In January we welcomed our newest artist to Ryan Gallery, Scott T. Baxter. Much of Baxter’s fine art work is closely connected to Arizona’s history and to the traditions of working the land that have been in existence since before Arizona’s statehood.
His well-known project, 100 Years 100 Ranchers, and book by the same title, celebrates the generations of ranching families who have been operating in the state for over 100 years. Its publication was in conjunction with the Arizona centennial in 2012.
From his many years spent making powerful portraits of these tough men and women, he compiled an immense amount of black and white negatives, in several film formats, totaling over 10,000.
As a ranch hand would ride to the edges of the property in search of far wandering cattle, Baxter would sift through these thousands of negatives, gathering the remnants of the project. In this process he discovered so many incredible images that he’d never seen, printed, or shown to anyone.
From this, the exhibition Gathering the Remnants was created for Ryan Gallery. After narrowing his selection, thirty-two images were curated by Gina DeGideo and Alan Fitzgerald for the space. Baxter printed these new gelatin silver images from medium and large film formats in the darkroom by hand for the exhibition. When the show opened, it was a completely new body of work, yet unseen by anyone. The work was printed in, and is available in two sizes, each a limited edition of 10.
On opening night, January 30, 2016, Baxter spoke about his process of gathering the remnants for the exhibition and described what it was like to sort through so many images he had first overlooked.
Baxter talked more in-depth about both Gathering the Remnants and what it was like to work on the 100 Years 100 Ranchers project during his lecture in Ryan Gallery at Art Intersection for the PhotoTapas full-day event, Celebrating Photography.
After the close of this exhibition, the Gathering the Remnants prints, along with others from Scott T. Baxter will continue to be offered in Ryan Gallery and select images will be exhibited throughout the year. You can call Gina at 480-361-1118 or email info@artintersection.com to schedule a private viewing of the work anytime. Scott T. Baxter’s 100 Years 100 Ranchers signed book is available for purchase on the new Art Intersection retail page here.
