Front Range Women celebrated in RedLine art exhibit

Front Range Women in the Visual Arts is celebrating the 40^th anniversary of its founding with an exhibition titled “Transit of Venus: Four Decades” at RedLine Gallery, 2350 Arapahoe St., now through February 2017.

As a tribute to the late Sandra Wittow, one of its original members, Front Range Women is featuring one of Wittow’s paintings, “Parable of Bordeaux,” as the first work in the exhibition.

Wittow’s autobiography, “thickerthanpaint A LIFEWORK,” is on sale at RedLine Gallery during the Front Range Women exhibition.

“Transit of Venus: Four Decades,” curated by William Biety, is the first exhibition in a year-long exhibition series at RedLine.

In his introduction to the exhibition, Biety, who is past director of The Sandy Carson Gallery and the Van Straaten Gallery, wrote:

“In 1974 Front Range Women in the Visual Arts was born. Founded by a group of university-trained women artists who used art to confront gender imbalances in high education and cultural institutions, Front Range Women in the Visual Arts rose to become the premier arts organization in Colorado.  Comprised of top regional, national and international women artists, the group’s work addresses the social, cultural and economic inequities between men and women that result from patriarchal practices in society.

“In addition to their efforts to push for greater parity in the arts and culture, women of the Front Range Women in the Visual Arts stand as role models and agents of change for each new generation of women artists. Their art represents the possibilities that emerge when art and social consciousness meet in studio practice. With this show, we celebrate them as career artists, mothers, partners and leaders in our communities.”

In announcing the 40^th anniversary exhibition, Sally Elliott, an original member of Front Range Women in the Visual Arts, elaborated on Biety’s comments.

“When Front Range was founded in 1974,” she wrote, “women artists were excluded from mainstream critical discourse, under-represented on university faculties and in galleries and museums, and experienced a pervasive lack of community and opportunities to define and exhibit our art. Over the years, Front Range has transformed from a local support group to a circle of artists with national stature, exhibiting across the U.S. and abroad.”

Wittow, who died in 2011, was a significant pioneer within the group – the first woman artist invited to present a one-person showing at the Denver Art Museum.  Her husband, Herb Wittow, published his wife’s autobiography in July 2013.

Herb Wittow check out the ‘Parable of Bordeaux’ by is late wife, Sandra Wittow. The painting and others by Sandra Wittow are on display at the ‘Transit of Venus’ exhibit at RedLine Gallery. The exhibit opened Jan. 10 (RedLine Gallery photo)