Gallatin River Gallery features encaustic artist Lorri Lagerbloom

Adds new works by metal artist Nolan Salix

By Sarah Gianelli EBS Associate Editor

BIG SKY – A solo exhibition featuring local encaustic artist Lorri Lagerbloom, runs through March 31 at Gallatin River Gallery in Big Sky Town Center.

“Flocking Together” is Lagerbloom’s second solo exhibition at GRG and will showcase her signature bird life as well as new landscapes, all highly textural compositions created out of layers of beeswax, oil pigments, paper, fabric, and other mixed media.

Lagerbloom is endlessly inspired by nature. “I find certain elements in nature that catch my eye and bring me joy over and over again,” she said. “The blue gray color of juniper berries against the snow and their woodsy fragrance. The way snow melts away in perfect circles underneath trees in the winter. The shapes of snowy rock mounds in the river.”

Lagerbloom is a minimalist at heart, always trying to capture the essence of her subject—whether a mountain bluebird or sweeping Montana valley—with the fewest dashes of color and line possible.

The resulting works are impressionistic, but direct in their quiet powerfulness.

“Ultimately what I am trying to get to with both birds and landscapes is bringing a little piece of those immense feelings of awe, peace, and connectedness to everything one feels in nature into one’s living space,” Lagerbloom said.

“Lorri Lagerbloom continues to express her lifelong adoration for landscape and nature in these new works,” said GRG owner Julie Gustafson. “She creates with a tendency towards less-is-more imagery and an intentional unrefined quality. Color and information [are] minimal, yet [her pieces] evoke a sense of quiet and poetry.”

Gustafson is also excited to announce the acquisition of additional works by Dillon, Montana, artist Nolan Salix.

Salix’s subject matter is the industrial landscapes of the West. Working on patinaed copper and stainless steel, often reclaimed from the site itself, Salix’s pieces begin as plein air sketches performed during extensive time spent in the field.

“Fascinated with environmentalism, his pieces are layered with reflection on our impact from production and progress, and controversy,” Gustafson said. “His paintings [also] literally reflect light,” she said, referring to his use of metal “canvases.”

Gallatin River Gallery is located on Ousel Falls Road in Big Sky Town Center. Call (406) 995-2909 or email grg@gallatinrivergallery.com for more information.