Artist Paola Pivi’s polar bear-focused artwork will grace the Aspen Skiing Co.’s 2021-22 lift tickets, the company announced Thursday.

Pivi’s creations are comprised of two installations, “Untitled,” which entails four large-scale sculptures of polar bears, and her “We are the baby gang” installation, featuring six smaller-scale bears. Along with six lift ticket designs, Skico will also feature Pivi’s art installations in Aspen at the Sundeck and in its private mountaintop members club as well as in Snowmass at the Elk Camp restaurant.

The partnership marks the 17th year of contemporary artists lending or creating work for Aspen’s passes. The program, long part of the Aspen Art Museum’s “Art in Unexpected Places” initiative, has been rebranded “ArtUP” by the Skico for this season. The Skico-museum partnership ran from 2005 to 2017, after which artists have been chosen internally with direction from artist Paula Crown, whose family owns the company and whose work was featured on passes for the 2017-18 season.

To create both the lift ticket art and the on-mountain installations, Pivi worked with a taxidermist to design bears, which are covered in multi-colored feathers, in charming and uncannily human-like positions, according the the announcement.

Pivi’s inspiration for the lift ticket art and in-resort installations draws upon the call to action to breakdown division and separation between humanity and nature, according to the announcement.

“Introducing the whimsical and thought-provoking art of Paola Pivi to the slopes of Aspen Snowmass is timely,” Paula Crown said in the announcement. “Art’s superpower is its ability to connect and heal. Paola Pivi’s work brings joy, as well as a new framework through which viewers understand our four-legged friends and our shared environment.”

Pivi’s “Untitled” and “We are the baby gang” designs and concepts will also be featured on limited collection Aspen Snowmass merchandise including apparel and accessories, to be sold at select Four Mountain Sports retail shops in downtown Aspen and at the base of each mountain.

The lift ticket program has previously featured commissioned works by internationally recognized artists such as FriendsWithYou — who last season also made a light installation on gondola plaza — Susan Te Kahurangi King, Hank Willis Thomas, Yutaka Sone, Peter Doig, Karen Kilimnik, Jim Hodges, Carla Klein, Mamma Andersson, Mark Grotjahn, David Shrigley, Mark Bradford, Anne Collier, Takashi Murakami, Laura Owens and Paula Crown.

atravers@aspentimes.com