Posted: 14 November 2019
For our Fall 2019 Newsletter, we reached out to Partner Club members Trent Bauman and Juanita Metzger to talk about art, travel and their reasons for supporting KWAG as Members:
What drew you to KWAG?
We have seen so much amazing art when we travel around the world and we suddenly realized we could be supporting art in our own community too. Several friends who are KWAG members encouraged us to join.
Which exhibition had the greatest impact on you?
There are several KWAG exhibitions that would round out a stellar top five list, but The Brain is wider than the Sky (2018) tops them all. It was so encouraging to see six local women at various stages in their art careers draw one of the largest opening reception gatherings. Some familiar artists and some new to us, the overall theme and the work itself expanded our own horizons of the artists’ inner worlds.
You are both avid travellers and, Juanita, you have even turned travelling into a career as a writer. Has this experience changed the way you relate to art?
When we travel we tend to focus on slow travel and very local travel, which gives us the opportunity to seek out small artist-run galleries and cooperative art spaces. These experiences provide opportunities to meet the artists and we have developed lasting relationships with many artists this way. Travelling has helped to expand our art collection and certain pieces in our home trigger memories of unique interactions from far and wide.
If you could step inside any artwork and spend the day there which would you choose? Why?
Trent: Local artist David G. White’s Morass would be interesting. It has a foreboding undertone that I was attracted to. I would need a whole day immersed in the painting to understand what all the characters are up to.
Juanita: In 2011, Los Angeles-based artist Kirsten Everberg had a solo exhibition at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art called Looking for Edendale that extended our stay at the gallery by an hour! Her oil paintings of mid-century modern room interiors are so lush and glossy that I wanted to sit down on one of the chairs to see who might be in the next room. I still think about those paintings to this day!