Opening Reception: Friday, January 19th
The Holter Museum of Art welcomes The Last Glacier: Images of Our Changing Landscape, an exhibition highlighting the collaborative documentary project, The Last Glacier lead by visual artists Todd Anderson, Bruce Crownover and Ian van Coller. This arts and science initiative–begun in 2009 when the three friends and artists hiked together in Glacier National Park–documents the effects of climate change on Glaciers throughout the world and unites visual artists, scientists, and writers who create convergent research on specific wilderness environments that are experiencing tangible and dramatic ecological changes. Van Coller, who is based in Bozeman, describes the project:
“Climate change is categorical, yet beauty, however temporal, still remains. As real time passes, The Last Glacier transforms into multi-generational artifacts that share stories of mortality and resiliency in the face of a changing planet.”
The Last Glacier includes 34 original artworks including: color photographs of glaciers by Montana artist Ian van Coller; colorful woodcut prints of glaciers using traditional Japanese style printmaking techniques by South Carolina artist Todd Anderson; as well as woodcut prints and watercolors by artist and master printer Bruce Crownover who lives and works in Wisconsin.
This exhibition was organized by the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, MT and presented in 2021. It is now traveling around the State under the auspices of MAGDA ( Montana Art Gallery Directors Association). The Hockaday’s mission is preserving the artistic legacy of Glacier National Park. While the beauty and grandeur of the Park has inspired artists for generations, it is a complex and changing landscape. Of the 150 glaciers van Coller, Anderson and Crownover first started documenting in 2009, only 25 remain. Glaciers, like the clean water they produce and the ecosystems they support, cannot be replaced. The Last Glacier Project brings attention to this critical ecosystem and the challenges it is facing, using the creative process to evaluate climate change’s visual impact on the landscape and its emotional impact.Visit www.thelastglacier.com for more information on the ongoing project.
Todd Anderson: My work involves research on current climate science, consultation with scientists, field work in often remote parts of the world and, ultimately, artwork production in my home studio. Each location – Uganda, the Canadian Arctic, Antarctica, the deserts of Utah, etc. – take loads of outside support as well as many days off the grid and nights on the ground
Each of my reductive woodcuts take upwards of 4-6 weeks to carve and print. Collaborative projects are produced over the course of one or more years. The Last Glacier folio of art prints was produced over 6 years using prints and photographs by myself and other artists.
Bruce A. Crownover: While scientists have measured and recorded climate change extensively, little had been done from a strictly fine art perspective. My depiction of global warming is a catalyst for artistic expression, not a political statement. I’m in ambitious pursuit of the aesthetic exploration of the physical effects brought on by climate change.
My lifelong exposure to and love of the natural world has been a guiding force in my artistic practice. My field drawings and watercolor paintings are the point of reference for reductive woodcuts, and printmaking allows me to share my work with a broader audience.
I desire to use my first-hand experience to educate others on the magnitude of environmental shift. The Last Glacier Project, begun in 2009, addresses receding glaciers in Glacier and Rocky Mountain National Parks. Bruce is currently Facilities Associate for the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wisconsin, and is retired from his role as Master Printmaker for the University of Wisconsin Tandem Press.
Ian van Coller: My most recent work focuses on environmental issues related to climate change and deep time. These projects have centered on the production of large-scale artist books and collaborations with paleo-climatologists.
The Anthropocene suggests the arrival of an uncertain future. Snowpack melts and is no longer replenished; ecological collapse is imminent. We must progress our understandings of nature. The Last Glacier Project creatively documents the effects of global warming, uniting artists, scientists, and literary figures to create convergent research on specific wilderness environments that are experiencing tangible and dramatic ecological changes. Books, artworks and exhibitions share emotive-analytical visions of the twenty-first century that are real and true. These multi-generational artifacts share stories of mortality and resilience in the face of a changing planet.
This exhibition is sponsored by the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association (MAGDA), a state-wide service organization for non-profit museums & galleries, and supported in part by grants from the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the State of Montana; coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana’s Cultural and Aesthetic Projects Trust Fund; and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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