Sept. 4, 2018

 

The Last Cowboy painting

 

Gordon McConnell to be featured in Northcutt Steele Gallery

Exhibit will be viewable from September 5 through October 11

 

Contacts:

University Communications and Marketing, 657-2266

 

MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES —The Northcutt Steele Gallery at Montana State University Billings will host an artist reception for Gordon McConnell’s exhibition, When the West Was Won, beginning at 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 20. At 5:30 p.m., 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 on the breadth and depth of the artist’s interrogations of our collective cultural fantasies and individualized experiences of the American West.

 

Gray County art piece
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 longingly-wrought works prompts viewers to consider their 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.

 

Gordon McConnell received a BA in Studio Art from Baylor University and an MA in Art history from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He served as Curator at Yellowstone Art Center, now Yellowstone Art Museum, for over twenty years.

 

In a gallery adjacent to the exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to view some of the Western films that have inspired the artist and will be invited to create their own visual or written interpretations of the impact these images have had on their own lives. This interactive exhibition is designed and installed by MSU Billings art students and gallery assistants, Angel Shandy and Morgan Syring.

 

The reception is catered, free and open to the public.

 

For more information about the artist visit:  http://gordonmcconnellstudio.com/. An interview with the artist and curator about the exhibition is available at: http://www.ypradio.org/post/resounds-gordon-mcconnell-leanne-gilbertson#stream/0.

 

The Northcutt Steele Gallery is located on the first floor of the Liberal Arts building on the Montana State University Billings campus. Parking on the campus is free after 5 p.m. For more information visit www.msubillings.edu/gallery or www.facebook.com/northcuttsteelegallery.

 

For media inquiries and more images contact Dr. Leanne Gilbertson, director of Northcutt Steele Gallery, leanne.gilbertson@msubillings.edu and (406) 657-2903.