ASPEN, CO. – Now in its 10th year, the Aspen-Bariloche Arts + Culture Exchange Program returns this month with a visiting artist from Argentina and a bicultural art exhibition that celebrates a decade of art exchange between the two iconic mountain towns and sister cities. Argentinian artist and program co-founder Paula Fischer will return to the Roaring Fork Valley in September for a two-week residency, during which she will show her paintings in the “(reunion)” art exhibition at the Aspen Chapel Gallery, participate in an artist talk facilitated by Lissa Ballinger, Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, and lead a workshop in Naïf painting at The Art Base. All events are free and open to the public.
“These exchanges are very inspiring for everyone who is involved: artists from different communities with common goals and passions sharing their creativity and learning from each other, generating meaningful relationships and expanding artistic opportunities,” said Lala Caffarone, Coordinator of the Aspen-Bariloche Arts + Culture Exchange.
Fischer is one of 21 artists participating in the international art exhibition “(re)union,” which is running through September 25 at the Aspen Chapel Gallery and benefits Aspen Sister Cities. The show is curated by Amy Beidleman and coordinated by Tom Ward, Michael Bonds and Caffarone. On Wednesday, September 18, Fischer, along with “(re)union” artists from the Roaring Fork Valley, will be featured at an artist talk facilitated at the Chapel Gallery by the Bayer Center’s Ballinger. This will be followed by a reception from 5 to 6:30pm. The public is invited to view the 71 works in the exhibition, listen to insights from exhibition artists, and learn more about the Aspen-Bariloche Arts + Culture Exchange Program. Refreshments will be served.
The title of the exhibition, “(re)union,” is a bilingual play on words, referring to both the circular nature of the annual exchanges and to the Spanish word for meeting. It is an apt label for the almost two dozen artists who have come together across continents in the name of art and international friendship. Their works — including photography, painting, watercolor, drawing, encaustic, printmaking, textiles, embroidery, and sculpture — demonstrate a shared love of the mountains and a desire for cross-cultural collaboration.
The current exchange and show have been in the works for more than a year. Symbolic of the international collaboration and logistics that it took to pull off the exhibition, the pieces in “(re)union” from the Bariloche artists were carried to Aspen in suitcases of the Roaring Fork Valley artists participating in the spring 2024 exchange in Argentina.
“The Aspen-Bariloche cultural exchange is all about sharing experiences with people who see life through art,” said Paula Fischer. “It’s about each community sharing our work, our city, and the traditions of our country. I feel that all together we become better people.”
Fischer will also lead a workshop in Naïf painting on Saturday, September 20 from 10 to 12:30pm at The Art Base in Basalt. The class is free with registration (currently full with a waiting list) at www.theartbase.org/education/adult-workshops. Donations are encouraged.
Founded by Fischer and Roaring Fork Valley artist Missy Prudden in 2014, the exchange program is 100% volunteer-led and community-based. A small team of volunteers at each destination organizes the exchange for the visiting artist and arranges exhibition, workshop, sightseeing, and community engagement opportunities for them. Artists pay for their own transportation; are hosted at family homestays, meals and events; conduct classes and talks; show and sometimes sell their artwork; and meet with local art makers within the community.To date, 14 artists have made the 6,000-mile round-trip exchange.
The cultural exchange is one of the programs of the Aspen Sister Cities organization established in 1966, whose mission is to share ideas and cultures through the international exchange of students and community members — including doctors, ski patrollers, adaptive ski instructors and artists — from Aspen and the greater RFV. Through these exchanges ASC supports the Sister Cities International mission statement of promoting peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation — one individual, one community at a time. In 2002, Aspen City Council unanimously voted to add Bariloche to its roster of sister cities around the world, currently including Abetone, Italy; Chamonix, France; Davos, Switzerland; Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany; Queenstown, New Zealand; and Shimakappu, Japan.
Friendship is one of the highest goals — and true outcomes — of the program. “It is about the people that you get to meet, their kindness and generosity that is contagious, and those meaningful moments that touch each participant in a special way,” said Caffarone.
The eleven “(re)union” artists hailing from the Roaring Fork Valley are: Amy Beidleman, Brian Colley, Dave Durrance, Sandy Johnson, Deborah Jones, Reina Katzenberger, Carol Loewenstern, Erin Rigney, Missy Prudden, Sarah Kuhn, and Lara Whitley. They are collaborating with ten artists from Bariloche: Andrea Juarez, Ingjerd Hansen Juvik, Natalia Lukacs, Lorraine Green, Carlos Iriarte, Barbara Drausal, Paula Fischer, Valeria Fiala, Soledad Escudero, and Ingrid Roddick.
The ASC Arts + Culture Exchange with Bariloche is made possible thanks to the support of The Aspen Chapel Gallery, The Art Base, the Red Brick Center for the Arts, and the Asociación Artistas Plásticos Bariloche.
Paula Fischer artist statement, bio and history HERE.
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