Inger E. Hansen, a painter, and Steve Horan, a photographer, are exploring the people, environments and histories of two very different National Parks, hoping to heighten awareness of wilderness areas and the people connected to them. They will be showing their work jointly at the Armory Art Center in an exhibition titled “Everglades and Yellowstone - People and Place”, opening Friday, October 17. They invite you to join them in talking about their work at this Art Salon.


Inger E. Hansen is a Norwegian artist who spends part of each year in South Florida. She has been researching Native Americans from this area through a grant she received in 2012. She says "My aim is to make art inspired by the Seminole history and people, and the Everglades is an important part of it.

“Most of the nature paintings are done on the spot, in Grassy Waters and Riverbend Park,” she says. In this body of work, she explores how the culture of the Seminole people influences their everyday lives. “Together with poems and images, the exhibition will function as a story in a creative play between brushstrokes and the written word.”

"My style follows a Nordic painting tradition with landscapes and relationships influenced by art history and artists as Munch and Hopper. I paint with oil and acrylic paint."


Steve Horan will be showing selections from a series of environmental portraits called “People of Yellowstone”. He will accompany the images with “behind the scenes” anecdotes about how he strives to capture the spirit of the people whose lives and work center in Yellowstone National Park and its surrounding ecosystem.

Horan says: “I collaborate with the portrait subjects to photograph them in a setting that immediately tells the story of their connection to Yellowstone’s wilderness. The photographs range widely: a naturalist guide sleeping in an abandoned wolf den, a super-volcano expert near ancient lava flows, a wolfskin-wrapped biologist, a man who protects buffalo on their migratory routes.”

The Yellowstone portraits have had three exhibitions to date in addition to the show at The Armory, including one at the Palm Beach County Cultural Council in February, 2014. The publishing date for "People of Yellowstone", a coffee table book of black and white portraits with accompanying text by award winning writer, Ruth W. Crocker, is spring 2016.


Before and after hearing the talk, you can see the exhibition in The Armory Art Center’s Montgomery Hall gallery. The show runs from October 18th to November 15th.