“Hometown” is an exhibition of 35 small-scale paintings by acclaimed artist T. Allen Lawson, depicting Sheridan, Wyoming, his hometown.
From the organizers:
For the show, Lawson created an unprecedented body of work comprising snapshots of this small Wyoming town (population 18,000). An inflatable snowman outside a small house, a brewery at night, the fairgrounds in snow, an old truck advertised for sale, and local railyards all tell stories about the town and the people who live there.
Lawson was born in Sheridan in 1963. He was educated in Sheridan public schools, and for the first 17 years of his life was raised with the small-town perspective of a Sheridan native.
After high school, Lawson left Wyoming and has now spent the majority of his life away. He has traveled a great deal over the past few decades — to all fifty states, most of Canada, much of Western Europe, and parts of Russia and Southeast Asia. He has lived, studied, and painted both in major cities and in rural areas across the United States. After living for 16 years in Maine, where he still has a home, Lawson’s return to Wyoming at this point in his life allows him to see Sheridan, as he says, “with fresh, yet connected and familiar eyes. Of course, it has changed over the years, but many things — surprisingly many — remain the same.”
Lawson states that “this exhibition is my attempt to paint my hometown: the town that formed who I am, a place I have always loved and, at one time, couldn’t wait to escape. I’ve intended to paint the town as I see it now, a show devoid of sentimentality, but with decided sentiment. In doing these paintings I’ve seen Sheridan with a new attitude affected by the passing of time and experiences lived, but the project itself opened my eyes to what is right here in front of all of us. Our town is distinctly Sheridan, distinctly Wyoming, and distinctly American.”
Over the span of his career, Lawson has received numerous awards for his work, most recently the Prix de West Award at the 2017 Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibit & Sale at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center.
Lawson’s work is a part of many preeminent private and public collections, most notably the Denver Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, Portland Museum of Art, Whitney Western Art Museum of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Farnsworth Art Museum, and the White House Art Collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
“T. Allen Lawson: Hometown” is on view through January 2, 2019. For additional information, please contact Kate Harrington, executive director, SAGE Community Arts: [email protected].
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Kate, what a wonderful article on Lawson’s estimable work. I hope it flies off the walls of Sage! Happy holidays to you and everyone at the Center.