Gateway Public Art Project
Carbondale just received a new and exciting installation of 5 commissioned murals at the Highway 133 entrance to town as phase one of the Gateway Public Art Project. All artists are Colorado residents, and 3 sculptures all by local artists will be installed later this summer. Learn more about the inception of the project here.
Photos by Sarah Overbeck
“This project sets a great precedent for how we can be proactive about capturing community benefits alongside the growth in our community. It shows that we can create and implement innovative processes for ongoing and sustained funding to support the role of artists in Carbondale.”
2024 Muralists
Sandra Fettingis
Sandra Fettingis, a muralist and installation artist, creates works for the public realm, focusing on geometric patterning. Born in Chicago to South American artist parents, her multicultural upbringing in the city instilled a deep appreciation for pattern, architecture, and street art. Sandra studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and earned a BA from Columbia College Chicago. Now based in Lakewood, CO, Sandra has crafted over 80 large-scale artworks nationwide.
Bimmer Torres
Bimmer's exposure to the Chicano-themed murals and graffiti while growing up in North Denver had a big impact on him. He began practicing graffiti when he was 15 years old, eventually incorporating the letter-painting techniques he developed into his mural work.
With over 18 years of experience collaborating with stakeholders and community members on various art projects, including murals, canvas installations, and sculptures, he has amassed a portfolio of over 200 works across Colorado and neighboring states.
Juls Mendoza
Julio Mendoza (Juls) is a Denver-based multi-disciplinary artist who celebrates his heritage through art. His art style "Surrealismo Cultural" or "Cultural Surrealism" focuses on cultural identity and community.
Born in El Paso, TX and raised in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Juls’ style is defined greatly by his Mexican heritage and Latino culture and has created large-scale murals around the Denver Metropolitan area, Colorado, Mexico, and Europe.
Nicholas Ward
Nicholas creates artwork that examines the fluidity of history and myth, and explores how Hollywood, pop culture, storytelling, and time can warp both history and human behavior. The ‘wild’ west seems to exist more in a hyperbolic landscape of pop culture and media than in grounded fact. The west exists as this romantic, fantastic corner of storytelling and is so foundational in North American identity and psyche. Nicholas embraces this and exaggerates proportions/ elements within his paintings to illustrate this fantastic sense of unreality and almost-otherworldliness.
Alexandrea Pangburn
A large scale muralist and animal realism artist currently based in Golden, Colorado. Originally from Lexington, Kentucky and University of Kentucky alumni (GO BIG BLUE), Alex moved to Colorado in 2017 where she was able to fully immerse herself in her inspiration of the west. Her work brings the beauty of wild to a large-scale and her composition helps tie both land and animal together.
Alex is also the Executive Director of Babe Walls - her passion project that supports women and non-binary artists in the world of street art.
2024 Sculptors
Leah Aegerter
Leah Aegerter is an artist working in object-based sculpture and installation. She lives in Carbondale, CO and spends much of her free time exploring the mountains and deserts of the American West on foot and raft. Using a combination of digital fabrication techniques and traditional processes in materials such as wood, paper and steel, her work investigates her relationship to landscape and intimacy with material. Leah received a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017. In 2022 she was named an Aspen Art Museum Artist Fellow.
Chris Erickson
Recognized for his captivating use of color through contemporary works that blur the line between sculpture and painting. His art encourages the examination of color as expression and its relationship to human behavior. Born in Denver, Chris became inspired through city skate culture iconography and the concrete canvas.
Chris continues to execute in a multidisciplinary fashion, which is evident through his recognized “Melting Gondola” sculpture set atop Aspen Mountain. He remains inspired to utilize art as a platform for conversation. SuperULTRAmega is an interpretation of distilling the distracting noise of the modern technological world into a tenacious display of energy.
Brad Reed Nelson
Brad Reed Nelson’s studio is situated midway between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale, Colorado. Brad is a fine artist, product designer and furniture maker who has called the Roaring Fork Valley home for twenty five years. Brad works predominantly in metal and wood. Currently, Brad is creating artwork in response to humankind’s contemporary world and how it interacts with nature. Nature and humankind are forever intertwined in our Valley and this relationship provides ceaseless inspiration.
Being selected for this public project is a great honor for Brad, and he is excited to present his work to the Carbondale community.