Dennis Ziemienski „Western Vacation“ 2021

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Glamour, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, refers to a magically beautiful person or object with alluring charm. After more than a year of domestic isolation, every excursion, no matter how mundane, feels a bit glamorous. Not to mention truly glamorous outings like adventuring in the Tetons. Ever positive, Dennis Ziemienski places a joyful cast of characters in scenes that feel simultaneously nostalgic and suddenly glamorous, such as flying above the vertical expanse of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort on a chairlift or standing gleefully in the saddle of a galloping Appaloosa. His new series of work, largely set in Wyoming, will appear from June 20 to July 3 at Altamira Fine Art.

Drawing on his professional background as an illustrator, the artist imagines layered compositions rich with resonant details, like the wicker creel carried by a fashionable angler donning retro bathing shorts and a scarf-enshrouded bob. “The pictures I’m inventing will hopefully bring people back to places they love for further enjoyment,” he says. “They keep a positive attitude toward things we miss.”

An avid collector of vintage European travel posters (among other modes of visual memorabilia), Ziemienski assembles elements that evoke bygone memories as well as future discoveries. “Perhaps I’m making up for eras I missed,” he says. In his humility, the artist does more than tap nostalgia; he inspires connection. For instance, he set most of his new paintings within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which makes each work an invitation for Altamira’s collectors to visually manifest their emotional and experiential adoration of place.

The lone outlier—a painting of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park—underscores the accessible glamour of visiting national parks. Ziemienski imagines the quietude of sitting on the shadowed bank of the Merced River as the last light of the day casts the granite landmark in sherbet tones. “That would be a glamorous moment, wouldn’t it?” he says. “These days, the very act of getting out feels glamorous.”

Western Vacation
June 22 – July 3, 2021
Altamira Fine Art Jackson Hole