Palette Painting 2017: a new show featuring the work of 50 amazing emerging artists

"The painter’s palette is the simplest of tools, a humble plane of potential biding unseen and unremarked behind images and ideas both soaring and deep." -Dina Brodsky, painter and curator of the Palette show

This month the Abend gallery in Denver, USA is home to the Palette Painting show 2017. This incredible show was brought into conception last year by New York painter and inspired art curator Dina Brodsky, who introduced it last year at the Lodge Gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side along with co-curator Trek Lexington.

Beginning with Dina painting upon one of her own used palettes, the idea took flight, spreading to friends and colleagues of the artist and resonating with painters worldwide who connected to the idea, often through the Instagram hashtag #palettepainting_2017

While most painters do indeed use palettes to mix paints and often keep them long after a painting is completed, this show turns the focus onto the artist's tool itself.

The tool has become the artwork itself.

Some digging into history revealed that this is not the first time a painter has turned their hand to the palette. Indeed, at least as far back as 1890, artists such as Luis Menéndez Pidal have explored the substrate. See the full description of this palette painting here to learn about its curious history
In this way, the current show revives a theme which have been running through the collective artists' subconscious and elevates it to fill the gallery walls.

There are 50 amazing palettes in the show- I have just included photos of some of my favourites here.

You can see the full range of paintings on the gallery's website: http://www.abendgallery.com/html_shows/17-palette

Essential details of the show: Palette

Curated by Dina Brodsky and Trek Lexington June 15th - July 8th, 2017

Participating Artists: Liz Adams-Jones, James Adelman, Erin Anderson, Steven Assael, Daniel Bilodeau, Luis Borrero, Maya Brodsky, Charis J. Carmichael Braun, Zach Brown, Sue Bryan, Garrett Cook, April Coppini, Diana Corvelle, Benjamin Craig, Cara DeAngelis, Dimitri Desiron, Michelle Doll, Daniel Doubrovkine, Heidi Elbers, Christian Fagerlund, Shauna Finn, Julien Gardair, Nick Gebhart, Jennifer Gennari, Alonsa Guevara, Andrew Haines, Eben Haines, Joshua Henderson, F Scott Hess, Rafael Hoekstra, Caitlin Hurd, Kieran Ingram, John Jacobsmeyer, Yunsung Jang, Marshall Jones, Kit King, Evan Kitson, Brandy Kraft, Maria Kreyn, James Kroner, Shawn Krueger, Andrew Lenaghan, Amber Lia-Kloppel, Tim Lowly, Daniel Maidman, Brian Mashburn, Adam McGalliard, Anna Mogilevsky, Tun Myaing, Jessica Pisano, Kim Power, James Raczkowski, Per Elof Nilsson Ricklund, Matt Rota, Nicolas Sanchez, Denis Sarazhin, Raphael Sassi, Victoria Selbach, Josh Suda, Maria Teicher, Mark Trujillo, Emilio Villalba, Melanie Vote, John Wellington, John Wentz, Timothy Wilson, Zane York, Miles Yoshida