THE WYOMING ART PARTY is a locally Run Artist Organization, founded in 2014 BY JUNE GLASSON, Meg thompson and adrienne vetter. SINCE THEN WE'VE BEEN WORKING HARD TO BUILD A WILD AND CREATIVE COMMUNITY AROUND US.
COLLECTIVELY WE ASPIRE TO CREATE PROJECTS THAT CELEBRATE, ENGAGE WITH, AND CHALLENGE OUR WONDERFUL RED STATE! INDIVIDUALLY WE ALSO WEAR MANY HATS. HERE'S A LITTLE BIT ABOUT US:
JUNE GLASSON
June Glasson is an artist and designer that lives in Laramie, WY. She was born in Oyster Bay, NY in 1979 and received her B.A./B.F.A. from Cornell University in 2002. Her paintings have been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery in London, Nature Morte Gallery in Berlin, and various New York and stateside galleries. They have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New American Paintings, The Paris Review, Guernica Magazine, People Magazine, Domino, Asymptote Magazine, SAND Journal, and Diner Journal.
Glasson uses portraiture and found objects to create work that explores gender and ideas about the “American West.” Through drawing, painting, and installation, her work often deploys iconic “western” imagery—buffalo, weaponry, truck nutz, etc.—to investigate dominant narratives about the region, narratives that often ignore its complicated and violent history. Simultaneously, her work also reflects her personal relationship with the landscape, people, and culture of Wyoming - a place that is both exotic and home.
MEG THOMPSON
Meg Thompson Stanton is an artist and artisan working in Laramie, WY. She was born in Laramie, WY in 1977 and received her B.A. from the University of Montana in 1999. After working as a carpenter throughout the West, and as a cabinetmaker in New York City, Thompson evolved into a professional visual artist and furniture maker. After being away from Wyoming for 15 years, she moved back to Laramie in 2011. She has won several awards for her furniture including Exhibitor's Choice Award at the 2012 Western Design Conference, Best in Show for Woodworking at the 2015 Kimball Arts Festival in Park City, and her custom pieces are in homes across the country. As a visual artist she has attended the School of Visual Arts Residency Program, the Brush Creek Residency and her work has been exhibited in shows in New York City and Wyoming. In 2013 she won the commission to design bike racks for downtown Laramie. In 2014-2015 Thompson worked for the public art consulting team, Renee Piechocki and Jennifer McGregor, in developing the Laramie Public Art Plan. She currently works as the Coordinator of the Laramie Public Art Coalition.
Thompson works in several different mediums, heeding the story of the landscape and it’s cultural influences through visual form. She finds inspiration in the inherent historical story of the landscape, found objects of the West, and in the histories of overlooked individuals. Currently her work explores the dichotomy between cultural myths of the West and cultural veracity, especially around unacknowledged contributions of women and minority cultures that still influence contemporary cultural identity in the West.
ADRIENNE VETTER
Adrienne Vetter is an artist currently living in Laramie and working across disciplines from photo-collage to painting to immersive multimedia sculpture installations. She grew up in Riverton, Wyoming and earned an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan School of Art & Design in 2009. Her work has been shown locally throughout Wyoming, nationally in Illinois, Michigan, and Colorado and internationally in Japan. In addition to studio work, Vetter also works as a graphic designer and teaches sculpture courses at Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Autobiography, social class, stereotypes, and a desire to create cognitive dissonance in the contact zones between indigenous and settler distinctions in the American West are strong influences behind Vetter’s artwork. Camper trailers become metaphors for (class) mobility and subliminal conquest mythology of Western expansion. She continues to use collage and assemblage, its three-dimensional counterpart, to make new meanings and create interpretive hybridity within difficult topics.
Vetter’s work is increasingly focused on collaboration and shared authorship. She frequently collaborates with her partner, artist-scientist Colleen Friday(Northern Arapaho) and with other artists and individuals through socially engaged art projects and activism.