Altamira Fine Art in Jackson Hole, WY is pleased to present a new exhibition for Bradford Overton, July 30- August 13, 2024.
Please join us for the Artist Reception Thursday, August 1st from 5-7pm and meet the artist.
“You must be completely true to you. That’s what my paintings are about: they are intense little gems about doing what you want. I want them to convey the sense of freedom in the West. That’s where the romance is: we completely love the adventure of the West.” -Bradford Overton
Collected Works, New Paintings and Ruminations
In his paintings, Overton considers play in context. True to his roots, he explores the historic and cultural conditions coursing through his birthplace of the American West. Raised in Utah, he has lived the realities of the romance: riding horses, running free through the landscape. Every painting he produces centers on this core ethos of adventure.
With technically masterful attention to detail, Overton renders a naturalistic depiction of his subjects. The vintage toys he paints are made of lead – chipped, petite but solid, and jewel-like; originally manufactured, molded and painted on an assembly line by hand by factory workers. With misaligned paint-jobs and obvious casting mold seams, these forgotten objects reemerge under Overton’s eye with the child-like levity and metaphysicality intended from the bygone curio. "This new group of paintings represent some of the most thoughtful vignettes I’ve arranged using my favorite pre-war American, Japanese and British lead toys in my 600 plus collection." says Bradford. "The new body of work is focused on the poetic. I’m looking to allow open ended narratives into the paintings. For example, in Night Moves; a star has fallen, the tape that held it in the sky is comically still on the canvas and it has been caught in the paper water, where our protagonist finds it. What now? What does the star represent? It’s a dreamlike image and open to interpretation."
Some paintings are laced with humor. Some reference history, personal or panoramic. Others gesture at mystery and the sublime. As he paints, he layers on story-lines, complex plots that get distilled into resolved scenes as genuine as they are luminous.
Bradford Overton is a Salt Lake City, UT based artist with a prolific career, exhibiting multiple bodies of artwork for over two decades. Overton has exhibited in galleries and museums across the US and is included in many private, corporate, and public institutions and collections. He has shown in the Springville Museum of Fine Art, University of Utah Museum of Art as well as included in the corporate collection of the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas and collections of the University of Utah Art Department. Overton has had feature articles in national publications such as Western Art and Architecture, American Art Collector and Southwest Art magazines.
Pre-sales available. Contact the gallery for details, (307) 739-4700, connect@altamiraart.com.
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