Rootwings Art at Herran HouseThis unique art space, located in Ridgway’s historic Herran House, gives a nod to the building’s legendary reputation as a turn-of-the-century hotel, boarding house, and at times a bordello. Plush grey walls and red velvet curtains create an atmosphere of playful eroticism around the striking art pieces on display. Powerful illuminated sculptures by the Backers stand on pedestals and hang from the ceiling. Ornate fantasy nudes and portraits by Taos artist Fred Burns fill the wall space.
Text 619-885-5521 for an appointment
Featuring one of a kind furnishings, jewelry, lighting, ceramic art and paintings by local and regional artists.
Artists
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Bruce Backer & Vanessa Backer
The collaborative art by this husband and wife blends porcelain and crystal with fallen trees and lighting creating sculptures that are spiritual, powerful, whimsical, and sometimes sensual. Many of their pieces explore the tension between human values and the natural world.
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Andy Nasisse
We are presenting the sculptural work of renowned artist and Professor Emeritus Andy Nasisse. These figurative landscapes seem to emerge from the clay. The stories the work tells are mysterious, thought provoking and might even put a smile on your face. Independent studio artist, now living in Ridgway. Taught art at University of Georgia, Colorado native, numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums, solo exhibitions are scheduled in 2024 for Sangre de Cristo fine arts center and The Crested Butte Center For The Arts.
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Emma Kalff
In 2020, Emma took a road trip across the U.S and made a series of paintings, which resulted in her first solo show in Telluride, Colorado. After that, her work was featured in Southwest Art magazine's "21 Under 31: Young Artists to Collect Now". Emma’s work has since been featured in American Art Collector, Studio Visit magazine, and Fine Art Connoisseur.
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Fred Burns
This Taos artist is known for his insistence on always working from a live model. His Fantasy Nudes and Portraits shown in the exhibit at Rootwings Art often stage the model amid glimmers of artworks from past centuries. “My aim is not to copy great works of art but to restage them,” Burns explains. “When I pose the model in a way that evokes a painting from a past era, it enables me to enter another historical space, not realistically, but imaginatively.”
Lori Murphy is a mixed-media artist who works with various found materials - from art history books collected at used bookstores to abandoned scraps of paper and objects found while walking the streets of San Francisco, where she lives and works. Materials and methods carry meaning, and she combines the two to create new narratives reflecting her thoughts about history, people, and community. Conceptually relevant, ingeniously creative, art is her way of dealing with and commenting on the world around her. She has exhibited in galleries and museums nationally and received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. 
