Join us for an opening reception of MINE: Excavating Ecologies. MINE is an exhibition inspired by the Upper Clark Fork Ecosystems featuring artists Eric Jensen, Lane Chapman, and Manette Bradford.
Artists, Jensen and Chapman completed their residencies in partnership with the Clark Fork Coalition, where they shared a studio space at the Cottonwood Field Station, allowing for close collaboration and creative exchange. Manette Bradford held her residency at the Hungry Hill Art Center in Butte, Montana, a location rich with the mining heritage that continues to shape the region’s identity.
Manette Bradford, Artist
Manette Rene Bradford (b. 1978, St. Paul, MN) was raised in a family of visual artists. This early exposure to art allowed her to develop an understanding of craftsmanship and the creative process and to develop a lifelong relationship with her own practice. Manette earned a BFA in 2001 from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2022, she was awarded the Montana Art Gallery Director's Association Exhibition Sponsorship for Unsettled Lands, which will tour Montana from 2024-2026. She will exhibit at the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, C.M. Russell Museum, Hockaday Museum of Art, Schoolhouse History and Art Center, and MonDak Heritage Center, and has exhibited in both solo and group shows in San Francisco and Chicago. Manette was interviewed as the subject of an episode of Resounds: Arts and Culture on the High Plains, which aired on May 22, 2023. She has lived and worked in Chicago, the Bay Area, and lives and works in Red Lodge and Billings, Montana.
Visit Manette's Website Here:https://manetterenebradford.com/home....
Eric Jensen, Artist
Eric Jensen is an abstract landscape painter with an interest in unifying different modes of understanding our world. Combining unlike methodologies like science and spirituality, he hopes to empower ecological preservation efforts and establish new cultural values through art. His practice is built from a contemporary art education, a critical perspective of religion in the west, and a passion for being close to nature. He has formed a landscape painting practice that looks critically at how our society perceives the land and is working to unify his practice with environmental conservation efforts. Born in Utah, raised and educated in Virginia, Eric now lives outside of Missoula, MT, after finishing an MFA in painting at the University of Montana.
Visit Eric's Website Here: https://www.ericjensenpaintings.com/
Lane Chapman, Artist
Lane Chapman:Hailing from small town Arkansas, Lane Chapman started as a painter and illustrator until she transitioned into clay in college. She received her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2017. After graduating, she moved to Rochester, NY, for a two-year residency at the Flower City Arts Center. She then moved to Missoula, MT, for a residency at The Clay Studio of Missoula for two years from 2019-2021 and then a resident at Wildfire Ceramic Studio from 2021-2022. Lane is currently a MFA candidate at the University of Montana in Missoula.
Visit Lane's Website Here: https://lanechapman.wixsite.com/my-si...
Open AIR is best known for its unique place-based Artist-in-Residence program that connects artists from all disciplines and origins, with culturally, historically, and ecologically significant locations through collaborative partnerships in Montana. With innovative opportunities available in places such as remote wilderness areas to historically significant sites closer to town, artists have the opportunity to draw inspiration from a regional community dedicated to preserving place, environment, and the arts.