SUMMER IN …
This feature was originally published in the 2021 edition of “Summer in Aspen/Snowmass,” which is on newsstands now around the Roaring Fork Valley. It as well as other 2021 visitor guides are available anytime at http://www.aspentimes.com/magazines.
If you haven’t made the rounds in Aspen art galleries lately, you’ll find many new players and programs on the scene following an unexpected boom during the pandemic. Galleries were able to open quickly after the spring 2020 lockdown, providing sanctuary for people seeking solace or inspiration when most every other cultural hub was closed.
New galleries came to town, including a spate of international contemporary art tastemakers opening their first Aspen satellites. This summer, we’re toasting those galleries and beloved established ones as the social side of the local scene comes back to life with opening receptions, art talks and walk-throughs.
“As I look at my photos now,” George Stranahan once said, “I think that perhaps they are the serious work of my life.” Here we look back the creative legacy as a photographer that Stranahan left behind when he died last month at age 89.
The pandemic stripped away the social side out of Aspen’s historically lively art and gallery scene. Yes, galleries were able to open quickly after the spring 2020 lockdown and, yes, they provided sanctuary for people seeking solace or inspiration when most every other cultural hub was closed.
But there were no opening receptions and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, no walk-throughs, no in-person artist talks. Art viewing has mostly been a solitary or virtual venture. Even as several new players arrived on the local scene, they arrived quietly.
There were positives to be found in the experience of gallery hopping during the pandemic – you had more conversations with gallerists, for example, and you realized how little you actually get to look at the artwork at a crowded opening.
People walk by the now officially closed Tatanka on restaurant row in downtown Aspen on Friday, April 30, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
It appears that the effects of the pandemic have only made Aspen’s commercial real estate scene even more desirable than it has been in recent years.
Downtown Aspen has one retail space available for summer occupancy, according to Angi Wang, a broker at Setterfield & Bright.
She and fellow broker Karen Setterfield said they haven’t seen this kind of demand ever.
“It’s stronger than it’s ever been, and I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” Setterfield said. “Everyone wants Aspen. … We are out of spaces, and we have unlimited demand for retail spaces.”
When: May 1-14, opening reception Saturday, 5-10 p.m.
Axel Livingston, 19, stands in front of his work hanging in the Gonzo Gallery for his first show in the space in Aspen on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Axel Livingston, 19, in the Gonzo Gallery for his first show in the space in Aspen on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Axel Livingston, 19, stands in front of his work hanging in the Gonzo Gallery for his first show in the space in Aspen on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
A piece of art by Axel Livingston for his first show at Gonzo Gallery in Aspen on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)