The Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture is pleased to host its newest shows featuring emerging artists from our community.
Interdisciplinary artist Russell Brausch showcases Not So Far Away in the Weaver Room Gallery. The exhibit explores America’s complex relationship with fire through painting, burning, drawing and textiles.
“A century of fire suppression, the loss of Indigenous cultural burning, and climate change have created today’s wildfire crisis. It is not a matter of if a fire will come, but when. Federal land employees work tirelessly with little progress, caught between containing fires and restoring damaged landscapes,” reads Brausch’s artist statement.
“As hotter, drier climates push fire back into the land through both destruction and controlled burns, my creative process seeks to illuminate this complex history. Through painting, burning, drawing, and textiles, I open different entry points into the wildfire conversation. My research expands on acknowledging and redefining America’s relationship with fire.”
Montana printmaker Rachel Ingle unveils They Arrived Late in the Jessie Wilber Gallery. The featured prints consider ideas of identity and place, through the lens of tourism and landscape.
By layering wildflowers, weeds, and invasive species over pictures of family vacations the artist ruminates on human movement and relationships through metaphors of the natural world. The way we attribute morality to the existence, growth and movement of plants gives us insight on how we are striving to be present in the world.
Both exhibits are open the public, on display through Jan. 30th. For gallery hours and more information, please visit www.theemerson.org. Located at 111 S Grand Ave., the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture serves as a primary resource for the arts, arts education, and cultural activities in Southwest Montana. •
