Northcutt Steele Gallery

Gordon McConnell

When the West Was Won

September 5–October 11, 2018

Reception: Thursday, September 20, 5pm–8pm (Catered, Free and Open to Public)

On Thursday, September 20, the Northcutt Steele Gallery on MSUB campus will host an artist reception for Gordon McConnell’s exhibition, When the West Was Won, beginning at 5pm.  At 5:30pm Gallery Director Dr. Leanne Gilbertson will conduct a conversation with the artist about the exhibition in the gallery. A question and answer session with the audience will follow.

When the West Was Won is comprised of paintings and mixed-media works completed by Billings-based Gordon McConnell over the past five years. Since the late 1980s, McConnell has created works inspired by Western film frames and informed by his sustained study of the history of the American West and its representations in literature, art, film, and photography. While his personal visual language is likely familiar to most in the region, When the West Was Won brings together familiar images with some of the artist’s latest departures. Together these works offer a unique opportunity to reflect upon the breadth and depth of the artist’s interrogations of our collective cultural fantasies and individualized experiences of the American West.

Throughout his work, McConnell utilizes keen wit, sustained research, and painterly sincerity to explore the aesthetic allure and cultural fascination of the American West. This suite of lovingly-wrought works prompts us to consider our investments in each deceptively familiar, yet ultimately mysterious image—the promises they hold, and the losses they contain. Ultimately,  When the West Was Won raises questions about the roles these images play in constructing ideals of American masculinity, loyalty, and independence and offer a timely meditation on what the West and its frontier myth has meant and continues to mean for the collective American psyche.