Welcome artist Marvin Cooney!

Cooney studied masonry outside of Bath, England and worked in restoration on the Abbeys and the Cathedrals of the countryside. 

In 2003, he was visiting Aspen, Colorado, when he decided to stay and work as a mason building fireplaces and creating Façades for the many grand homes in the area.
A friend called him one day in 2011 and had a large piece of marble that needed to be moved.  Would Cooney like it?  It had been sitting for decades as flood protection and had landed in the yard of the local rodeo. Cooney leapt at the chance to work the marble. As it would turn out, it was a brilliant three-ton Colorado Yule Marble slab-- a slab of Colorado Yule Marble left over from the extraction of the quarry when the masons a century ago carved the pillars for the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in DC!

This marble has a great history, but it didn’t start in modern times.  350 million years ago, limestone was formed in the area we now know as Marble, Colorado. It wasn’t until the 2nd turning 30 million years ago, that magma surrounded, turned, and compressed the limestone, leaving us with this translucent and exquisite rock. The marble vein is 9,300 feet in elevation, making extracting and transporting it what the artist calls, “an epic tale of American belief and enterprise.”

Cooney has been chipping away at the slab since his acquisition.  Just over 200 sculptures have been produced from this one slab. Some are commissions, most belong to a series the artist aspires to.  The “Collection Series,” for example, is inspired by the large windows in the homes he worked on in Aspen.  Hoping to introduce the curvilinear styles of his vision, his works are a fusion of architecture and modernity.
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Colorado Yule Marble weighs 170 lbs per cubic foot. His goal in carving is to find the form by extracting weight from the slab, making the sculptures portable and moveable--so they can spark conversation from different angles and in different light. The artist invites us to touch the finish of his works.  More than 1/3 of the time he works on the sculptures are on hand rubbings to make the surfaces free of tool marks or scuffs. Once we feel the finished vision in our hands, we will feel the “wow” behind the entire process.   

Photos from April 25, 2025 at the spring reception for Level Influx: Making Steady in Turbulent Times by Thérèse​ Murdza​, and Mirabilia, by Jillian Moore. Both artists were in attendance for the evening. 

Works and documentation from the show can be found here:

We're headed to Assets! Our appraisers Suzy (ISA, CAPP) and Lauren (ISA, AM) are going to the International Society of Appraisers annual conference. Plan ahead for framing and other projects with Suzy and Lauren before March 31st. ​
Gallery Hours:

• OPEN April 1st-4th
• CLOSED Saturday April 5th. 

Open regular business hours the week of April 7th.
Art purchases can still be made on our website: pick up anytime during open hours--shipping resumes 04/8. 

​Photos from November 15, 2024 at the winter reception for Unmoored by Mary Zeran, and Colorful Surrounding, by Gordon Kellenberger. Both artists were in attendance for the evening. 

Works and documentation from the show can be found here:
Unmoored
Colorful Surrounding

A few weeks ago we had our parking lot updated! This is extra exciting news since we had them remove the rocked section behind the parking spaces and will allow for extra parking for our events!