Listen: LA Based Artist Forrest Kirk Channels Aspen History Through ‘A Villain’s Origin Story’

Aspen Public Radio | By Kirsten Dobroth

Published August 5, 2021 at 4:00 AM MDT

Kirk's new exhibition features a piece called 'Hannibal,' which references former Aspen resident Hannibal Brown. The collection of paintings isn't based on Brown's experience in the post silver boom era known as "the quiet years," but it did serve as an inspiration for the work.

Artist Forrest Kirk at his LA studio. His new exhibition "A Villain's Origin Story" is on display at the Marianne Boesky Gallery until September 12.

Forrest Kirk is an LA-based artist with a new exhibition at the Marianne Boesky Gallery. The show is called “A Villain’s Origin Story.” It’s comprised of seven large scale paintings that touch on feelings of past and present isolation — partly through the story of Hannibal Brown, a historical figure from Aspen after the silver boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Arts and culture reporter Kirsten Dobroth spoke to Kirk about the exhibition’s Aspen connection, and his creative process behind the work. “A Villain’s Origin Story” is on display until September 12.

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Kirsten Dobroth

Kirsten was born and raised in Massachusetts, and has called Colorado home since 2008. She moved to Vail the day after graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011. Before relocating to Basalt in 2020, she also spent a year living in one of Aspen’s sister cities, Queenstown, New Zealand.

See stories by Kirsten Dobroth