Loving on art in Vail Village

This weekend brings a hat trick of artist exhibitions to Vail Village. With artists in attendance at two galleries (Chris Cantwell at Raitman Art Galleries and DeVon at Gib Singleton Gallery) plus a retrospective opening for Fedor Zakharov at Vail International Gallery, art lovers — or simply the art-curious — are invited to wander in and enjoy.

Fedor Zakharov, Vail International Gallery

By Andy Stonehouse

Fedor Zakharov, an acclaimed artist of the Russian post-war period, has long been championed by Marc LeVarn and Vail International Gallery. The painter’s Impressionistic landscapes are celebrated in a retrospective at the gallery; the opening reception is Saturday, 5-7 p.m.

LeVarn has worked exclusively with Zakharov’s estate to highlight pieces pulled from a period stretching from the 1950s through the late ’80s.

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“Back in the ’90s, the first examples of what we call Russian Impressionism were brought out of the country and shown in the states, and we cultivated our contacts with a dealer who was the first to bring over Zakharov’s paintings, working directly with his widow,” LeVarn said. “But we had a ready audience for this kind of work, especially in the American West and Southwest, as the Western art tradition was a realistic art tradition, much like Zakharov’s work, or other great Russian-born painters who’d come and lived in Santa Fe, most notably Nicolai Fechin and Leon Gaspard.”

That regional, thematic connection has helped Vail International Gallery tap an ongoing appreciation and a sizeable, varied collection of Zakharov’s work. The artist, who lived from 1919 to 1994, was educated in Moscow and received a prestigious local retrospective there in 2019 at the State Tretyakov Gallery.

At the same time, Zakharov’s legacy is also claimed by the Ukraine, as he lived and spent most of his working life in what is now the occupied Crimea and Black Sea area, with most of his art subjects drawn from that still-disputed region. As a result, LeVarn said Zakharov is considered an important artist in both cultures, as well as being a favorite among American collectors.  

“Zakharov was trained classically, in the same way as a Russian dancer or violinist. When you talk about mastery, they have an Old World sense of that term, in that they have accomplished a range of artistic abilities by the time they can call themselves an artist. Within that group of artists, there were still a few who rose above.”

Zakharov is certainly one of the few. The retrospective will be hanging until the end of the month. 

Vail International Gallery, 100 E Meadow Dr, #17, Vail, 970-476-2525, vailgallery.com.

Chris Cantwell, Raitman Art Galleries

By Shauna Farnell

Raitman Art has displayed Chris Cantwell’s intricate wooden sculptures since 2013. While the artist’s work can also be found in the White House, New York’s Museum of Art and Design and the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, the gallery is the sole purveyor of his creations. Meet the artist at the gallery Saturday, 5-9 p.m. and Sunday, 2-7 p.m.

“We hung the show a few days ago and walking into his part of the gallery feels like walking into a different world,” said Brian Raitman. “You get this sense of beautiful, organic, woodsy warmth. He incorporates 300 species of wood and understands it all intimately. He understands how it’s going to react when cut into those little pieces, how they’ll interact with one another.

Cantwell’s love for natural materials stemmed from childhood, observing the world around him while hiking and backpacking with his father. When most kids his age were watching cartoons, he was researching the nuances of tree species.

“At summer camp, there was a badge you could get for identifying trees,” Cantwell said. “At 8 years old, I could go around saying, ‘that’s a yellow pine, that’s a poplar, that’s a maple.’ In junior high, I got introduced to exotic woods in shop class. I fell in love with exotic wood.”

The young boy began creating, collecting various types of wood and building small cabinets, jewelry boxes and sculptures for his grandparents. When he was 12, one of his balsa wood sculptures won the Central California Art League Young Masters Art Competition. In his teens, he started making and selling furniture, cabinets and wood boxes. 

When Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park commissioned a series of wood inlay boxes featuring abstract scenes from the park, he took an intricate mosaic approach. Stacking and connecting dozens of types of woods — sometimes thousands of pieces in one project — he created swirls, streaks and blocks resembling landscapes, waves and shapes. The pieces are incredible, especially in person. Meet the artist at Raitman Art Galleries, 223 Gore Creek Dr, 970-476-4883, raitmanart.com.

DeVon, Gib Singleton Gallery

By Kimberly Nicoletti

A frequent visitor to valley’s gallery scene, pop artist DeVon brings his larger-than-life heroes to Gib Singleton Gallery on Saturday, 4-7 p.m. (The artist was in Beaver Creek at C. Anthony Gallery the day before.)

DeVon’s multilayered collages feature pop culture icons, from Marilyn Monroe and The Beatles to Wonder Woman and Batman. He makes new, and more profound, meaning by collaging images and text from magazines and books, submerging his layers in thick, glossy resin, then often splattering paint or encrusting diamond dust, glitter and jewels on top. The result: a witty celebration of consumer society that tells an emotional story, full of optimism.

“Pop culture is the tip of an iceberg, and what I’m trying to do, especially with a lot of layers, is explore the subconscious material that has buoyed up through pop culture,” DeVon said. “I want to go a little deeper than the surface.”

The archetypes and icons he highlights act as a visual inspiration, almost like a vision board, reflecting the highest version of self.

“We see something like that in our environment, and it inspires us,” he says. “The best that’s in someone else is also in ourselves. Symbols and visual affirmations can be a source of locomotion in your life, and it can also be fun. That’s what breaks the pattern of drudgery so that you can be open to new possibilities. If you can entertain somebody, you can get their attention and speak to their subconscious.”

Meet the artist at Gib Singleton Gallery, 1 Willow Bridge Rd, CS-5, Vail, 970-476-4851, gibsingletongallery.com.