Jivan Lee did not set out to be an artist. Though he studied painting at Bard College, he first pursued a career in environmental policy. He was coordinating educational intitiatives with the University of New Mexico in Taos when he started to feel a pull back to the arts. “Art landed with students in a way that didn’t require arm-twisting,” he remembers. “That’s when I started thinking, what if the artistic process could help us relate to complex social and environmental issues?”
Lee recommitted himself to painting, and eventually left his environmental policy work behind. His latest show is Uplift at Altamira Fine Art in Jackson, Wyoming, and it takes a close look at New Mexico’s monsoon season.
Point of Entry, oil on panel, 40 x 60 in.
“Usually it takes me a long time to come up with a title for a show, but this one just came instantly. Uplift. It was that feeling of rising, of the profound, expansive, humbling scale of these towering thunderheads,” Lee explains. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who can watch one of these storms and not feel some kind of awe.”
Each painting in the show plays with a different view of the Rift Valley Trailhead in Taos. It was a deliberate choice to stay with the same spot to see how it changed—and he changed—over the season.
High Rise, oil on two panels, 60 x 30½ in.
In Point of Entry, an asymmetrical fence runs across the foreground, with a rainstorm brewing over the mountains in the distance. “A lot of times, you don’t even see signs of people, because Taos is so wild and rural,” Lee says. “Honestly, sometimes, the human element is a distraction from the energy and flow of what I’m trying to paint.” But in this case, the fence—and the path wandering beyond it—served as a visual cue for telling a story about time, progress and adventure.
The painting High Rise spans two panels stacked vertically. Lee started with the bottom panel, but the clouds kept rising and getting more dramatic. “I thought, ‘let’s keep going up, then,’” Lee says. “That’s where the title High Risecomes from. It’s literally about watching the painting rise with the weather.”
Rain Across the Gorge, oil on panel, 30 x 30 in.
Lee’s paintings frequently spill over onto multiple panels. It started as a practical solution, since he had a small sedan that couldn’t hold large pieces when he painted on location. But he realized there was something compelling about the multi-panel format. “You’re not just lulled into the image. You’re reminded that this is a painting, it has a surface and it’s a constructed thing,” he says. In his experience, the interruption can energize the viewer and prompt them to ask different questions about the work.
Early Storms, oil on panel, 48 x 48 in.
“Jivan Lee paints with an urgency that matches the ever-changing light and weather of the American West,” says Altamira owner Jason Williams. “His thick, expressive brushwork doesn’t just depict the landscape. It wrestles with it, honors it and celebrates his vitality.” Uplift runs from September 2 through 16, and a reception will be held on Friday, September 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Altamira Fine Art 172 Center Street, Suite #100 Jackson Hole, WY 83001 • (307) 739-4700 www.altamiraart.com
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