Art Spotlight: Aspen Art Museum

Opened as the “Aspen Center for the Visual Arts” in 1979, the museum was officially accredited as the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) in 1984. The AAM is an admission-free, globally engaged contemporary art museum with community, education and member programs that provide ever- changing onsite and online exhibitions, workshops and events. The experience begins when you first see the AAM’s downtown building designed by 2014 Pritzker Prize for Architecture winner Shigeru Ban. In 2017, the facility was recognized among the American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards for “best contemporary architecture.”

Under museum Director NicolaLees, the museum’s future builds on Aspen’s history and the legacy of such visiting 20th-century artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenberg, Bruce Nauman, Christo & Jeanne- Claude, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Aspen resident artist/designer Herbert Bayer. The AAM places education, collaboration and community at theheart of its programming, and, withthe input of artists across the ecologyof the artworld, hosts site-specific commissions, exhibitions, and educational and public programs that respond to Aspen, the Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado’s Western Slope and beyond.

This summer the AAM is very pleased to host an exhibition of new paintings by American artist Cy Gavin in hisfirst U.S. solo museum presentation (through July 11, 2021). From July 27 through September 12, the museum presents the paintings of American artist Shara Hughes and, beginning June 10, hosts the work of Welsh conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans. The artist’s “Aspen Drift” includes new and recent sculpture, installation, painting, and works on paper and is Evans’ first US museum presentation in over 17 years (through October 10, 2021).

A major installation commission by poet/artist Precious Okoyomon also opens June 10 and continues until September 18, 2022. It will include sculpture and organic matter to embody a garden based on the themes of pleasure, abundance and desire. Their first U.S. solo museum exhibition, the installation involves collaborations with Anderson Ranch Arts Center, musicians creating soundtracks to follow the changing seasons, and other artists, poets, performers, filmmakers and more, who will activate the environment at various points over the 15-month project.

Don’t miss SO café, overlooking the museum’s Level 3 Sculpture Garden, which is among town’s most popular indoor/outdoor daytime dining experiences, complete with views of Ajax Mountain.