Show Preview | Cowgirl Up!

For over two decades, the Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West exhibition and sale has championed the vision and talent of women artists who live, work and create in the West. “This show is more than an exhibition—it’s a movement,” says Sigler Western Museum Executive Director Dan Finley.

Formerly the Desert Caballeros Western Museum, the Sigler Western Museum will display 300 works in this show from 60 different artists, including returning favorites and exciting newcomers. The show runs March 27 to May 31, with its ticketed opening weekend happening March 27 through 29.

As Dr. Tricia Loscher, the Dita and John Daub Curator of Western Women’s Art and Chief Curator at the Sigler, explains, when Cowgirl Up! launched in 2005, its primary mission was to create a space for women artists within the male-dominated Western art world. “Today, more than ever, it is critical to provide a space where women artists can exhibit their work, share their ideas and inspirations, and offer a well-rounded understanding of the dynamics of the Western American experience as seen through many diverse eyes and perspectives,” she says.

According to Loscher, what began as a single event has grown into a vibrant annual tradition. Weaving together artists from across the country with the local community and international collectors, the show breaks free from traditional media by leaping beyond oil and bronze works to include artists who experiment with glass, steel, textiles and digital manipulation to craft energetic, textured masterpieces.

Collectors will find work by innovative artists such as Maeve Eichelberger, known for her bold mixed media works that push the boundaries of traditional Western motifs. Eichelberger says that having her work in the exhibition is a way to “initiate the conversation of fragility and sturdy grit. Our West is delicate, tough, beautiful and gritty.”

Returning to Cowgirl Up! are artists such as Lisa Danielle, Shawn Cameron, Micqaela Jones, Deborah Copenhaver Fellows and Linda Glover Gooch. The exhibition, as Loscher shared, includes textile art by Georgia Roswell and the ledger art by Dolores Purdy, alongside Western realism and traditional sculpture, graphite and large-scale paintings.

For artist and horsewoman Jan DeLipsey, now in her seventh decade, her Cowgirl Up! painting FOR SPACIOUS SKIES reflects her lived experience of riding her horse, Little Hawk, on a fall afternoon. DeLipsey says these experiences allow her to see—and paint—the West “with restraint, clarity and honesty.” She says the exhibition stands apart “because it broadens the understanding of the American West without abandoning rigor or tradition.” The greatest joy of the curated show, she adds, is how it brings together women who live and breathe the West. “The depth and intimacy brought by the artwork fills in long-missing chapters seldom centered in the visual story of the American West,” she explains.

Celebrating women as trailblazers who are reshaping and revitalizing contemporary Western art, Cowgirl Up! has shined a light on women within a genre long steered by men. But today, Loscher says, the exhibition and sale moves beyond that goal to ultimately “breathe new life into Western art and secure a legacy for women artists, ensuring their voices echo for generations to come.” —Doreen Manning

contact information(928) 684-2272westernmuseum.org/cowgirl-up

This story appeared in the February/March 2026 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.

The post Show Preview | Cowgirl Up! appeared first on Southwest Art Magazine.