Overview & Events

Museum Activity: Exercises for the Quiet Eye
February 11, 1:00–2:00

Gallery Talk: Dana Hart-Stone: Kaleidoscope  
February 15, 2:00–3:00

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Discover the work of Montana-born artist Dana Hart-Stone who, for the last eighteen years, has mined vintage vernacular American photography, and created visually explosive and celebratory photo-based paintings that capture moments of everyday life in the burgeoning West.

Drawing from his encyclopedic collection of thousands of vintage sepia-toned snapshots, Hart-Stone methodically manipulates the found photo images into either serially repetitive filmic strips or pulsating circular compositions in highly saturated color before printing them in UV cured acrylic ink on canvas. These works explore everyday life on the Plains and on the Main streets of small-town America.

Through his weaving and stitching of pixels, he creates mesmerizing mandalas and cinematic tapestries. Hart-Stone’s paintings function in two ways: at first glance, as seductive expositions of color and pattern that read as abstraction and draw the viewer in, and then as figurative narratives when seen closer.

Included in the exhibition are Dear Friend Lola, a Busby Berkeley-esque 75-inch tondo from 2021 that features the postcard photo of a lovesick cowboy and his handwritten note to the object of his affection, and the monumental A Western Trip, a 13-foot mural that offers a glimpse of the grandeur of life in the developing West.