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Jackson Hole News and Guide

by Tibby Plasse

The amount of color hanging in Diehl Gallery — 60 works of art from 16 artists — more than justifies the name of the sixth annual holiday show: “Bright and Beautiful.”

“We seem to have a love for color,” gallery owner Mariam Diehl said. “We’ve got some beautiful gold works by Takefumi Hori that paired beautifully with gold-leaf birds by Jeremy Houghton. And we have an abundance of contemporary elk.”

In some areas of the gallery, viewers will find pieces by a single artist. In others, Diehl has grouped artists together to create aesthetically dynamic pairings.

“The combination of new work by Anastasia Kimmett and Heather Zusman is particularly exciting,” she said. “We hope that these groupings will inspire collectors to think about curation in their own homes as well as enjoying the work in the gallery setting,”

Almost all of the work in the exhibition is new and came in specifically for the show. Diehl is excited to finally be debuting Wendy Klemperer’s work.

“She’s new with us,” she said, “and after being in talks with her for two or three years, we’re thrilled to have her work in the gallery. We’re also gearing up for a solo exhibition of her larger scale work next summer.”

Diehl Gallery isn’t known for traditional Western or wildlife art. Its aim has always been to step outside the mold and offer more contemporary animal art.

“To that end, artists like the Kollabs team of Anke Schofield and Luis Garcia-Nerey fit perfectly here,” Diehl said. “Their larger-than-life bison head, which is a tip of the hat to the idea of a taxidermized bison mount one might find in a Western home, is comprised of photography, roofing tar, paint and text. It’s so vividly contemporary that it breaks the mold of ‘wildlife art’ as it’s traditionally been exhibited in places like Jackson Hole.”

Similarly, Juan Carlos Collada uses butterflies made from hand-painted feathers and crafted into abstract or geometric shapes that don’t fit the traditional Audubon style.

Zusman, who works with wood, is another new artist Diehl is looking forward to sharing with patrons.

“The sinuous, lyrical shapes of her pieces, while contemporary, fit in with the organic tone of many of our other artists,” she said.

2022 has been the gallery’s most successful year to date, Diehl said.

“In spite of the hardships that 2020 and COVID presented for many galleries and the art world in general, it was actually quite successful for us,” she said. “It seems to have headed us in an upward trajectory, and we’ve gained significant traction with new clients both domestically and internationally.”

Celebrating that success will be part of this week’s art party and opening reception, which, in addition to art, art fans, good food and festive drinks, will include live music from the Chanman Trio.

“I ran into Chanman when he was playing at the brewery in Alpine this past summer,” Diehl said, “and we chatted about him playing in the gallery. The holiday show seemed like the perfect opportunity to make that happen. It will be a fun evening. We always see lots of our regular clients and a good number of new faces — visitors and locals alike.”

Other artists in this year’s “Bright & Beautiful VI” Holiday Show include Helen Durant, Susan Goldsmith, Kate Hunt, Robert Mars, Ray Phillips, Chris Reilly, Jason Rohlf, Douglas Schneider, John Simms, Hunt Slonem and Les Thomas, with a wide range of mediums from painting and sculpture to neon and mixed media.