Aspen Snowmass announces 2023-24 lift ticket art

Aspen Snowmass announced the selection of world-renowned artist Claudia Comte as the 2023-24 lift ticket artist. She is a contemporary artist based in her native Switzerland. She is best known for her larger-than-life, site-specific installations featuring wooden and marble sculptural forms and graphic abstract wall paintings.  

“Through the ski passes, I weave art’s tapestry into the very fabric of mountain adventure, where nature’s serenity dances with the exhilaration of skiing. In the playful embrace of cacti amid snow-kissed slopes, I beckon you to explore the unexpected. Here, I spark reflection on our evolving world and the fragile ecosystems we tread upon,” she said in a statement from Aspen Skiing Co.  

According to a release from Skico, her recent works have explored the relationships between various natural forms of life and how the materials she works with contain both memory and knowledge of the environment, which they belong to. Her work carries an underlying, thought-provoking message on a greater scale with an emphasis on climate change.

---

---

“Challenging your perception, urging you to confront the vast implications of climate change, rendering this collaboration not just visually captivating, but also a profound meditation on the soul of our planet,” adds Comte.  

The 2023-24 lift ticket artwork for Aspen Snowmass will consist of a collection of five of her recent works, focusing on how the environment can be viewed and the way the conditions of our planet modify the materials in every pattern and object.  

---

---

“Having Claudia Comte’s influential artwork as the lift ticket artist for Aspen Snowmass’ Art in Unexpected Places program is a reflection of the caliber of our program,” Paula Crown, representing the ownership team at Aspen Snowmass, said in a prepared statement. “Her art is both methodical, playful, and also focuses on important underlying environmental factors.”  

Now in its 19th consecutive year, Art in Unexpected Places brings revered artists to Aspen to design limited-edition lift tickets, as well as to connect with local and global communities through workshops, lectures, and on-mountain experiences.

In previous years, Aspen Snowmass has featured commissioned works by internationally recognized artists such as FriendsWithYou, Susan Te Kahurangi King, Hank Willis Thomas, Paula Crown, Yutaka Sone, Peter Doig, Karen Kilimnik, Jim Hodges, Carla Klein, Mamma Andersson, Mark Grotjahn, David Shrigley, Mark Bradford, Anne Collier, Takashi Murakami, Laura Owens, Paola Pivi, and Rashid Johnson. The lift ticket art program started as a partnership between the Aspen Art Museum and Aspen Snowmass in 2005.  

About Claudia Comte 

Born in Grancy, Switzerland, in 1983, she is currently based in the countryside outside of Basel, Switzerland. After studying at the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne(ECAL), she earned her Master of Art in Science of Education at Haute Ecole Pédagogique, Visual Arts. Her diverse range of influences include Swiss artists such as Constantin Brancusi and Jean Arp, to popular cartoons like The Simpsons. Comte will often mix natural elements with artificial ones, re-imagining the distinction of what can be considered intellectual and unsophisticated. Text is often incorporated in her paintings in a similar fashion to a comic strip. Her artwork takes on a different lens than what is often associated with minimalism. She is an award-winning artist and has shown her work in many solo and group exhibitions around the world. 

For more about this year’s partnership: aspensnowmass.com/discover/experiences/stories/claudia-comte-art-conversations-surrounding-the-climate-crisis

For more information about Aspen Snowmass’ Lift Ticket Art Program: aspensnowmass.com/discover/arts-and-culture/art-in-unexpected-places/lift-ticket-artwork