The-Art-of-Kingfisher-updated-Oct-2017

Lesch’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of public institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Tucson Museum of Art, and the Center for Creative Pho

THE ART OF KINGFISHER

When four partners created Kingfisher in 1993, they knew from the start they wanted to establish an American grill that would serve up the freshest seafood possible And they knew that they wanted to buy local art for the walls

“We’re not most restaurants,” says partner Jim Murphy “We try to do something different.”

Over the years, Kingfisher’s partners have sought out sophisticated work by some of Tucson’s most acclaimed artists, amassing a collection that serves as window onto the city’s lively art scene The many works range from daring glass “rock” sculptures by Tom Philabaum to paintings by Jim Waid that capture the intense heat and light of the desert Southwest Acrylics by the late Nancy Tokar Miller turn watery landscapes into meditative abstractions, and photos by William Lesch render the big skies of the West in startling black and white

Kingfisher purchases all the art in its collection, putting money back into the community “It’s about supporting local artists,” Murphy says

Murphy first met late business partner Tim Ivankovich in the 1980s when both were working at a restaurant on Tucson’s eastside The food was acclaimed but the art was not

“It was of ducks with bonnets and bows,” Murphy recalls with a chuckle “It was just cute, goofy art.” The two swore that if they ever had a restaurant of their own, they would buy only art of the highest quality

They had that chance some years later after meeting Jeff Azersky and Johnny Burke on the job at Boccata restaurant The four joined forces to create Kingfisher, buying the old Iron Mask, a restaurant with a continental menu and dark wood paneling on the walls The four partners shifted the menu to fresh seafood and local produce, tore out the paneling and transformed the walls into

a canvas for local art

Working primarily with Etherton Gallery, the partners assembled a thoughtful collection They bought urbane figure paintings by the late James Davis, riveting painted photos by Kate Breakey, shadowy photos by Ken Rosenthal Some of the art playfully alludes

to the restaurant’s namesake bird – there’s a kingfisher in stained glass, another in an Audubon print Terry Etherton, proprietor of Etherton Gallery and a photographer in his own right, pushes the seafood theme with his five-part photo “Oysters.”

Many of the artists whose work the partners acquired were neighbors, or customers

“We’d see Cynthia Miller and we’d say, `Come over and show us what you have,’” Murphy says “Nancy Miller was up the street, a friend Steve Orlen (husband of painter Gail Marcus-Orlen) was my brother’s friend We get local people.”

Kingfisher also engages in art philanthropy, recently donating a large-scale painting by David Andres to Tucson Medical Center Andres’s elegant image of the Sea of Cortez now soothes the suffering of patients

Every summer, Kingfisher closes for two weeks to have the walls repainted by local artist Don Montrose who uses a trowel and plaster to meticulously layer the colors Bea Mason of Lewis Framing Gallery shuffles the artwork, rehanging the pieces in new places to keep the look fresh

The two remaining owners, Murphy and Azersky, see their gallery-in-a-restaurant as a continuing contribution not only to the arts but to the community “It’s something we’re sticking with,” Murphy says

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WILLIAM LESCH

William Lesch came to Tucson, Arizona from Indianapolis, IN in 1977 to attend the University of Arizona, where he received his B.F.A and pursued graduate studies He currently works as a fine art and architectural photographer He has been featured in numerous exhibitions and was also the subject of a PBS

documentary, Arizona Artforms Lesch’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of public institutions

including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Tucson Museum of Art, and the Center for Creative Photography

at the University of Arizona

Develping Thunderhead Cloud Waves Developing Thunderstorms over the Tucson Valley

Gathering Storm #36

NANCY TOKAR MILLER

Nancy Tokar Miller was known for her shimmering near-abstractions of land, sea and sky, painted in brilliant, liquid colors

Born in 1941, Tokar Miller grew up in Los Angeles, near the ocean, but she had lived in Tucson since 1968 She studied art at the University of Arizona, earning a master's in 1971 She traveled the world with her beloved husband, Walter, and what she saw —

in Asian jungles and Moorish cities — made its way into her art back home in her Tucson studio In recent years, she was inspired

by the sandhill cranes on Arizona's Willcox Playa and the beaches and mountains of Hawaii

"We're extremely saddened by the loss of our longtime friend and artist," said Hannah Glasston, director of Etherton Gallery, which represented her "Her death is a huge loss to us personally and to the community She worked so hard and stuck to her vision Her beautiful work, fortunately, is still here."

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CYNTHIA MILLER

Cynthia Miller was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin but has spent most of her life near the Sonoran Desert since moving to the Southwest as a child in 1963 She studied creative writing at the University of Arizona, and then painting at the San Francisco Art Institute In addition to earning a reputation as one of

Tucson’s premier painters, in the early 1980s Miller created sculptural installations such as Yaqui Goes to LA for the

Scottsdale Center for the Arts She has also collaborated on dance theatre projects with the Orts Theatre of Dance, and created several books with Chax Press Miller is the recipient of numerous awards including the Arizona Arts Award and

a Painting Fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts In 2008, she had her first solo show at the CUE Art Foundation in New York Miller has been teaching studio art to children and adults in the Tucson area for over twenty years; she currently teaches at The Drawing Studio and The Learning Curve, an independent arts and humanities forum

A member of the Tucson Artist Group (TAG) and Tucson Poetry Group (POG), she shares a studio and life with husband and poet Charles Alexander of Chax Press and their two daughters

KEN ROSENTHAL

Since 2002 Ken Rosenthal’s work has been featured in more than 150 solo and group exhibitions internationally Recent solo exhibitions of have been held at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA; Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires; El Cabildo de la Ciudad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Espacio Foto, Montevideo, Uruguay; and Etherton Gallery in Tucson, AZ In September 2010 a solo exhibition of new and recent work will open at DeSantos Gallery in Houston, Texas

Rosenthal’s photographs are in the permanent collections of prominent public institutions including The George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Portrait Gallery, London; The Art Institute of Chicago; Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, MA; and the Wittliff Gallery of Southwest and Mexican Photography, which recently established a major collection of his work

JEFF SCOTT

Jeff Scott is known for his dramatic imagery of America’s historic and cultural landscape He has exhibited widely in the United States; and his work is in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, Elvis Presley Enterprises, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation Selections from the series based

on Elvis’s personal archives were exhibited recently at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA Jeff Scott is also

the author of Elvis: The Personal Archives, a collection of his artwork from this series

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JIM WAID

Jim Waid has lived and worked in Tucson for 40 years He received a BFA from the University of New Mexico and an MFA from the University of Arizona From 1971-1980, he taught art at Pima Community College In 1985, he received

a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship He has been a visiting artist at the University of Arizona, the University of Idaho, Arizona State University, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and the University of Oklahoma

He was a founding member of Dinnerware Artists Cooperative in Tucson Jim Waid’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the country, and is in several public collections including the Arizona State University Art Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art; the University of Arizona Museum of Art; the Phoenix Art Museum, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, NY; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA; and the Museum of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM In 2013, Waid was awarded the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award

Red Dove

BARBARA SMITH OTT

Barbara Smith was born in Pasadena, California, where her early connection with several art instructors led to a lifelong passion in visual art She migrated to the southwest in 1966 and received her BFA from the University of Arizona in

1979 While at the University of Arizona, Smith’s work was inspired by professors Bruce McGrew, Doug Denniston and Charles Littler Her work has been included in national competitions and shows, for which she has received multiple awards and recognition Barbara Smith is represented in the permanent collections of private and public institutions across the country, including the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson International Airport, Northwest Hospital, Janos Restaurant, Miraval Resort, the IBM Corporation in San Jose and the World Trade Center in Dallas

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TERRY ETHERTON

Terry Etherton established Etherton Gallery in Tucson, Arizona in 1981 and began a career that has brought his gallery recognition as one of the top photography galleries in the United States The gallery is known for its museum quality exhibitions and extensive inventory of works by master photographers including Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Elliott Erwitt, Flor Garduño, Emmet Gowin, Graciela Iturbide, Mark Klett, Danny Lyon, Richard Misrach, Frederick Sommer, Garry Winogrand, Joel-Peter Witkin and many others Etherton Gallery participates in major art fairs, such as The AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) Photography Show in New York, Paris Photo Los Angeles, and Classic Photographs LA Terry Etherton has long-standing relationships with public institutions, corporations and private collectors worldwide He is an Accredited Member of The American Society of Appraisers and regularly consults on all matters relating to photography, including conducting appraisals

Oysters

MICHAEL O'NEILL

Michael O’Neill was born in the United States in the United States in 1946 His photographic career started in the jungles of Chiapas and Quintana Rao, Mexico in 1965 O’Neill’s commercial work, spanning the decade from 1970-1980, won him many industry awards for his still-life advertising photography and television direction

In 1980 he started a transition into portraiture accepting many editorial magazine assignments

O’Neill’s portraits of film stars, celebrities and politicians have been used extensively by Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Time, Sports Illustrated, People, InStyle, and Newsweek as well as

major film studios and advertising agencies

The Zoobabies project was started in 1991 and led to the publication of a book titled Zoobabies

(Currently out of print), published by Villard Books of New York City

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J A ME S G D A V I S

The late James G Davis was a native Mid-Westerner who lived and worked in the Northern Sonoran desert since 1967 He received his formal education at Wichita State University, earning a BA and MFA from that institution Davis spent several years working in Mexico and in Spain and has spent time in Deya, Mallorca

Davis taught at the University of Missouri and the University of Arizona for before taking an early retirement to focus on his painting and exhibition schedule

His paintings are in the permanent collections of major public institutions including, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; the Phoenix Museum of Art and the Tucson Museum of Art He also has work in several other institutions in the US and Europe

In addition to his Arizona studio, the Davis maintained studios in the Colorado Rocky Mountains near Woodland Park and in Nova Scotia, Canada on the Atlantic south shore He also worked and exhibited in Berlin

BARBARA ROGERS

Rogers has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally including 44 solo exhibitions at major galleries and museums in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Scottsdale, Germany, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates Her work

is in major public and private collections including The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Scottsdale Museum of

Contemporary Art, The Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona State University Museum of Art, The Oakland Museum of Art and the San Jose Museum of Art

Barbara’s works has been reviewed in such major publications as The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times, Art News, Art Forum and Art in America

Rogers was born in Newcomerstown, Ohio and grew up in Canton Ohio She graduated in Commercial Art from Timken High School, and graduated with a B.SC degree in Arts Education from Ohio State University In California she studied painting at The San Francisco Art Institute with Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff and Frank Lobdell She studied life drawing with Nathan Oliviera at California College of Arts and Crafts She received the Eisner Prize and her MA in Painting from the University of

California at Berkeley At UC Berkeley she studied with NY painters Michael Goldberg and Angelo Ippolito Her major professor was the Chicago/NYC painter, Felix Ruvolo

Rogers has been a faculty member or visiting artist at the University of California Berkeley, CA, University of Chicago, San Jose State University, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, The San Francisco Art Institute, Cooper Union, New York City, NY, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA Pusan National University, Pusan, South Korea and Zayed University in Adu Dhabi In 2007, After numerous mentoring and teaching awards, Rogers retired from the University of Arizona and is now Professor Emeritus of Painting and Drawing in the School of Art at The University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ