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Emmitt Booher’s photographs, mostly in black and white, capture the breathtaking majesty of nature. Louis Ocepek’s brilliantly colored digital art and paintings look at the human response to the natural world.
Their work comes together in an exhibition entitled “Affinities and Digressions” that continues through Oct. 15 at Unsettled Gallery in Las Cruces’ Mesquite Historic District.
The two artists met at a Las Cruces art exhibit.
“We hit it off,” Booher said. “We seemed to have a lot in common.”
That’s where the “affinities” comes from. As they continued to talk, “digressions” was added to reflect the differences between what each has created and among the pieces in each one’s collection.
In bringing the two together, Unsettled Gallery owner Catherine Smith Brenner “wanted to strike sparks,” Ocepek said.
“Each piece is working with all the other pieces,” Smith said. “Emmitt’s work tends to be quieter. You just take a deep breath and feel a little less stress. Louis’ work always makes you really happy – all those colors in all those pieces. It’s a treasure to have this work in here,” she said.
“Emmitt sees artistic aspects of nature, like trees and clouds,” Ocepek said. “I’m interested in how humans express natural form in other ways… man’s relationship to nature.”
“I’ve been thinking about the Earth,” said Ocepek, who grew up around manufacturing and fabrication in a working-class family in Detroit. He also spent a lot of time canoeing, flyfishing and hiking.
His paintings “Blue Earth Red” and “Color Wheel” show “the condition that we’re in now,” Ocepek said. The Earth is “wonderful, organic, natural,” he said, but “an underwhelming force is threatening to eclipse this.”
Growing up on a small ranch in eastern New Mexico “predicated my love for nature and the outdoors,” Booher said. “Most of my work is really subtle. “It’s the poetry of the ordinary,” he said. “Just life and the celebration of that.”
“That’s what we are,” Ocepek said. “We’re a mixture of those things. ‘Affinities and Digressions’ has a lot of meanings.”
For an exhibition that includes the incredibly complex and the breath-takingly beautiful, visitors to Unsettled Gallery should “spend time to view the intricacies” of each piece,” Smith said. “Stop and look. Stop and think about it.”
“There’s a piece of Louis and I in every piece on these walls,” Booher said.
All the pieces in the show are for sale.
Opening reception and gallery talks
The opening reception for “Affinities and Digressions” is 4-6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19, at Unsettled Gallery, 905 N. Mesquite St.
Gallery talks by Booher and Ocepek are 2 p.m. Saturdays, Sept. 10, at Unsettled Gallery and Sept. 24 at Agave Gallery, 2250 Calle de San Albino in Mesilla.
Gallery hours
Unsettled Gallery is open noon-5 p.m. on Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, by appointment and “by chance,” if Brenner is there.
Unsettled Gallery is located at the intersection of north Mesquite Street and east Picacho Avenue, one block south of the intersection of Spruce Avenue and Mesquite Street.
Call 575-635-2285.
