Sculptures complete Carbondale’s Gateway Public Art Project

Artists finished installing three large outdoor sculptures on Nov. 7 to complete the Gateway Public Art Project in Carbondale. To complement the five murals painted in late May on the Central Self-Storage development near the intersection of Highways 82 and 133, the new sculptures depict a modern flower, an abstract bronze, and colorful, stacked shipping pallets.

The public art project originated after the town approved a 590-unit self-storage facility along the highway, which some people worried would become an eyesore. The approval included an agreement for the business owners to fund the art pieces and allocate 2% of their gross rental income from the storage units, half of which the town can use for anything that sales taxes contribute to, and half to maintain the public art area.

The town tasked Carbondale Arts with finding artists, installing the works, and maintaining the public art area. Last January, Carbondale Arts called for artists to apply for the public art project. More than 130 artists responded. A committee comprised of community members and the building’s representatives chose artists based on quality of work, ability to execute, and relevance to Carbondale.

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Though Colorado residency wasn’t a requirement, the three sculptors — Leah Aegerter, Chris Erickson, and Brad Reed Nelson — all happen to live in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Aegerter combines digital fabrication techniques with traditional process to create sculptures that explore her relationship with the surrounding landscape. For this project, she designed “The Unmistakable Gesture of Stone,” an armature of steel that holds 3D-printed scans of Red Hill cast in bronze.

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“It has a lot of connection to the landscape,” said Michael Stout, community engagement director for Carbondale Arts.

Skiers and riders might be familiar with one of Erikson’s sculptures, “Melting Gondola,” which sits atop Aspen Mountain, sparking conversation about climate change. For the Gateway project, he generated “Flower Power,” an 8-foot, black-and-white flower made of powder-coated steel. His contemporary works are often characterized by bold colors to encourage viewers to examine color’s relationship to expression and human behavior, but this black-and-white bloom stands out distinctly against the colorful murals.

“It’s a super-high-contrast sculpture that’s visible from the road,” Stout said.

Nelson employs art as a response to the contemporary world and how it interacts with nature. He used shipping pallets, painted in bold colors, as well as copper and gray, to comment on society’s consumerism and attitudes toward workers in other countries.

“You see pallets discarded as waste … (they’re part of) this idea of products being made elsewhere and shipped to the United States. Sometimes people want the goods from these pieces but not the people who made the goods. It brings up questions about geography and immigration,” Stout said. “It speaks to identity and aspects of our community that aren’t just landscape. It depicts the people.”

The three sculptures provide an outdoor gallery for passersby to explore, as they use the new bike and pedestrian path along Highway 133 between the Park-and-Ride and crossing signal at Garcia’s Market. Stout calls the public art display a “true community asset” that increases the vibrancy of Carbondale’s entrance.

“The sculptures create a more enjoyable experience moving through that space and give people a reason to get out of their car and get up close to see the intimate details,” he said. “Land+Shelter (Architecture and Planning) envisioned art as integral to the project from the beginning … it was a way to embrace Carbondale’s identity as a creative place.”

Each mural and sculpture represents different aspects of the community, he said, adding that the completed project acts as a “welcome mat” into town. Carbondale Arts hopes the project sets a precedent for meaningful collaborations with developers and artists to create impactful projects, according to its press release.

“This project sets a great precedent for how we can be proactive about capturing community benefits alongside the growth in our community. It shows that we can create and implement innovative processes for ongoing and sustained funding to support the role of artists in Carbondale,” he said. “Carbondale has long been a testament to the role of the arts in a community. Our work is to provide continued support to ensure that artists have opportunities to share their work and continue to shape the culture and landscape of our community.”