Astoria Fine Art, Jackson, WY September 17-30
ASTORIA FINE ART celebrates the legacy of the land with True Hands, an exhibition of new paintings by nationally acclaimed artists G. Russell Case, Joseph Alleman, Jill Soukup and Zhaoming Wu. On view September 17 to 30, True Hands is the realization of an idea conceived by gallery director and co-owner Pierce Tome, who challenged four artists to respond to their experiences on one of the region’s last working family ranches, the Campbell Ranch in Bondurant, Wyoming.
In June 2025, the artists traveled to the ranch, where they got a firsthand look at working cowboys and cowgirls. Homesteaded by Loretta and Lennie Campbell in 1910, today the ranchland thrives under their third- and fourth-generation descendants. The modern-day Campbells embrace centuries-old traditions: manually seeding the fields, cutting hay and tending to their herd via horse-drawn wagons and sleighs.
The artists immediately threw themselves into ranch life, photographing, sketching and painting. “There was a great respect between the artists and the ranchers,” says Tome. The artists wanted to learn about the history and mechanics of the ranch, and the ranchers were equally curious about the artists’ creative processes. Josephine Campbell, Astoria employee and wife of rancher Walden Campbell, says, “What a great thing to bring the Western world and fine art together. It was a pretty special thing to witness.”
Case was inspired by the powerful landscape along with the tenacity of the men and women who work it. “It was really exciting to be invited, to come into somebody else’s world like that,” he says. Case returned several times throughout the year to capture the changing foliage, light and colors. “We hope we can do it justice for them,” he says, “capture a little story and the history of what some of these people went through and how important it is, the way they view holding on to this heritage.
Alleman is no stranger to translating the intricacies of the land, sky and figure into intriguing two-dimensional compositions. Campbell recalls the rigor and enthusiasm with which Alleman began to produce plein air sketches of the ranch as soon as he arrived. “He threw up his easel and started painting,” she says.
Soukup was moved by the Campbells’ regenerative approach to land management, and she hopes that commitment is evident in biggest hope is that people pick up on the appreciation that I have for visiting the Campbell Ranch, their people and land,” she says. “Being there in the environment and meeting the people and experiencing the location gives you a perspective on it that you couldn’t have any other way.”
Wu only recently added cowboys and cowgirls to his strikingly representational compositions. “There is a magnetism in those paintings that I have not seen in anything we’ve ever carried in the gallery,” remarks Tome. Campbell notes that Wu homed in on figural work while at the ranch, taking photos and making numerous sketches of the working ranchers who also served as models.
Astoria hosts a public reception for True Hands on Friday, September 18, from 5 to 8 p.m., reuniting the artists and ranchers who inspired the exhibition. Tome says, “To have all these artists come together and paint this really authentic material—it’s going to tell a great story.”—Elizabeth L. Delaney
contact information(307) 733-4016astoriafineart.com
This story appeared in the August/September 2026 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.
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