Bryant photos selected for Governor's Art Exhibit

Local artist Barrie Lynn Bryant, of Kirby, is one of 46 artists selected to have his artwork featured during the 2024 Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition. This year's exhibit features 50 works and Bryant is one of the selected artists who will have two of his images featured.

The exhibition opens in the Capitol Gallery at the Wyoming State Capitol on Friday, February 9. The Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition is a biennial survey of contemporary Wyoming artists with work selected from an open call. The exhibition is organized by the Wyoming State Museum and Wyoming Arts Council.

Artists in the exhibition will be honored at the public reception and awards ceremony on February 16. Works receiving purchase awards, the Governor's Choice Award, Juror's Choice Award, and People's Choice Award, will be announced during the reception. The exhibition will be on display through August 10. 

Juror Terri Porta selected the pieces from over 350 submissions. Terri Porta is a multidisciplinary artist, place-maker, activist, and community advocate for the arts based in Billings, MT. Her work at the intersection of creativity and mental health care led to her selection as the first Artist in Residence for Billings through the Mobilize the Magic City project, which received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. 

The work Bryant is exhibiting is from his current documentary coverage at the Arapaho Ranch Field Station in Hot Springs County.

The first title is Northern Arapaho Ranch: Lost Portrait. "Within a week of starting my new work out at the ranch, I discovered an abandoned structure that had abandoned personal belongings in it. I felt a bit sad since this portrait and other family pics were on the floor and rubble. I hung this portrait on this section of wall and made this exposure. Then I moved it around and made more exposures. This one turned out to be the best for me. The image is a more personal fine art type work than a newsworthy documentary image," said Bryant.

The second title is Northern Arapaho Ranch: Tim Two Hearts. Bryant explained, "I made this portrait recently during October at the main ranch headquarters by the big historic barn. This was almost my last exposure of the day. Tim has been working at the ranch for three years and calls this his dream job. Tim was helping the cowboys sort cows in the corrals while they were preparing for a late-season branding."

He added, "They have 4,200 head of cattle out there on that 450,000-acre ranch. It's a huge property and job. Most of the photographs I made of Tim were candid of him working, but when he jumped up on this fence rail, I asked him to look directly at me and then to take off his sunglasses. I made only one exposure of him looking at me and it has quickly become one of my all-time favorite portraits ever. I like it even more as a black and white image and I have since printed it that way. But when I took the photo, the deadline to enter the show for selection was right around the corner. I had not yet printed it black and white. I just hadn't had time to consider it as a black and white. Red is a strong color and there's a lot of it in the photo. So making it black and white takes out that as a distraction. The image also works well as a square by cutting out most of the barn."

Bryant said one of the things he is tasked with doing at the ranch is documenting past ranch employees. "I am discovering how transient cowboy life can be. Cowboys and girls come and go quickly. The irrigators and hands stick around longer, and they are usually enrolled tribal members like Tim is. He's Arapaho and Sioux," said Bryant.

This is Bryant's third time being selected for the exhibition. "I remember when Wyoming did not have a Governor's show like this, and Colorado and Utah had them. I sent a note card to Governor Jim Geringer asking about exhibiting art in the Governor's Mansion. Not long after that, Governor Geringer announced the inaugural show. I was juried into it with two sheep and wool industry photographs. That's back when they were darkroom prints, which I made myself in my basement. One was of Kirk Tolman's sheep and the other was of J.R. Broadbent sheep between Evanston and Kemmerer. The state purchased the Broadbent image for its permanent collection. I think that was in 2000. My late wife, Annabelle, was also juried in and won the Bobby Hathaway Juror's Choice once. I participated in the 2020 show with my Moon Setting over the Hernandez's photograph I took here in Kirby. The State Museum purchased it for its permanent collection as well. In fact, it has been hanging on permanent display in the State Museum Barrett Building for quite some time," said Bryant.

The space where this exhibition will be hung is the space where the Bighorn Basin Documentary Photography Project was on view for 11 months last year. Bryant had been awarded an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the Wyoming Arts Council to create that project. That exhibition consisted of 45 photographs from the four counties making up the Bighorn Basin. "Our exhibition was the first to be held in this newly renovated space in the newly renovated Capitol Annex. I was blown away at how awesome this space was when I showed up to see Kevin Ramler and Elizabeth DeGrenier of the State Museum hanging our exhibition. They asked me if I thought the space was adequate for the exhibition. Governor Mark Gordon attended the reception and he asked the same question. All I could say was, 'This is quite an honor and beautiful space, Governor Gordon. I am a lucky skunk,'" stated Bryant.

The Wyoming State Museum purchases several works from the exhibition for its collections. These works are preserved for future generations as a record of the artists working in Wyoming today. Works purchased for the Capitol Art Collection are displayed in public offices of state agencies. 

The public can vote for their favorite piece for the People's Choice Award via the Museum's Facebook page starting February 9. All works in the exhibition are also for sale to the public. Beginning on February 9, purchases can be made through the Wyoming State Museum's website or in person at the Museum. Purchased works will be available for pickup after the show closes on August 10.

The Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition will be up from February 9-August 10 at the Capitol Gallery. The Capitol is open to the public Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. A reception will be held on Friday, February 16 from 5-7 p.m. and is open to the public. 

Bryant's photograph, Lost Portrait, is also featured in an exhibition that opened on Tuesday at the SinClair Gallery in the Orendorff Building on the Northwest College Campus. The gallery is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday.