Alison Van Pelt - The Wild - Casterline | Goodman Gallery
Casterline|Goodman Gallery is Aspen’s premier contemporary art gallery with two locations including primary artwork at 611 East Cooper Avenue and a newly expanded location featuring blue-chip art at The Little Nell Hotel (631 East Durant Avenue).
With a combined total of over 30 years in the business, Robert Casterline and Jordan Goodman assist clients in all aspects of building a fine art collection. Casterline|Goodman’s strong presence in the global art community and deep understanding of art market conditions, auctions, and private sales have enabled the placement of unique works in established private, corporate and institutional collections internationally.
Working in tandem with our advisory services, we represent a select group of primary artists that we show in conjunction with established artists in Aspen, Chicago, and Naples. Casterline|Goodman specializes in post-war and contemporary art but works with individuals and corporations on a vast array of styles and needs.
The newest exhibition at the primary gallery, “The Wild” features the powerful artwork of L.A. based painter Alison Van Pelt, who is newly signed with the gallery as a primary artist. The show features paintings ranging from hummingbirds to horses, from Aspen trees to imagery admiring the human form of a woman in motion, to striking paintings of Native American warriors and spiritual leaders. Each one of these paintings reflects some form of “The Wild.”
Van Pelt’s style is unique in that she will start by referencing a photo or often a portrait of a notable subject and after drawing or painting a classic portrait, she will then blur and rebuild the portrait with oil on canvas. The goal of this process is to connect with her subject and humanize the subject. The result is a beautiful, purposely-degraded, mystical evocation of her subject. Her painstaking technique, with its exquisite light and shadow, layers upon layers of paint, and ambiguous yet meticulous brush strokes, are coalesced by her discipline and meditative touch, and bring out the best in her subjects.
“There are so many reasons why I paint, and often I don’t understand the meaning of a painting until years later. But the impulse to choose a subject is visceral; I will feel drawn to an image. I can have a wall covered with photos, and one of them will stand out; it will look bigger and brighter as if lit by a spotlight and I will feel compelled to paint it,” says Van Pelt.
In addition to Van Pelt’s exhibition, Casterline|Goodman Gallery is now showing new photography from David Yarrow. The gallery is honored to release David Yarrow’s newest work, which was captured in Aspen this past spring and embodies Aspen’s history, glamor, and grit. The gallery also features 25-year-old Alexander Höller from Germany, whose exclusive new work was created this spring when he was an Artist-in-residence in Aspen.