Aspen, CO
High-altitude and high-ambition, Aspen's mural scene channels the same energy that draws world-class skiers and art collectors. Downtown's Victorian storefronts and the quiet streets of the West End provide canvases for work that ranges from mountain-inspired abstraction to bold figurative statements commissioned by the city's robust arts institutions.
Featured Artists
All artists →Derek Gores
Known for layered collage portraits that incorporate found materials, Gores brings meticulous detail to his Aspen work. "Maroon Bells at Dusk" renders the iconic twin peaks in a palette of shredded magazine and metallic foil transferred to plaster, catching the low-angle alpine light at different hours of the day.
El Mac
Miles MacGregor, known as El Mac, is a Los Angeles–based muralist celebrated for his airbrush-inflected hyper-realism. His West End commission "Snowmass Echoes" depicts a local rancher's face dissolving into the white haze of a January snowstorm — a meditation on human presence and wilderness that suits the scale of Aspen's mountain backdrop.
Carrie Ann Baade
Baade's richly symbolic figurative painting — drawn from old master sources, natural history illustration, and feminist iconography — translates unusually well to large exterior surfaces. "Elk Crossing" on Cooper Avenue frames a herd of Rocky Mountain elk in a tondo composition, the animals surrounded by a border of stylized columbine, Colorado's state flower.