Shanan Campbell remembers coming to Santa Fe, New Mexico, as a young girl accompanying her parents to Santa Fe Indian Market where her father sold his jewelry. In 1964, Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne) captained the United States Olympic Judo Team in Japan where he lived for several years. While there, he studied metal-working with a maker of samurai swords. Today, after 50 years of jewelry making, the influence of the Asian aesthetic is still apparent in his work. Back in the United States, he and his wife, Linda, were also champion horse trainers. In 1992, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.Jim Rey, After the Fall Works (detail),oil on board, 20 x 16”Campbell recalls Indian Market in the 1970s being much smaller than it is today, centered around Santa Fe Plaza, showing the best of the best. She enjoyed visiting the galleries off the plaza, especially a gallery run by the famed Elaine Horwitch. Attracted not only to the art, Campbell was fascinated by the business end of the gallery and the relationship among artist, dealer and client. “I decided in this space that I wanted to do this,” she recalls.

“This space” is the space of the former Elaine Horwitch Galleries and, later, LewAllen Contemporary, which was run by Horwitch’s business partner, Arlene LewAllen, after Horwitch died in 1991. The space is now the second home of Sorrel Sky Gallery which first opened its doors in Durango, Colorado, 20 years ago. The anniversary will be celebrated on June 3, from 5 to 7:30 pm, at the Durango gallery. The Durango location has a significant history as well: the building was originally occupied by Georgie and Charles Hogan who owned and operated Hogan’s, a store with an apartment on the second floor, where the shop owners held family gatherings. The store served the community for 70 years. When Sorrel Sky moved in after the closing of Hogan’s, the gallery recognized the family and their commitment to Durango.Bryce Pettit, Critical Angle, bronze, 22 x 17 x 17”

Kevin Red Star, Bear Tracks, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36”

“I grew up with a lot of all sorts of art at home,” Campbell explains. “I never had a feeling that that wasn’t normal until later. I was attracted to the business because I saw what an impact the right dealer can have on an artist’s life.I tend to look at the business from the artists’ perspective—they want to be paid well, have their work displayed well and to know when something has been sold. We have close to 100 artists and for many, this is their sole livelihood. I have a feeling about the art and am naturally drawn to it. The artists have to be aligned with my values. I’m drawn to who they are as human beings who do what they say they’re going to and have a high level of integrity.

Edward Aldrich, Challenger, oil, 24 x 40”“I had run another gallery before opening my own and often wondered why the owner was stressed out until that level of stress was my own. I was a single mother of two little boys suddenly faced with the business of running a gallery. I now pick good people to work for me. In the early days I would tolerate low performance. Today I have a high level of expectation. You have to grow as a human being and a business is a direct reflection of your area. The salespeople need to have luxury sales experience. I can teach them how to sell art but they need to know how to sell luxury—like Cartier or Louis Vuitton. Our clients are the type of buyers who expect a level of service, communication and expertise.”David Yarrow, Vantage Point, photograph, 71 x 91”In addition to growing as a person and a businesswoman, Campbell continues to adopt new technologies. She was among the first in the fine art world to embrace eCommerce, uses social media to stay connected with a broad client base, and has recently launched a new enterprise, SorrelSkyNFT.com, an NFT marketplace.

The gallery explains, “A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger. NFTs can be associated with reproducible digital files such as photos, videos, and audio. The NFT can be associated with a particular digital or physical asset (such as a file or a physical object) and a license to use the asset for a specified purpose.”Greg Overton, Conquering Eagle, oil on canvas, 36 x 36”

It also advises collectors of NFTs as well as its other offerings, “buyers of NFTs should buy what they like…what give them an emotional connection. Collectors should find artists that are real, whose works are impactful and will be remembered in the future. Collectors should look at NFTs as part of their overall collection.” Campbell notes that collectors often have large screens in their homes on which they display their NFTs.

Among the Sorrel Sky artists, known for his paintings and drawings, is Jim Rey who also paints digitally and whose NFTs are available on the site. Rey’s offerings are predominantly equine. He says, “I’ve always been around horses. I had a mustang at the age of 6. My grandfather had a serious ranch in the Bay Area and I spent a lot of time up there. I did a lot of cowboying at the cattle ranches in the area.”Hogans around 1940 in Durango, Colorado.

Sorrel Sky Gallery in the Hogan’s building, present day.One of the Native American artists in the gallery is Kevin Red Star (Apsaalooka). He says, of his vibrant paintings, “Indian culture has in the past been ignored to a great extent. It is for me, as well as for many other Indian artists, a rich source of creative expression. An intertwining of my Indian culture with contemporary art expression has given me a greater insight concerning my art.”Shanan Campbell, owner of Sorrel Sky Gallery.The gallery also exhibits photography, often available in arresting sizes over 6 by 9 feet. David Yarrow says of his print Vantage Point, “As part of my photographic anthology on the Wild West, it was always my intent to bring Native Indians and a railroad together into an image, but I had no wish to objectify either party…The narrative seems entirely realistic as most of the time the natives would observe the Iron Horses from a safe distance with a mixture of fear; anger but also, I would imagine a hint of bewilderment.”

Campbell observes, “I’m so proud of the past 20 years and so excited for the years to come.” —

Sorrel Sky 20th Anniversary Celebration
June 3, 2022, 5-7:30 p.m.
Sorrel Sky Gallery, 828 Main Avenue, Durango, CO 81301
(970) 247-3555, www.sorrelsky.com

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