ALBAN COOPER

INFO

Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain

The Autry Museum
May 2018 — January 2019

“The Autry's exhibition design is stellar; its environmental atmosphere and division into sectional pillars that reflect the narrative structure of the survey are clear and engaging.”

—LA Weekly

“Thank you for your incredibly thoughtful exhibition designs. You added so many spot-on touches, elements that are both out of the “contemporary art” ordinary, disarming for viewers, and additive to the context of Rick. The groupings were sharp and terrific… I imagine that you have a team you collaborate with but several folks said that you had particularly strong impact on the success of this exhibition install… Congratulations and many, many thanks!”

—Charles Froelick, Rick Bartow’s gallerist

The first major retrospective of Native contemporary artist Rick Bartow (1946–2016), spanning forty years of work across painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. Across 5,300 square feet, the exhibition featured over 100 works tracing the arc of Bartow's practice — from his emergence in the late 1970s following his service in the Vietnam War, through his synthesis of Native American iconography, Western European artistic traditions, and deeply personal encounters with trauma, identity, and transformation. Five thematic sections guided visitors through Bartow's singular vision: an artist who occupied the space between human and animal, abstraction and realism, tradition and the contemporary.

The exhibition design drew on natural yakisugi elements throughout the galleries to ground the work in Bartow's Pacific Northwest roots, while atmospheric projections of the Oregon coast and personal video interviews created an immersive sense of place — bringing visitors into direct contact with the landscapes and life that shaped his practice.