A pop-up exhibition at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen highlights the work of five established female artists, all working in different styles and mediums.
Cayce Zavalgia created one of the pieces in the show — a portrait of her daughter.
From a distance, the large-scale work looks like a painting; up-close, it’s a work of large-scale embroidery, similar to cross-stitch.
Zavaglia said Aspen is a fitting location for her work, since the valley has a rich history of both artistry and craftsmanship. She’s been a working artist for decades, and she appreciates that this show celebrates other women at the same stage of their creative lives.
“We've been making and mothering and experimenting and hustling and collaborating and growing and stretching and learning, evolving, juggling, reflecting, mentoring other people and basically perfecting our craft for all these years,” Zavaglia said.
Another artist in the show, Nathalia Edenmont, said she’s proud to be featured in this exhibition.
Like Zavalgia, she’s dedicated much of her life to the creative process. But Edenmont never had children; she says she worked double time to make a living as an artist after she immigrated from the Soviet Union to Sweden in her early 20s, and now sees herself as a mother to her work.
Edenmont’s piece in the show — a photo of a shattered bird’s egg — represents her own struggles with fertility.
“All these years I was still hoping somehow I will get a child, but … now I am 54. I know I cannot,” Edenmont told Aspen Public Radio. “So this is a good time for me to make beautiful artworks, the masterpieces, with the eggs which birds tried to fertilize and did not succeed.”
“Now they're in my hands, and I give life to these eggs through my art,” Edemont said.
The works by Zavaglia, Edenmont and several other female artists will be on display at the Hotel Jerome through Sunday, March 31. The collection also includes a textile piece by Mathilde Denize and paintings by Heather Gwen Martin and Rachel Garrard.
The pop-up show is a preview of a new Aspen Art Fair coming to the hotel this summer; it’s also part of the hotel’s “Month of She,” a series of programming connected to Women’s History Month.
