One of the nation’s most highly attended Western art shows, the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale is a massive celebration of art featuring 75 contemporary realists from North America and Europe who capture the Western way of life. It’s also one of the largest fundraisers for the National Western Scholarship Trust, a charitable pillar of Colorado’s National Western Stock Show. This year Coors celebrates its 30th anniversary, opening on Tuesday evening, January 3. The exhibit and sale remains open to the public during the National Western Stock Show from January 7 to 22. 
Guests mingle and view art at a previous Coors show.
Attendees view artwork during a past Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale.
“We are always looking for and exhibiting new voices and new perspectives on the West. This year I am most excited about the women artists in the show,” says Rose Fredrick, curator of the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale. “Their work is strong and filled with meaning and metaphor—in some cases, the work is otherworldly.” Fredrick adds that a new artist at the 2023 show is oil painter Adrienne Stein, who channels the great female artists of the past. “Think Georgia O’Keeffe’s optimistic alter-ego,” she says. “And then there are those working with unusual tools: Sally Maxwell creates stunning wildlife portraits in the wonderful kids’ medium of scratchboard and Megan Meinke Seiter draws ethereal still life paintings in colored pencil. And of course, our stalwarts—Sophy Brown, Karmel Timmons, Barbara VanCleve, Karen Roehl and all the others—continue to explore their craft and evolve their message, meanings and stories in art.”
Ezra Tucker, The New Bronc, acrylic on illustration board, 29 x 24”
Dan Chen, Gaze and Graze, bronze, wood and parchment, 12 x 40 x 15”
Dan Chen is the 2023 featured artist. Exploring a multitude of mediums, Chen is a sculptor of Western and wildlife subjects, as well as an oil painter, watercolorist and pastelist. His bronze, wood and parchment sculpture, Gaze and Graze, has been selected for the National Western’s permanent art collection. The work will also be available for sale as a poster during the 2023 Coors show. “He’s one of my favorite people to be around. He’s funny and light-hearted but at the same time, deeply introspective,” Fredrick says of Chen. “Gaze and Graze is classic Dan. He is constantly playing with new mediums, patinas and substrates. This piece has it all: sculpture, vibrant patination, painting on parchment, leather stitching, woodworking…it’s a wonderful statement about the West conceived in a masterful form.”
Rick Young, Follow the Dusty Dirt Road, oil on canvas, 38 x 38”
Adrienne Stein, Arc, oil on canvas, 48 x 48”
Other esteemed artist’s in this year’s Coors show include Michael Blessing, George Bumann, Lisa Gleim, Quang Ho, Linda Lillegraven, Howard Post, Ezra Tucker and many more. —
Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale
January 7-22, 2023
Red Carpet Gala Reception, January 3, 5:30-9 pm
National Western Complex, 4655 Humboldt Street, Denver, CO 80216
(303) 291-2567, www.coorswesternart.com
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