The Plainsmen Gallery is excited to once again host their 16th annual Fall Harvest group show, featuring exemplary and masterful artists. The works shown serve a vast variety of the very best in Western and wildlife art, harnessing the true spirit of the West, including two pieces being featured in a PBS movie called The American Buffalocoming out on October 16 and 17.
Steven Lang, The Buffalo Hunters, oil, 30 x 48”
The pieces featured in the film are The Buffalo Hunters by Steven Lang and Trail of The Iron Horse by David Yorke. Both paintings are set in the 1870s depicting a gruesome reimagining of a time when the killing of buffalo was encouraged by the government, wreaking havoc on the land and Indigenous people.
Describing The Buffalo Hunters,Lang says, “The gist of the painting was to show a group of hunters on a buffalo shoot, not at all concerned with the wanton slaughter they’re engaged in. As you can see, they are enjoying themselves with their indiscriminate killing…A lone Indian watches this go on and wonders how his people will survive.”
Steven Lang, The Renegade, oil, 20 x 40”
Yorke explains that the concept behind his piece comes from a previous work, Dark Day on The Plains, which depicts a deadly “railroad safari” aimed at slaughtering the buffalo. Trail of The Iron Horse is the vicious and bloody aftermath. “I’ve shown a survivor of this holocaust, in reverent prayer. Disease also continued to thin out the bison herds, bringing them close to extinction. Fortunately, through eventual conservation measures, the bison survives today. The new Ken Burns/PBS documentary The American Buffalo will credit those who helped save and restore the Bison herds. My earlier painting Dark Day on The Plains and other artwork, will be shown in this documentary to help illustrate these historical events.”
Grant Hacking, Late Fall, oil, 12 x 16”
The exhibition will also offer wildlife bronze work that represents the important relationships and connections between animals and the earth. Herb Mignery’s sculpture of a roaming bison, Soul of The Soil, for instance, is a piece that celebrates the bison’s mutual bond with the land that “joined their souls.”
Oreland Joe (Navajo/ Southern Ute), Juniper Wind, bronze, ed. of 30, 18 x 6”
Another bronze that embraces the joining of souls is Sandy Graves’ sculpture, Let’s Go, a bronze of a dog ready to play ball. She captures the essence of man’s best friend, a special relationship so personal to her and even found it difficult to create the piece because of it. “I think people who have had such a deep connection with an animal, friend, partner, it just becomes so deeply meaningful that to try to put all of that feeling into one piece is almost impossible.”
The show, which opens October 28, will also feature works by Victor Blakey, Jim Eppler, Grant Hacking, Hyrum Joe, Ed Natiya, Charles Rowe, John Coleman and many more. —
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