The Steamboat Pilot & Today

“Magnolias at Night,” by photographer Joseph Cosby. (Joseph Cosby/Courtesy)

“Two Ballerinas,” depicting members of the Golden Dragon Acrobats in their performance this summer for Strings Music Festival, is one of the pieces photographer Joseph Cosby has on display at the Artists’ Gallery of Steamboat. (Joseph Cosby/Courtesy)

Steamboat Springs — Soon after Joseph Cosby became a resident of Steamboat Springs this summer, he walked into the Artists’ Gallery of Steamboat and told its cooperative owners he’d like to join. His angle: his photography wouldn’t compete with anyone else in the gallery.

“I said in the gallery and in all galleries in town, they do horses and landscapes, and I don’t do horses and landscapes,” Cosby said of his work, much of which is photographed outside the United States.

“If you want to decorate your house in Colorado Western, you absolutely will not look at more than two pieces of work that I do,” Cosby said, explaining his interest in “colors and people that you would never in a million years find in Steamboat.”

“You cannot find anything that I shoot in any gallery in Steamboat or Denver or Colorado, or probably almost any gallery in North America,” Cosby said of his photos, which are printed on canvas and have found a home at the Artists’ Gallery since August.

Joining Cosby on the gallery’s new artist roster are Anne Holt, a landscape painter who has exhibited in galleries across New England; Paula Jo Jaconetta, a photographer who has shown her work in Steamboat galleries since 2000 and joined the Artists’ Gallery at the beginning of the summer; Joyce Lee Petersen, a water media painter starting her third month with the gallery; Carrie Walsh, a guest jeweler who works in sterling and gemstones; and Clare Southworth, a guest jeweler and student at The Lowell Whiteman School.

Petersen, who also has work at the Hayden Marketplace, said she thought about trying to show work in the Artists’ Gallery when it was first forming, and joined when she moved back to the area for the third time. She said she appreciates the collaborative spirit, and the chance to show work she describes as “experimental painting” in Steamboat.

“We get to be a part owner, so we take it really personally,” Petersen said. “It’s not like one person owns it; we all own it.”

Also new to the Artists’ Gallery collective is a print room, which will feature reproductions of work by four artists each month. The gallery features its annual member show through the end of October, with work on display by each of its artists.