Tom Uttech wildlife landscapes at 2025 Aspen Art Fair July 29-August 2

Alexandre Gallery’s participation in the second edition of the Aspen Art Fair centers on an exhibition of large-scale paintings by Tom Uttech (b. 1942; Merrill, WI), one of the most profound American landscape painters working today.

Informed by his childhood upbringing in the North Woods of Wisconsin, Uttech’s reverence for the natural world is reflected in the observational yet transcendent spirit of his compositions. The artist’s paintings are epics, narrating the delicate magic of old growth forests, migratory patterns, and seasonal shifts.

Stretching across a vast region including what is now northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, Michigan, the upper Great Lakes, east to Montreal and west into Saskatchewan, the fictional, but inspired landscapes Uttech paints are geologically known as the Precambrian Shield. Here, ancient igneous rock forming the core of the continent is exposed. Ethnographically, it is the ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabe.

From TheCanadianEncyclopedia.ca: “While Anishinaabe is most commonly used to describe Ojibwe people, it can refer to other First Nations that also identify as Anishinaabe. These include Chippewa, Odawa, Potawatomi, Algonquin…as well as some Oji-Cree and Métis. It is important to remember that Anishinaabe is not a synonym for Ojibwe.”

Uttech has been using Anishinaabe words to title his pictures for more than 25 years. The practice began when a fellow professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee shared with him a copy of an Ojibwe language lexicon he believes was written in the 1600s by a Catholic priest in northern Minnesota with Ojibwe to English and English to Ojibwe translations.

The Aspen exhibition will feature a selection of large-scale imaginary woodland and migratory scenes for which Uttech is most celebrated. His paintings celebrate nature’s abundance. They recall a time when passenger pigeons flying overhead could block out the sun for hours. When great bison herds shook the plains.

The paintings span nearly thirty years of the artist’s practice, demonstrating his longstanding commitment and devotion to the woods that have surrounded him for decades.

In addition to the paintings, Uttech also makes his own frames, no small chore considering his larger works stretch to 8×10 feet. When asked what he gets out of frame building, he responds in a perfect Wisconsin deadpan, “frustration and slivers.”

Ever the Midwesterner, a little extra work has never discouraged Uttech who can stuff his big paintings with more than 1000 birds.

About Tom Uttech

Tom Uttech studied at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee and at the University of Cincinnati, where he received his MFA in 1976. He currently lives and works in Wisconsin. The artist’s works are included in the collections of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Milwaukee Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American art Museum, among others.

Public Fair Hours:

Tuesday, July 29: 3-5PM

Wednesday, July 30: 12–6PM

Thursday, July 31: 12–6PM

Friday, August 1: 12–6PM

Saturday, August 2: 11AM–4PM