Installation photography, Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2023, Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum; Photos by Albert Ting
“Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea,” is an enthralling survey of 48 modern and contemporary artists at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the final stop on a two-and-a-half-year tour. By turns serene and harrowing, the West here brims with life. In one canvas, Michael Brophy’s Beaver Trade, a sky of muted blues, ashy purples and flamingo pinks is broken by a totem pole scarred with tendril-like footprints. In a photograph, from Christina Fernandez’s series Maria’s Great Expedition, a woman stands, slumped-shouldered, before a teal wall and rusting stove. Her gaze is unnerving. “I’m here,” she seems to say. “I always have been.”
-Angelica Aboulhosn
FROELICK GALLERY artists featured in “Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea” include: Rick Bartow, V. Maldonado, and Gail Tremblay.
