to fuse binary concepts and techniques of representation; from contrasting languages of wet and dry textures, precision and chaos into stimulatory juxtaposing layers as to create conceptual proximity between forces of opposition and displacement.

Forrest J. Morrison
*Subject to Non-Renewal
May 6th – June 3rd, 2017
Artist Statement:
/Subject To Non-Renewal/ is an exploration of contemporary western identity in still life. Borrowing from the western aesthetic and themes, Morrison addresses the commodification of Nature using found and staged natural elements to draw broader metaphors for contemporary cultural norms. In the same way that Morrison’s technical ability allows him to convey depth, detail and light, his wit and confronting nature as an artist allows him to poignantly poke at the consumers and socially obsessed selfie-takers in all of us.
Artist Bio:
Forrest J. Morrison is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist and native Coloradan specializing in project-based, public, and studio arts. Morrison is an outspoken advocate for the arts, serving as Vice President of Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe and advisor to Colorado Attorneys For The Arts. Morrison’s artistic practice spans styles including Minimalism, Western, and Realism. His work has been included in numerous group and juried exhibitions, and has been featured in Denver Post, Modern In Denver Magazine, Black & White Magazine, and PX3 Paris, France. His recent public works include mural commissions for Denver Arts & Venues, Denver Housing Authority, and the Curtis Hotel.
Photo Credit: Amanda Tipton

SKINs

March 11th – April 8th, 2017

A MoP Featured Exhibition

SKINs, is an photographic exploration of the complexities of American Culture in the 21st Century. The idealization of the body is examined physically and metaphorically through play, lighting and process. Inspired by organic colors and textures that environmental weathering create during the aging process, gender, career, culture, ethnicity, age and class all disappear revealing the one constant, autonomy.

Tya Alisa Anthony is afine artistexploring identity through photography + mixed media. Anthony received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 2015, honored as Valedictorian, from Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. Her collected, altered and own photographs are confronted as aesthetically resilient & thematically interrelated material. Anthony is currently investigating the effects of time, loss & the human condition. With the aid of analogue photography combined with current digital technology, Tya Alisa Anthony approaches a wide scale of social, political and environmental subjects. Presently, Anthony lives and works in the city of Denver, producing photography editorials & fine art installations for both commissions and exhibition.

Anthony’s use of costuming communicates a vision of an imagined self. Her self-portraits reflect and evolution of cultural beliefs enhanced by mythology, cinema, culture and Art History.  Anthony is often inspired by childhood memories and her extensive imagination.

In collaboration with phenomenal artist, Thomas “Detour” Evans, and Dr Paul Hamilton of Denver CO,  Anthonycontributed photographic and documentary work to They Still Live, an exploration of the African Diaspora in the Western World. Each African American participant received a genetic DNA test to gather and reveal their detailed heritage information. The outcome of genetic testing was followed by a PBS documentary and an exhibit held at Redline Art Center of Denver.

As a developing documentary producer herself, Anthony has collaborated with natural lifestyle contributors, Colorado Urban Naturals, creating The Art of Being Natural. Participants living organically through nutrition and personal hair style were photographed and interviewed expressing their chosen lifestyle of refraining from the use of dangerous, yet common, chemicals, products and processed foods.

“I create visual personifications of identity narratives through photography, drawing and mixed media.  I explore the gaps of knowledge of my own heritage with vivid imagery addressing a once declared chameleon identity.  I compile diverse narratives to explore the idea of multiplicity and the OTHER.  I have found through experimentation and exploration, the foundation of individuality remains the same. I further investigate variations and manipulation of Identity by studying belief structures, an individual’s formative years, familial influence and origin. Inevitably, our environment and these imposed structures inform our identity. I am most interested in metaphoric masks worn as protection and representation of Identity”

In 2011, Anthony, released a coffee table book entitled “Her Art & Soul” accompanied by solo Photography exhibit, “Dark to Light: Being Human,” A Black and White Multi Media portrait collection, hosted by The Living Well of Baltimore MD.

Photo Credit (installation shots) Amanda Tipton

Pricing:

13 X 19 (open edition) $200

18 X 24 (open edition) $325

24 X 36 (edition of 30) $500

36 X 48 (edition of 15) $750

48 x 72 (edition of 5) $1200

Canvases $600

Michael Dowling

You Already Know How This Will End

January 28th – March 4th, 2017

Artist Statement

I draw and paint on paper and canvas.  I approach my work in a visual sense from a classical side.  I am interested in the strength of the visual aspects of art from previous times and how and why that look can have impact in our time.  I approach my work with elements of the classical and the techniques learned while studying in Italy.  That historical approach gives my work a look of the historical blended with subject matter of the hypermodern.  

I work primarily in charcoal and oil paint while employing any medium that might challenge me to step away from my safe and practiced modes.  I often work with spray paint and gold leaf both because they are somewhat unpredictable in my approach and because they introduce a range of color that makes me just a little nervous.  I have a disciplined approach to drawing, giving myself assignments to complete a number of works within a time frame.  That approach does double duty in using and expanding my technical skill while also pushing my creative approaches.  In producing a small volume of drawings one after another, I am compelled to challenge my compositional structures, disrupt my imagery, and explore my subject from unexpected angles.  My paintings similar to my drawings have the elements of classical approach, starting with drawing and layering paint to arrive at the image.  In the process of painting, each layer has an opportunity to step away from the picture or the natural image.  I often start with imagery referencing art history and begin to adjust the content to give it voice in our current time.

I allow myself to explore greatly with my work and let it inform me of meaning and content as much as possible.  There are several themes that emerge throughout.  At the core of my work is a great curiosity about stories that seem to repeat throughout lore and religion, with slightly different characters but otherwise strangely consistent.  The stories behind each piece often have a sense of icon that fits somehow with my slightly euro-western motifs.  Much of my recent work responds to a need to wreck the image with marks that are artistic only, eraser marks and blacked out areas that I like to refer to as redaction.  In creating my characters and icons then blocking them from view, I believe I’m trying to ask each viewer to plug themselves into the missing information or complete the story of the piece for themselves.  I think that I hope their stories might be even more bizarre than my own.

In ‘You Already Know How This Will End’ , opening on January 28 at Leon Gallery in Denver, I have begun to work in a greater range of materials and styles.  I am making separate artworks that interact with each other and working with sculptural materials as well as found items. The show itself is my look into relationships be they personal, interpersonal, or broader in scope.  Within that search I keep largely focused on my combination of the general ideas that inform my work and continue to allow the work to inform me as it comes together.

Artist Bio

Michael Dowling was born in Denver in 1972 and grew up in Colorado.  He began drawing at a very young age but didn’t begin to study formally until the age of 24.  After several years of study in studio practices, Michael sold the business he owned and moved to Florence Italy to focus on making art and expanding his skill.  He completed his studies at Il Instituto de Art, Scuola Lorenzo de Medici in 2002 with focuses in studio practice and contemporary theory. While in Florence, Michael studied under the duo Rosenclaire (Rose Shakinovski & Claire Gavronsky) who continue to be his mentors and advisors.

In 2003, Michael moved back to his native Denver and married his childhood sweetheart.  They now have three children and drink wine constantly.

Michael shows nationally and is represented in Colorado, California, Miami, New York, and Montreal.  His work is in numerous private and public collections throughout the US and Europe.

Best of Show Drawing, Uptown Art Fair 2015 Minneapolis, MN

Best of the Best, Uptown Art Fair, 2015 Minneapolis, MN

Best of Westword, Contemporary Realism, 2015 Denver, CO

Top 20 Artists to watch, LA Art Show, Huffington Post 2015

Photo Credit : Amanda Tipton