Altamira Fine Art Jackson is pleased to present a new exhibition for Dennis Ziemienski, July 2-16, 2024.
Please join us for the Artist Reception Thursday, July 4th from 5-8pm and meet the artist.
“Every day there is potential for a beautiful sky or sunrise that makes me want to paint it. I constantly want to be learning and growing as an artist. I get motivated when I travel and see new landscapes or interesting faces I want to put on the canvas.” -Dennis Ziemienski
In the Clouds
To make a strong painting, composition is essential. With training as an illustrator and a background in graphic design, no one knows this better than Dennis Ziemienski. “I love the process of design, it's like building a puzzle of my ideas. For instance, I may start with a beautiful cloud and landscape from my photos, and then hire a model to pose for me. If I happen to be around horses, then I will use them as models too!” As for why he is drawn to western subject matter in particular, he says, “ It's all around me. I grew up in the West. Coming to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone for the last many years has exposed me to a wealth of inspiration whether it be the mountains, the valleys, the wildlife, geysers or the people. All of this informs my work.”
An avid collector of vintage European travel posters (among other modes of visual memorabilia), Dennis Ziemienski assembles elements that evoke bygone memories as well as future discoveries. “Perhaps I’m making up for eras I missed,” he says. In his humility, the artist does more than tap nostalgia; he inspires connection. For instance, he set most of his new paintings within the Greater Yellowstone area, with an emphasis on dramatic skies, which makes each work an invitation for Altamira’s collectors to visually manifest their emotional and experiential adoration of place.
The emphasis on clouds in this new body of work is inspired by his unbridled joy in observing and painting them, “One thing that is surprising, the artist says, “is just how much I still enjoy painting them. I have thousands of cloud photos that I have taken over the years and I still get excited when I look at them.”
Dennis Ziemienski was born in San Francisco, CA and graduated cum laude from the California College of Arts & Crafts in 1972. “Growing up in California and taking car trips with my family allowed me to see a lot of this classic imagery. By the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, I noticed much of it was starting to fade away. All of the things I witnessed then started to make me think that someday I would like to record those things. So now I am.”, says the artist. Ziemienski has work in the permanent collection of the Tucson Art Museum, Bakersfield Museum of Art, The Booth Western Art Museum and the Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, among others.
Pre-sales available. Contact the gallery for details, (307) 739-4700, connect@altamiraart.com.
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