Artist Profile:

Marc Swanson

The Brooklyn-based artist was born in Connecticut and the son of a U.S. Marine. When he moved to San Francisco in the ‘90s, Swanson was surrounded by the city’s gay and counterculture scene. Neither environment -- small-town, wooded New England nor San Francisco’s flamboyant gay pride -- felt like home to him, and he confronts this duality of identities in his work.

On display through April 25 at the Baldwin Gallery, his crystal-covered deer head sculptures embrace the conflicting nature of masculine identities that he was feeling at the time.

More generally, Swanson is a contemporary American artist who is known for his handmade work that brings together formal preoccupations and references to personal history and identity conflict. He works in a variety of media, including sculpture, drawing, video, photography, and complex installations. In addition to the series of rhinestone-based sculptures, which he continues to explore, his sculptural work employs a variety of materials, including light, wood, glass, fabric, gold and silver chain, mirror, and naturally-shed animal antlers.

Swanson is a graduate of Bard College, and his works have been part of group exhibitions at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Miami Art Museum; and the Saatchi Gallery, London.

“The Gilded Cage” perfectly demonstrates the struggles Swanson feels between his past and future. Furthermore, the struggles that Aspen sometimes faces -- preservation versus progress -- are also reflected in his pieces, making the Baldwin Gallery’s show particularly relevant to this time and place.

If you go: Baldwin Gallery, 209 S. Galena St. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, 12-5 p.m. baldwingallery.com.

Artist Profile:

Marilyn Minter

Though we are quite secluded in Aspen – far from the hustle and bustle of New York or L.A – it pleases me to know that we are not, however, too far removed from some of the greatest artists of our time, including my friend Marilyn Minter (www.marilynminter.net).

Represented here in Aspen by the Baldwin Gallery, with whom I work closely for my clients,  Marilyn Minter (born 1948) is an American artist currently living and working in New York City and one of the most engaging photographer / painter I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

An aspect I admire the most about Marilyn’s photography is that her photographs are most often not altered in any way – leaving a raw, exposed image of the life around us to consume as is. No magic.

BIO

Marilyn Minter has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2005, the Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, Les Rencontres d’Arles festival in 2007, France, OH in 2009, La Conservera, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Ceutí/Murcia, Spain in 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH in 2010 and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany in 2011. Her video Green Pink Caviar was exhibited in the lobby of the MoMA for over a year, and was also shown on digital billboards on Sunset Boulevard in LA. She has been included in numerous group exhibitions. In 2006, Marilyn Minter was included in the Whitney Biennial, and in a collaboration with Creative Time she installed billboards all over Chelsea in New York city. In 2009, she had solo exhibits at Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Salon 94, New York. In 2011 Minter had a solo exhibition at Team Gallery, New York. She was featured in Commercial Break, at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture and POST, for the 2011 Venice Biennale. Her work is currently featured in “ Riotous Baroque”, a group exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich which will travel to the Guggenheim Bilbao in June 2013.

Designer Profile:

Kelly Wearstler

We’ve all seen it before – clothing and accessories designer expands to include lush home line including everything from sheets to sofas, or visa versa. However, often times designers find themselves in a precarious situation – one in which the goal of expansion obviously somewhere got lost in translation reducing the integrity of their label that was once iconic and groundbreaking to mediocre displays at your local Macy’s. There are exceptions, of course, such as Versace or Missoni and most recently, Kelly Wearstler.

Born in South Carolina and a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art, Wearstler began her career focusing on interior design. Wearstler’s distinctive style that mixes whimsy, sophistication and swank has been referred to as revolutionizing the look, feel and meaning of modern American glamour.

Perhaps her most famous and most frequently viewed project is that of the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills. Originally built in 1949 as the Beverly Carlton, the hotel was a home away from home for stars like Marilyn Monroe. Fifty years later, the oasis was renamed The Avalon for its 1999 reopening, after it was completely revamped by Wearstler.

In addition to commercial projects, Wearstler is sought after by some of the world’s most prominent people to lend her touch to the interiors of their homes. The New Yorker called Wearstler “the presiding grande dame of West Coast interior design.”

From books to collaborations with names like The Rug Company, Bergdorf Goodman and more recently, Lee Joffa, Wearstler has her hands in everything, and she does it well.

Wearstler recently debuted a collection of ready-to-wear, jewelry, furniture, home accessories and objects d’art and opening a 2,400 square-foot flagship boutique on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

Though there is no question that I love the aesthetic of Kelly Wearstler and the many wonderful contributions she has made to the world of design, I think perhaps what I admire the most is the fact that she is a wonderful role model for women. Women like Wearstler remind us that there is no limit to our creativity and that about which we can dream.