When Robin Reiners and Michael Carpenter were visiting the Venice Biennale art show in Italy, they discovered international artist Philip Tsiaras who, in turn, discovered Ketchum.
"You have to put yourself where there is the most potential grow," said Tsiaras, who has shown at the Biennel show three times.
On Friday, Aug. 31, "Horse Boy," a retrospective of paintings and sculpture by Tsiaras, will open at Gallery DeNovo in Ketchum where Tsiaras will be present from 6 to 9 p.m. during the Sun Valley Gallery association's Gallery Walk.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-length, hand-bound book about Tsiaras' exhibition, also titled "Horse Boy." Jointly published by Canova Books, Tresviso and Gallery DeNovo, the book will be available for Tsiaras to sign at the opening.
Tsiaras has been a working artist for almost 30 years. His work spans from painting on canvas, to glass, ceramic, bronze and photography. He has presented more than 70 solo exhibitions around the world, and has five works in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Despite ownership of his pieces by several corporations, dozens of group exhibitions, awards and National Endowment for the Arts grants he has received in both painting and photography, Tsiaras believes his work is never truly finished.
"I never finish any theme, which I think is the way life is," Tsiaras said in a phone conversation from his New York City loft apartment. "Everyone has issues to work on, and you can't escape them. They are there. I like the idea of exploring a subject over time. As I change, so does the work change."
Considered a Renaissance man who pushes the barriers of his art and the art world, Tsiaras has spent a great deal of his time in Europe and most recently in Murano, Italy, working with glass masters.
"At the moment, I love making glass, and you cannot make glass just anywhere. You need to be where people know what they are doing," Tsiaras said. "It is $1,000 an hour. It costs to work with really good people."
Tsiaras is an avant-garde artist. He said his work is more psychologically based and borders on the erotic because he is not afraid of expression, which he attributes to his liberal arts education.
"I was not trained as an artist," Tsiaras said. "I was a poet and majored in literature. My whole approach to visual arts is very different from studio-educated artists. They get bogged down mentally."
Italian art critic Angelo Pauletti said of Tsiaras, "the truest and the most compelling core of the New York artist is expressed in his horses."
"People who collect my work are intellectuals and high-end collectors," Tsiaras said. "A person who is buying my work buys with his eyes not his ears."
"Horse Boy" will continue as a traveling exhibition to the Friesen Gallery in Seattle after Ketchum.
For more details, call 726-8180 or visit gallerydenovo.com.
?Sexy Horse,? mixed media on canvas by Philip Tsiaras at Gallery DeNovo.
