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Tony Foster: Watercolour Diaries from the Green River

Starts October 26, 2024 Buy Tickets

Exhibition open October 26, 2024 – May 4, 2025

Artist Tony Foster became fascinated with the 50-million-year-old Green River fossilized fish when he first saw them in 1985. It was from these small special objects that he comprised the idea to make a group of artworks about the Green River. He began his project in 2018, creating a major painting of Steamboat Rock and the horseshoe bend from his vantage point up a 400 foot cliff. In the summer of 2019 he took a rafting trip from the Gates of Lodore to Split Rock, creating five smaller paintings en route. From these initial works he created this exhibition about, in Foster’s words: “this magnificent river.”

The Green River is a major tributary of the Colorado River and runs through the states of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. Beginning in the Wind River Mountains, the Green River holds a special spot in the hearts of those living near the Colorado Plateau, where the river has carved a breathtaking landscape of canyons that have lush covering of greenery at their base. Foster’s watercolor paintings, with notes, diaries, maps, and symbolic objects captures the majesty of this local landscape from its geological prehistory to the story of Native American and Western Settlement.

Tony Foster (United Kingdom, b. 1946), From Lower Green River Lake Looking South South East to Squaretop, 2022. Watercolor and graphite on paper, Shoshone – Bannock glass bead necklace by Chastity Teton, map. 45 ½ x 58 1/2 inches. Courtesy of The Foster Museum.
Tony Foster (United Kingdom, b. 1946), Gates of Lodore Looking Downriver, 2019. Watercolor and graphite on paper, Green River Formation fossilized fish, map. 22 1⁄2 x 22 inches. Courtesy of The Foster Museum.
Tony Foster (United Kingdom, b. 1946), Steamboat Rock from 400' up a Cliff, 2018. Watercolor on paper, map, fossilized fish. 48 x 52 inches. Courtesy of The Foster Museum.
Tony Foster (United Kingdom, b. 1946), Stillwater Canyon Looking Upriver, 2022. Watercolor and graphite on paper, map, caran d’ache, sand in glass tube, cork, sealing wax. 22 x 22 inches. Courtesy of The Foster Museum.
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Western Visions® 2024

Through September 29, 2024

Western Visions® is the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s largest and longest-running fundraiser and is one of the signature events of the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival.

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Full Circle: An Exhibition of Community Creation, Curation, and Collaboration

Through September 29, 2024

This exhibition invites the community to be inspired by or re-interpret one of four works from NMWA’s permanent collection. Not only will the exhibition be comprised of works created by community members–it will also be curated by the community. The pieces selected from the submissions by a team of community curators will be displayed in the Wapiti Gallery alongside the inspiration prompt pieces from the permanent collection during the summer and fall of 2024.

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What People Are Saying
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