There’s a lot of buzz around M2 Gallery’s show “Westland: The Life and Art of Tim West” that opens tonight with a reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. West is the 74-year-old artist from Winslow whose work was featured a couple of years ago at M2; as it did in 2009, M2 is combining West’s work with photographs by Diana Michelle Hausam, who is documenting West’s work in both film and photos. There will be a film crew at tonight’s reception and at an artist’s talk set for 2-4 p.m. tomorrow. M2 is located in the Pleasant Ridge Town Center on Cantrell.
A news release from the gallery says West, as a 19-year-old, had an etching accepted into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University, but the recluse has not exhibited his work until recently, after he met Hausam. Hausam and West became acquainted after she saw a fence he’d constructed of bicycles on his Ozark property and asked to photograph it (read her telling of the story here). The news release quotes West as saying, “I just figured I’d be dead 10 years before anyone would ever notice my art.”
The example of West’s work sent by M2 is an Ozarks scene in sketchy inks and on old and discolored paper. You can see a video of West sketching here and read more about the film on M2’s Facebook page.
