Mapping Sentinels: Curtis Olson

J GO Gallery presents Mapping Sentinels: Curtis Olson. Olson's mixed media works are formal studies in composition and design as well as the artist's personal exploration and interpretations of contemporary landscape art. The show will run through February 14, 2012. Mapping Sentinels are complex interpretations of Western art; pushing the boundaries of what constitutes landscape, and where the modern and iconic West intersect. Sentinels is a series of planes of plaster intersected by builderly wooden inlay into geometric structures. These structures combine pure color, eroded texture, and Olson's photography transferred directly into the plaster. The geometric division of the pieces is reminiscent of the western landscape via jet plane-- divided and squared. In Sentinels , images of lone trees and structures stand as holdouts, giving the sense of nature and earlier manifestations of the Western landscape breaking through human orderliness. The colors of the series are taken straight from the great American road trip, with Route 66 skies, verdant pastures, golden fall cornfields, and the occasional back road barn door informing the palette.