Born in Madison, Wisconsin, 1951
Lives in Aspen, Colorado since 1979
EDUCATION
BS in Studio Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison,1973
MA in Printmaking, University of Wisconsin, Madison,1978
HONORS
Juror's Choice Award, Arvada Center for the Arts, "528.0," April, 2020
Aspen Art Museum Fellowship, 2020
Aspen Art Museum Press Play, "How does a Robert Armstrong sculpture relate to the 1950s design process of the Interstate Highway Sign System," 2019
EXHIBITIONS
2021
Aspen City Hall, "Grand Opening Exhibition," Aspen, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Small Wonders,"
Aspen, CO
Colorado Mountain College, "Pathfinders," Aspen, CO
2020
Museum of Art Fort Collins, "Rocky Mountain Biennial," Fort Collins, CO
Arvada Center for the Arts, "528.0," Arvada, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Independence Pass," Aspen, CO
2019
Red Brick Center for the Arts,
"Bauhaus in Aspen," Aspen, CO
Red Brick Center for the Arts,
"Landscapes," Aspen, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Flowers," Aspen, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Small Wonders,"
Aspen, CO
2018
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Small Wonders,"
Aspen, CO
2017
The Art Base, "Woodcuts of the Roaring Fork River," Solo exhibition, Basalt, CO
Red Brick Center for the Arts,
"Over the Horizon," Aspen, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Something Other," Aspen, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Small Wonders,"
Aspen, CO
2016
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Small Wonders,"
Aspen, CO
2015
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Fresh Air," Aspen, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery, "Small Wonders,"
Aspen, CO
1993
Mill Street Gallery, "The 10th Mountain Huts," Solo exhibition, Aspen, CO
1992
Colorado Ski Museum, "The 10th Mountain Huts," Solo exhibition, Vail, CO
1985
Patricia Moore Gallery, "Rocks of the Roaring Fork," Solo exhibition, Aspen, CO
REPRESENTATION
Curt is represented by the Artworks Store at Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado.
PRESS
Aspen Art Museum Fellowship Presentation • May, 2020
Appreciating The Surrounding 'Landscapes'
Aspen Public Radio. Christin Kay
Local printmaker Captures Roaring Fork River Scenes in Woodcuts.
Aspen Public Radio. Claire Woodcock September 10, 2017
Curt Carpenter Art Talk. The Art Base, Basalt, Colorado • October 12, 2017
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
"With the powerful simplicity, the rough naïveté, and the often angular awkwardness that the technique brings with it, there's also a peculiar mixture of roughness and tenderness, of energy and dreaminess, that has nowhere found clearer expression than in the production of the woodcut."
—MAX OSBORN
Der Holzschnitt (The Woodcut)
Bielefeld: Velhagen & Klasing. 1903
Simple graphic shapes are the essence of my woodcuts. The landscape where I live in Aspen is full of these shapes. I work from drawings made in the field, much of the time near the Roaring Fork River which runs through a wild gorge near my studio.
Woodcut is a very restrictive art form and I find real freedom in the lack of choices. The characteristics of my woodcuts are simple, blocky, kind of primitive shapes, printed in two colors. The lack of color keeps the images more abstract, less literal, less illustrative, maybe more formal.
The technique of woodcut is more like sculpture than painting. It’s reductive, not additive. Instead of adding paint to a white canvas, the printmaker starts with a black block and cuts away the wood to reveal the image. Straight lines and simple shapes are easiest to cut. The image is cut in reverse, the mirror image of the final woodcut. I print on a hand press using Japanese rice paper in additions of 50 prints.
—CURT CARPENTER
December 2021 | Aspen, Colorado
Sizes listed are the image size. Paper size is 2" larger on all sides.
319 ABC | STUDIO E
ASPEN, COLORADO 81611 970/925-3448
DESIGNED BY CURT CARPENTER © 2021