Meet Geoffrey Gersten, the artist behind a new exhibition at Aspen Grove Fine Art

Geoffroy Gersten.
Courtesy photo

Thursday, Aspen Grove Fine Art opens a new exhibition featuring the works of Phoenix-based artist Geoffrey Gersten. The exhibition will run until July 1.

He is known for his blend of surrealism and nostalgic oil paintings, which often borrow motifs and images from mid-century American life as well as the West.

Sarah Girgis, arts and entertainment editor for the Aspen Times, spoke with him by phone about his creative inspirations and what it means to be an artist in Phoenix.

The interview below has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sarah Girgis: Have you ever exhibited in Aspen?

Geoffroy Gersten: This is my first serious exhibition in Aspen. I exhibited in a gallery here about 10 years ago. A very different time and a very different style of working back then. So excited to come back and do a real show with a good gallery and with my new contemporary work that I’ve been doing for about five years, and it feels good.

SG: You said you evolved your style about five years ago, right before COVID shut down the world?

GG: Yeah, it was special timing. The crazy thing, especially looking back, is I did a show that started in February 2020, the show was almost completely sold out. The economy was booming. It was a great time for art and art galleries. It was the best show I had had in my entire career so far. And then a month later, everything was stopped.

But before that, I was doing much more whimsical work, a little mid-century inspired, more with animals, not so much with people. I was collecting all these mid-century images for reference, and the images and style of that period appealed to me. I decided to make a radical change at that moment, and it was very scary.

SG: Why did mid-century images impact you?

GG: It’s hard for me to put it into words, even though there are many. The first photo I bought was of a woman standing, holding two children, very young children, standing in a very American suburban neighborhood, next to a tree. And she was looking ahead, toward the camera, under the incredibly strong sun, and there was this epic feeling of belonging, like the feeling of the neighborhood, of the family, of the fact that they didn’t have internet or cell phones. the phones, as they like, lived in this private, isolated way, and it seemed so magical to me.

And I’m sure not everything was perfect and beautiful back then, but looking at the photos I think people were more specifically individualistic, whereas today we’re very pressured by social media and current events and like, you know, everywhere we’re constantly looking at like imagery and how to look and feel and how to be.

SG: What’s it like to be an artist in Phoenix?

GG: For the first 10 years, I felt like I was the only one. The most fun way I started meeting other artists was through deliveries coming to my studio and/or pickups. Drivers would come with a van and pick up art to take to another gallery out of state, and then I would see paintings in the back of the van. And I was like, what? I recognized this artist’s work and discovered that he lives in Phoenix.

It’s different. A large part of contemporary work leaves the State. A lot of the Southwestern style work remains here in Arizona, but I think there’s a nice, slow transition to contemporary. My work is Western, in many ways, but the first time I did a Western painting, I was trying to be sarcastic and a little ironic, but it was a huge success, so I continued to explore that look. Now I’m sort of a faux-Western artist or something.

I think you can create a “Cowboy of the Wild West” piece without being too cliché.

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The opening reception will take place from 3-7 p.m. on Thursday, June 20 at Aspen Grove Fine Art and will be an opportunity to meet Gersten in person. Guests will have the chance to discuss the inspirations and stories behind his pieces while enjoying light refreshments and live music.