Wild & Scenic Art
Art Inspiring Environmental Activism
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival, in collaboration with Nevada County Arts, presented environmentally-themed artwork for the 18th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City and Grass Valley, CA.
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival’s art exhibition was presented in local galleries and businesses in downtown Nevada City and Grass Valley (a California state-designated Cultural District). Selected artists will have the opportunity to exhibit their work for audiences including filmmakers, social activists, environmental leaders, and more than 8,000 festival attendees.
Throughout the Festival, juried art was viewed at venues in both Grass Valley and Nevada City. Guests were able to meet the artists during the Art Strolls in our twin cities, home to more than 100 arts-related organizations producing upwards of a thousand events a year, scores of annual festivals, street fairs, art walks and studio tours, and a generous base of artists and makers. All this and much more is happening in the Grass Valley-Nevada City Cultural District, designated by California Arts Council as one of 14 cultural districts for our thriving cultural diversity and unique artistic identities within California.
Congratulations to our 2020 Selected Artists!
Kian Berreman, Chad Brown, Ian Callahan, Jessica Darke, Kerik Kouklis, Karin Rosenthal, Dave Weixelman, Jude Bischoff, Ellen Davis, Eric Dunn, Linda Galusha, Henry Goodman, Jenny Hale, Kial James, Kirk Keeler, Mary Kober, Gail Lipson, Betsy Lombard, Amee Medeiros, Rod Mullen, Leah Newton, Jori Phillips, Rachel Rosenthal, John Seivert, Steve Solinsky, San Juan Ridge Tapestry Project, Kathy Triolo, Bill Wages, Chelsea Weisel, Jim Wilson, Peggy Wright, Frank Francis, Stephanie Dardon, Katie Hengesbach, Kayla Larsen, Robert Lee, LeeAnn Brook, Mike Snegg, Mark Wilcox, Forest Aliya, June Anderson, Molly Jochem, Erin Noel, Kelly Sinclair, Rick Aeschliman, Gary Anawalt, Jim Bair, Don Baldwin, Will Barber, Asja Eckertson, Sylviane Gaumer-Giacoletto, Bill Jacobson, Michelle Jewett, Jeff Litton, Marianne Reger, Jennifer Rugge, Michael Shea, Julian Steinberg, Andie Thrams, Leslie Whitcomb, David McKay, Jeff Pleadwell, Elana Gabrielle, Dick Stoakes, Anya Tuton, Vlatka Varga, Holly Tornheim
This year are lucky to have not one but two featured artists: Forest Aliya & Obi Kaufmann
Forest Aliya
Forest Aliya is an abstract landscape artist residing in Nevada City, CA. She creates work from a liminal space informed by an understanding of the connection between Earth and all living things. “Trees Speak” (acrylic on paper) is a response to the Camp Fire in 2018. The piece is a contemplation on how light and sound work together along with the elements of nature. View “Trees Speak” at Kitkitdizzi, 219 Broad Street, Nevada City and hear from the artist during the Nevada City Art Stroll, Friday, January 17, 4 – 6pm.
Obi Kaufmann
Poet, painter, and naturalist Obi Kaufmann blends science and art to illuminate the multifaceted array of the natural world, forming a uniquely elemental narrative based on the shaping forces of earth, air, fire, and water. His beautiful work is an inspiration for our 2020 Festival theme: (Re)generation and graces our 2020 Official Festival poster. Watch Obi at work, drawing and painting at Gallery 125, 421 Broad Street, Nevada City on Saturday, January 18, 12 – 3pm. Sponsored by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., who will be pouring beer tastings in the gallery, the resulting work will be available for purchase in our Auction, closing at 7pm in the Miners Foundry.
Selected artists are eligible for honors awarded by our 2020 Art Judges:
William L. Fox, Director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada, has variously been called an art critic, science writer, and cultural geographer. He has published sixteen books on cognition, art, and landscape, more than a hundred essays in art monographs, magazines, and journals, and fifteen collections of poetry. Fox has researched and written books set in the Antarctic, the Arctic, the Himalaya, and the deserts of Chile, Australia, and the United States. He is a fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and Explorers Club, and recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Science Foundation. He has been a visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute, the Clark Art Institute, the Australian National University, the National Museum of Australia, and the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Read more…
Michael Llewellyn is an award-winning editorial and advertising photographer specializing in environmental portraiture and photo-illustration. He creates uniquely iconographic imagety through his extensive experience in composition, lighting, compositing, and lithogrpahy printing. Based in Grass Valley, Llewellyn’s current project, FOREST ⇌ FIRE, is an interdisciplinary, multi-sensory, interpretive installation scheduled to debut in October 2020 in Truckee, California. Read more …
Ruth Chase is a multimedia artist whose work engages and activates community bridge building. Born and raised in Venice, CA in 2017 Ruth completed the West of Lincoln Project. West of Lincoln was about Venice and was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles for Art in Action, as well as a grant to an individual artist from the Carl Jacobs Foundation. She was granted a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts in NY, was published in Professional Artist Magazine, Catapult Art Magazine and Huffington Post, and has taught at the Crocker Art Museum. Ruth was a featured sketch artist on the Dead Files TV program, was awarded an Artist in Residence at Nevada County Arts for Artist Activating Communities through a grant from the California Arts Council for BELONGING, I AM HERe, and most recently HOME. Ruth is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute. Read more…
In Partnership With:
