Meet Geoffrey Gersten, the artist behind a new exhibition at Aspen Grove Fine Art

On Thursday, Aspen Grove Fine Art is opening a new exhibition featuring the works of Phoenix-based artist Geoffrey Gersten. The exhibition will run through July 1.

He is known for his blend of surrealism and nostalgic oil paintings, which often borrow motifs and imagery from mid-century American life as well as the West.

The Aspen Times arts and entertainment editor, Sarah Girgis, chatted with him via phone about his creative inspirations and what it’s like to be an artist in Phoenix.

The below interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sarah Girgis: Have you shown in Aspen before?

Geoffrey Gersten: It’s my first serious exhibition in Aspen. I did show at a gallery here about 10 years ago. Very different time, and a very different style of work back then. So excited to come back and do a real exhibition with a good gallery and with my new contemporary work that I’ve been doing for about five years, and it feels good.

SG: You said that you evolved your style about five years ago, right before COVID shut the world down?

GG: Yeah, it was peculiar timing. The craziest thing, especially now looking back, is I did a show that opened in February 2020, The show almost totally sold out. The economy was booming. It was a great time for art and art galleries. That was the best show I’d had in my entire career up to that point. And then a month later, everything was shut down.

But before that I was doing much more whimsical work, a little bit mid-century inspired, more with animals, not so much with people. I was collecting all this mid-century imagery for reference, and the imagery and the style of the period grew on me. I decided to change dramatically at the time, and it was very scary.

SG: Why did mid-century imagery resonate with you?

GG: It’s hard for me to put it into words, even though there are lots of them. The first photo I ever bought was of a woman standing holding two children, very small children, standing in a very Americana suburban neighborhood next to a tree. And she was looking forward, at the camera, in an incredibly strong sunlight, and there was this just like epic sense of place to it, like the feeling the neighborhood, the family, the fact that they didn’t have the internet or cell phones, they like, lived in this private, secluded way, and it just seemed so magical to me.

And I’m sure everything wasn’t perfect and lovely then, but looking back at the photos, I think people were more specifically individualist, whereas today we’re very social media pressure and news and like, you know, everywhere we look constantly like imagery, how to look and to feel and how to be.

SG: What’s it like being an artist in Phoenix?

GG: For the first 10 years, I felt like I was the only one. The funniest way I started meeting other artists is through deliveries that would come to my studio and or pickups. Drivers would come with a van, and they would pick artwork up to take it to another gallery out of state, and then I would see paintings in the back of the van. And I was like, what? I recognize this artist’s work and find out they live in Phoenix.

It’s different. A lot of the contemporary work goes out of state. A lot of the Southwestern-style work stays here in Arizona, but I think there’s a nice slow transition to contemporary. My work is Western, in a lot of ways, but the first time I did a Western painting, I was trying to be sarcastic and like, sort of tongue in cheek, but it was a huge hit, so I kept exploring that look. Now I’m sort of a faux-Western artist or something.

I think you can create a “Cowboy of the Wild West” piece without being too cliche.

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The opening reception will take place from 3-7 p.m. on Thursday, June 20 at Aspen Grove Fine Art and will provide an opportunity to meet Gersten in person. Guests will have the chance to discuss the inspirations and stories behind his pieces while enjoying light refreshments and live music.