Located in Downtown Colorado Springs, Auric Gallery’s Holiday Show 2024 is in full swing, featuring over 100 local and regional artists and a plethora of handmade holiday gift ideas to bring a taste of the local community to any gifting experience.
“The energy of having so many artists in one space is overwhelming in a really good way. It just feels good to unite the community and celebrate the local arts. It’s beautiful,” said Auric Gallery co-owner Abigail Kreuser.
The Holiday Show combines elements of holiday events Kreuser and Auric co-owner Gundega Stevens held in their previous separate galleries. Kreuser and Stevens celebrated Auric Gallery’s grand opening in February 2024 and the merge of Kreuser and Stevens’ two holiday events is what Auric’s Holiday Show is today.
“We just love seeing the community come together and supporting each other through art with gift giving. I feel like our arts community is very strong at championing each other,” Stevens said.
An eclectic display of form and color across a variety of artistic mediums, the curated holiday gallery is a decadent presentation of the boastful artistic scene across the region, flowing across Auric’s three gallery spaces.
According to Kreuser, the holiday show features gifts from $7 to over $1000 – an opportunity for everyone to provide the gift of art on a budget. The holiday show operates on a “cash and carry,” system, meaning Auric will wrap a chosen piece and it can be taken home that day.
“We’ll take it off the wall and wrap it up for them, and then they can take it home and put it under their tree,” Kreuser said.
Shannon Mello is one of the local artists featured in this year’s holiday gallery. Working in mediums of acrylic paint and encaustics, which is making art with live resin and beeswax, Mello said she’s honored to be featured in this year’s holiday gallery because of Auric’s work throughout the community.
“It’s an honor to be part of because they (Auric) are so involved with the community, and they bring people who may not have been in the art community (before), or just new people to connect and network with. It’s really fun,” Mello said.
Mello’s featured piece, a part of her “cut off” series, is painted onto a piece of cut birchwood. Layering the encaustic with oil paint, alcohol ink, and tree resin, the result is a dreamy, abstract landscape, playing with form and color.
“It depicts my normal, traditional, abstract landscapes, and that’s kind of what I wanted to portray for the holiday exhibit,” Mello said.
In addition to the holiday show, Auric is also hosting three solo exhibitions throughout the month of December including Sallie Knox Hall, Susan Quinn Horsfall, and Jill Webber-Fredrick.
According to the gallery’s website, Hall’s work titled “Spirit. Animal.” is a conceptual journey of the artist’s experience with a lone buck she felt embodied her father’s spirit. Utilizing cold wax, oil, and the “haphazard glaze of white paint,” her paintings are whimsical, presenting a naturally maximalist vibe of bright colors filling her canvases.
“A visitation from a buck in the middle of a busy day often gives me pause to remember my father’s life here in this realm. It reminds me that his essence lives on and brings me great peace,” Hall states in the exhibit biography.
“As I started to delve into this body of work, I asked friends and family what type of creature or object shows up for them. There were wonderful answers … owls, herons, foxes, and even feathers and rocks. The question led to amazing conversations about hope and resilience and for that, I am so grateful,” she continued.
Horsfall’s show “Playground” and Webber-Fredrick’s show “Unfolding: New Ways of Seeing, New Ways of Being” mark their Auric Gallery premiere and are two artists Kreuser and Stevens expressed excitement toward hosting.
“We have two artists that are showing their work for the very first time. They’re both very fluid artists and their work is beautiful,” Kreuser said.
For more information on Auric Gallery’s holiday show and current exhibitions, visit their website AuricGallery.com.
