Ruminating on the incredible year (nearly) behind us, I want to thank all of our Gallery MAR Blog readers, artists, collectors, and friends. We have an incredible art community here in Park City and Jennifer and I are very thankful to be a part of something to magical.

Art is necessary. Art allows us to truly see ourselves. Art is magical.

And now, a (tongue in cheek) New Year’s Eve Countdown of favorite comments heard (and overheard) in the gallery…

(9) I can’t believe how talented these artists are! I could never do this!

(8) Oh, man, my kid could paint that…

(7) Are you the artist? Did you do all of this stuff?

(6) When is your next big sale?

(5) Can I get on your coupon mailing list?

(4) Here’s my credit card.

(3) I just love the paint-by-numbers piece!

(2) These paintings would be perfect for my home/office/hospital/hollywood-set.

(1) This is my favorite gallery in Park City!

Enjoy the photos below, from our First Annual “Winter Solstice”

Holiday Lights Electric Parade on Main Street.

Scott Wolf takes the mic to introduce the highest acheiver at auction– the eBay “Ultimate Electronic Dream”

Last Friday was an exciting night at the Canyon’s as the Kimball Art Center auctioned off artistically decorated chair lifts for both local non-profits and the KAC. Total sales for the night were around $90,ooo, most of which went to supporting programs and events at the Kimball Art Center. Scott Wolf served as the “MC”, star of ABC’s new hit show,V in the Grand Summit Ballroom, which was followed by music from Bryon Friedman.

The Budweiser chair, which sold for a steal at around $2,000

One of the chairs sold for $14,000, with most in the range of $2,000. Not bad for free and recycled chairs! What an incredible opportunity for the KAC and a truly fun and vibrant event for locals here in town. I saw many of the regular supporters of the Kimball, but also a few new faces to the Arts Center. Let’s hope that they recognize the importance of the Kimball and continue to support their programs and events here in Park City. Gallery MAR will!

During the month of December, the Historic Park City District will host a number of events, classes and activities as a part of the holidays to celebrate the festive season. Many events are free to the public and open to all ages.

Art Lovers

On Saturday, December 18th, Gallery MAR presents their winter exhibition titled “Here and Abroad.” The exhibition features new works by Geore Bodine and Kirk Tatom.

Images of Nature Gallery will host their Annual Holiday Open House on December 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The gallery will premier 11 new images from world renowned wildlife and nature photographer, Thomas Mangelsen.

The walls in the Thomas Anthony Gallery will be graced with new paintings from artist Anton Arkhipov from December 17th through the 31st.

During the Gallery Stroll on December 29th, Coda Gallery will host a reception for Heather Barron. Coda Gallery is home to a contemporary, colorful array of paintings, sculpture, furniture and glass.

Kids’ Activities

The Kimball Art Center is the heart of Park City’s historic and vibrant arts community. As part of their mission they work to engage individuals of all ages in a variety of ways, one of which is education.

The Kimball’s lineup of December family and youth classes is extensive. From Toy Land Painting to a Gift Making Workshop, there is surely something to for everyone. Registration can take place online at or by contacting the Kimball directly at 435.649.8882.

Holiday Spirit

Santa will arrive, via the Town Lift on Saturday, December 18th. His sleigh is scheduled to visit Main Street around 6:15pm. There will be kids activities, hot cocoa and of course a change to have your picture taken with the big fella.

Carolers and sign-along music will help keep the festive mood, while you shop and dine in the Historic District. The music will begin at 5:00 each evening in Miners Park, starting Sunday, December 19th. Carolers will perform at 2 p.m. on December 24 and no performance on December 25.

Start a holiday tradition by taking a carriage ride through the District. Carriages can be picked on the corner of Park Avenue and 7th Street, between Utah Ski and Golf and Butchers Chop House and Bar. Carriage rides will run from December 18th through the 29th and operate between 3pm to 10pm. Between 3 and 5pm a family of four can ride for $25. At 5pm the rates rise to $35 per couple and $5 per additional person.

Don’t let the shortest day of the year leave you in the dark! Come up to Historic Park City for our Winter Solstice Electric Parade on Tuesday, December 21st. The parade begins at 6pm.

Shows

The Egyptian Theatre has prepared a full line-up of performances for the month of December. They include a Kurt Bestor solo piano Christmas concert to Satisfaction – A Rolling Stones Experience to mention just two.

Park City’s Kimball Art Center is bringing 20 artists and 20 corporations together for their latest “fun”raiser in Historic Park City. ABC’s Scott Wolf, a local celebrity, will emcee the evening at the Canyon’s on December 17th, the night before Gallery MAR‘s first opening exhibition of the Winter season.

The Chairity Lift project unites 20 artists and 20 corporations (benefiting 20 charities) to design 40 chairlifts for this unique event. These chairs came from the dismantled 42 year old, historic Golden Eagle lift from Canyons. The artists and corporations created one of a kind, innovative works of art to be auctioned off on both eBay and live at the Chairity Lift event on December 17, 2010. The bulk of the proceeds from all chairlift purchases will go to Kimball Art Center to continue providing free exhibitions and education programs year-round with 25% of all proceeds back to artists and charities.

As a presenting sponsor, eBay announced it launched a 10 day online auction of these works of art. A select group of chairs were designated specifically for eBay and launched on December 6, 2010 at 8pm MST. The auction will be listed on eBay Giving Works website, the official eBay giving site and the corporate blog and will run through Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 8pm MST. The Chairity Lift auction can be found at http://ebay.com/kimballartcenter.

“Chairity Lift is an exciting collaboration at the intersection of creativity and corporate philanthropy. Participants were given free reign to express their unique point of view to transform a chair lift into a one of a kind work of art. We’re thrilled with the results and with the help eBay, these masterpieces will reach a global audience,” Robin Marrouche, Executive Director, Kimball Art Center.

Hosted by Scott Wolf, star of ABC’s new hit show,V, the Chairity Lift event is on Friday, December, 17th in the Grand Summit Ballroom at Canyons from 6:30pm – 10pm. An evening of entertainment with music from Bryon Friedman and a live auction of Golden Eagle lift chairs while Wolf emcees the event. Tickets are available for $50, until the week of December 13th-17th when ticket prices increase to $75.

The artists including titles of their artwork for Chairity Lift are:

Mike Bronn – “Last Chair”

Ron Butkovitch -”That’s How We Roll”

Dennis Dale – “Flintstone Chairlift”

Megan Fernandez -”Golden Eagle Chair Pose (Utkatasana)”

Scott Gutierrez – “Frozen in Time”

Lisa Hale -”Winged Feather Swing”

Corinne Humphrey -”Autumn Leaves at the Canyons”

Karyn Jacobsen -”Lynx”

Sharon Jonas -”The Ride-on Chair”

Matt Kraft – “Ski Rod”

Ian Leinbach -”SkiCycle”

Jason Martinez -”Rossignol Chair”

Renee Mox Hall -”The Chairiot of Fire”

Park City Highschool Art Club- “Seasons and History of Park City”

R. Nelson Parrish – “No. 37 Apres Ski 2010″

Bob Peek – “Who is Rik Shaw Anyway?”

Mike Quinlan – “Mosaic Tiffany Glass Chair”

Dayna Stern -”Chairman Mao”

Whitney Thompson – “No. 47: Rothkochaired”

Mike Walton – “Fly Fishing Scenes”

Who? You, your friends, neighbors and anyone who is up for having some fun.

Brought to you by the Historic Park City Business Alliance.

What? Dancing to “Let it Snow”. We think this may be the first flashmob in Park City!

Where? In front of the Egyptian Theatre on Main Street.

When? December 11th @ 4pm

Visit http://www.historicparkcityutah.com/blog/events/flashmob-on-main-street-december-11-4pm for more information.

Send this along to your friends and have them come out and join us for this fun event. Information on Flashmobs are typically circulated through e-mail chains and through social networking sites. We will not be advertising the event through the media. Part of the fun is catching people by surprise. We hope to see you there.

Portuguese Judiciary Police (2); Agence France-Presse (2)

At top left, the Chagall wedding scene fake, with a real Chagall painting below it. At top right, a fake reclining nude by Botero; at bottom right, a real Botero

What do experts look when deciphering fraudulent works from the true masterpieces? I’m currently reading a new non-fiction book about one of the greatest (and most recent) art frauds out of England. Provenance follows villain John Drewe and his accomplices as they exploit the archives of the British art world to illegally legitimize hundreds of forged (by their hands) artworks. It’s a page turner, and would make a wonderful holiday gift for any art lover.

Then, tonight, I notice a new headline in the art world– more fakes out of Portugal! Digging into this Mutual Art Article it appears to be a very strange case in the art forgery world. Typically, a forger specializes in one area of artwork: impressionism, cubism, etc. But the new “collection” is a jumble, an odd variety of styles. Police seized more than 130 paintings that were claimed to have been painted by Modigliani, Matisse and Monet among other noted artists. Other 20th-century masters in the hoard include Chagall and Kandinsky. Even a Leonardo da Vinci is among the fakes… now that’s confidence in your forgery abilities! A Norwegian couple is suspected of being involved with the forgery, discovered in a raid in Cascais, Portugal (near Lisbon).

The director of the Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries said, “It might be the work of more than one forger. I doubt if any would have fooled a specialist. They are potpourries of familiar elements in an artist’s work, not attempts to create an original, unknown conception… much more difficult.”

Also in the article,  John Myatt, a British artist who was sentenced to a year in prison in 1999 as a forger of Monet, Matisse and Giacometti, described a Portuguese Modigliani as “quite convincing”—”I’d have gone for that,” he said. He also thought the Botero looked “quite credible.” But he dismissed a Chagall as missing “the essence” of the artist—”he wasn’t that untidy,” he said—and a Leonardo as a “pastiche of an 18th century painting”. He observed that it was foolhardy to forge Leonardo: “There has been an accepted body of his work with provenance and exhibition history over 400 years. To come along with a new Leonardo is just stupid… A new Kandinsky at least makes some sense.”

Just head to www.win.southwestart.com and enter your details.

The painting is a small oil work by Stephanie Birdsall, a Puney Painters member.

Good luck!

Leoni Schmiedel, “Collage,” 25″ x 25″, Mixed Media on Canvas on Panel, 2010 $3475

When Gallery MAR owner Maren Mullin was traveling through Greece she was captivated by the local artwork, especially German-born artist Leoni Schmiedel, whose cliff-side studio Mullin wandered into. Schmiedel’s works have been exhibited across Europe and are now for the first time in the United States. The artworks– collages of Greece– are a composition collage made of the elaboration of surface and colors. The materials she uses such as sand, parchment and pieces collected from nature, hold the secrets of past eras of Greece. Wood (curved by sand and sea), faded-out papers and antique manuscripts, and ledgers are joined together again by changing time and place.

Leoni has commissioned artworks in Dresdner Bank in Germany and has been featured in many European style magazines. She has participated in several exhibitions in Cologne, Nurnberg and Aachen, Germany.

Born: Duisburg, Germany in 1963.

1981-1983 School of Graphic Design, Cologne, Germany

1984-1987 Specialist training, Printing Office, Nurnberg, Germany

1986-1989 Work with the performance group “Ma -Mi”

1987-1992 Work in Advertising in Cologne and Nurnberg

1992-1997 Freelance work with German Television Company

Permanent residence on Santorini, Greece since 1997

Selected Exhibitions

1987 Culturcenter Nurnberg

1988 Art – Messe Nurnberg

1995 Atelier im Sionstal Cologne

1995 Galerie of Objects Cologne

1996 Josef-Haubirch Hof Cologne

1997 Dresdner Bank Frechen

1997 High Tech Center Aachen

2005 Artery Gallery Crieff Scotland

Outdoor installation by Jamie Burnes

Here in Park City, we have a plethora of galleries and the increasingly fantastic Kimball Art Center. We’re lucky to have so much art in these “institutions,” but what about our public art?

The Park City Public Art Advisory Board is about to select a new work for the front of our Marsac (City) building. From the 49 who responded to the R.F.Q., they’ve narrowed it down to three great selections; but, the input from the community has been fairly small.  The Public Art Advisory Board has about $120,000 in their (our) budget with which to work. I’d love to see more input from our locals… which is why I am writing this blog request.

• What public art do you love here in Park City? What would you like to see “de-accessed?”
• What public art do you enjoy in your own town and why? What makes a public art piece successful?
• What would you like to see here, and where? What about functional artwork, such as benches and bike racks, or even artist-designed Old Town stairways?
• Would you follow a Public Art Tour, that showcased the works around town?

Thanks in advance for your feedback– I’ll be looking forward to hearing from our readers!