Jan 23 – Apr 05, 2026
E.L. Wiegand & Kirk Robertson Galleries
[T]HERE:
Binocular and Spy Glass paintings of the Great Basin
by Patrick Kikut
Patrick Kikut
Themes in my work come from extensive highway travel. Traveling has allowed me access into compelling landscapes, ecologies, histories, and cultures. These things help me gain an understanding of the West and drives the work I produce in the studio. I often find myself making field drawings in what feels like a place between a lonely paradise and a windswept crime scene. My intention with this work is to offer a sense of the poetry and reality of these expansive spaces I find between our protected National Parks and Forests. It is important for me to include representations of our ever-encroaching culture onto these landscapes. During my travels, I seek out locations that read like an empty stage set where all the actors have left their props and abandoned the scene. This, I hope, offers the viewer an opportunity to step into the image and imagine a narrative.
In 1987 at the age of 21, Patrick Kikut was in Boulder, Colorado when he started thinking of
himself as an artist. It was there where he developed an approach to his studio work which
usually begins with a desire to learn (and experience) a particular landscape.
Kikut’s priority is to explore landscapes as much as he can. This tactic has provided him an
expansive and unique “artistic neighborhood.” This “artistic neighborhood” reaches from Great
Falls, Montana in the North, to El Paso (or Marfa) Texas, in the South, and from Dodge City,
Kansas, and West to Reno, Nevada. This is where he has primarily operated for the last 35
years. Kikut is keeping an eye on the less protected landscapes. Developments come and go
through boom-and-bust cycles. He is a witness to Iandscapes being encroached upon and in
other places development dissolving back into the land. It is his hope that his work is
represents the enduring beauty and fragility of the everchanging West.
Kikut earned his BFA from the University of Colorado and my MFA from the University of
Montana. He has taught at the college level for over 30 years at Highlands University of New
Mexico, University of Texas El Paso, and most recently the University of Wyoming where he
taught for 17 years. His work can be found in the public collections of, Nevada Museum of Art,
Eiteljorg Museum, Art Museum of Missoula, and the Nicolaysen Museum among others.
Gallery Reception
Jan 23, 2026, 5:00 PM
Oats Park Art Center, 151 E Park St, Fallon, NV 89406, USA
Artist Workshop
Jan 24, 2026, 9:00 AM
Oats Park Art School, 648 Court St, Fallon, NV 89406, USA
Pre-Registration Required.
with Rossitza Todorova