IDAHO FALLS—A pink deer and a blackbird with a beak full of robin eggs offer two different ways of looking at wildlife in Shared Ground: Art & Animals, a new exhibition at The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho.
The exhibition pairs prints by Montana modernist Jessie Wilber with wildlife sculptures by Dan Burgette, a self-taught woodcarver from Tetonia who spent 27 years as a ranger in Grand Teton National Park. The exhibition runs through Jan. 2.
Amy Thompson, the museum’s development director, told BYU-Idaho Radio that the museum first encountered Burgette’s work when one of his sculptures appeared in a Society of Animal Artists exhibition. When the museum brought in Wilber’s prints on loan from the Holter Museum of Art, staff saw an opportunity to show how the two artists interpret the same subject through different lenses.
“It’s a fun interplay between these two artists and their different ways of representing the natural world,” Thompson said.
Wilber uses flattened shapes, contrasting colors and repeated patterns in her prints. In one piece, zebra stripes create a rhythm across the image. In another, she depicts a deer in pink. Burgette, meanwhile, often starts with an encounter he had outdoors and uses wood to capture how a bird moves. In some sculptures, he even shapes the wood to suggest the air flowing around a bird in flight.
“His sculptures really capture the movement, the personality of the bird itself,” Thompson said.
Visitors can scan QR codes beside select pieces to hear stories behind the artwork, and children can use photos to find birds depicted in the gallery. The museum is also developing a video tour for classrooms that can’t visit the exhibit in person.
Thompson said she hopes the exhibition gives visitors a chance to think about their relationship with wildlife and feel welcome in the gallery.
“We also hope that people feel comfortable in the museum and like it’s a place that they feel at home and can return to again and again,” Thompson said.
The museum is at 300 S. Capital Ave. in Idaho Falls. Its regular hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 7, for Community Day. Visitors can take part in an art activity and watch Burgette work on a new sculpture.