Sandstone Gallery Art Walk

For the April ArtWalk, Sandstone Gallery will showcase beautiful watercolors on canvas by Dick Cottrill, as well as acrylic and watercolor paintings and urban sketches by John Kennedy. Our 2025 Spring Art Challenge features 6 x 8 miniature masterpieces created by various artists, available for purchase. The Billings Art Association will highlight the work of Lindsey Huntley and Dorene Amber for the months of April and May.

Join us for an artists’ reception with light refreshments from 5-9 PM. Many of our 14 featured artists will be present to display their work and discuss their artistic process. We invite you to come enjoy a lively evening in downtown Billings!

Click on the links above for more details about our featured artists and to view samples of their work.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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  • Posted on: March 17, 2025

Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell Exhibition Opening Reception

Exhibition Dates: April 4 – May 24, 2025

Kirks’ Grocery is proud to present Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell. Gordon McConnell has always looked at and thought about the mythical Old West through the lens of a contemporary artist. He is influenced by the postmodernism of his generational peers, the “Pictures” group, and, more recently, the stylistics of early 1960s Pop Art. Like artists of that era, McConnell treats mass-produced imagery as readymade material. His sources are frames from movies, promotional stills, advertising graphics and comic books. Lately, he has been reprocessing images from some of his own earlier monochromatic paintings and painted over old canvases, sacrificing the old for something new.

In 2024, Gordon McConnell manipulated images digitally before referencing and interpreting them on canvas, using varied techniques and formal strategies to serve the needs of each composition. The experience of making each piece informed the process and decision-making for the next. Masculinity is a theme—in poses and action, and varied styles. Stagecoaches and the excitable draft animals pulling them are shown in a posterized rendering and in comic book style-made-large with bold colors, pronounced texture and surface variation.

The Western Horseman paintings in this exhibition derive from 1980s Marlboro magazine ads. Western Horseman #2, with the yellow slicker, comes from the edition of Newsweek that contained Mark Stevens’ landmark article on the Montana art scene—featuring Theodore Waddell and Patrick Zentz among others, themselves looking like Marlboro men posed on their ranches.

Despite appearances, the riders are never really cowboys: they are actors playing lawmen and outlaws, stuntmen driving teams, handsome models (sometimes real ranchers) in stylized Western gear pushing cigarettes, and comic book characters drawn by New York illustrators.

  • Posted on: March 13, 2025

PREVIEW EVENT: Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell Exhibition

Join us for a special preview event for the Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell exhibition.

Exhibition Dates: April 4 – May 24, 2025
Opening reception: Friday, April 4, 5–9 pm (during ArtWalk) with delicious bites by Chef Ashley Woodward.

Kirks’ Grocery is proud to present Never Really Cowboys: New Work by Gordon McConnell. Gordon McConnell has always looked at and thought about the mythical Old West through the lens of a contemporary artist. He is influenced by the postmodernism of his generational peers, the “Pictures” group, and, more recently, the stylistics of early 1960s Pop Art. Like artists of that era, McConnell treats mass-produced imagery as readymade material. His sources are frames from movies, promotional stills, advertising graphics and comic books. Lately, he has been reprocessing images from some of his own earlier monochromatic paintings and painted over old canvases, sacrificing the old for something new.

In 2024, Gordon McConnell manipulated images digitally before referencing and interpreting them on canvas, using varied techniques and formal strategies to serve the needs of each composition. The experience of making each piece informed the process and decision-making for the next. Masculinity is a theme—in poses and action, and varied styles. Stagecoaches and the excitable draft animals pulling them are shown in a posterized rendering and in comic book style-made-large with bold colors, pronounced texture and surface variation.

The Western Horseman paintings in this exhibition derive from 1980s Marlboro magazine ads. Western Horseman #2, with the yellow slicker, comes from the edition of Newsweek that contained Mark Stevens’ landmark article on the Montana art scene—featuring Theodore Waddell and Patrick Zentz among others, themselves looking like Marlboro men posed on their ranches.

Despite appearances, the riders are never really cowboys: they are actors playing lawmen and outlaws, stuntmen driving teams, handsome models (sometimes real ranchers) in stylized Western gear pushing cigarettes, and comic book characters drawn by New York illustrators.

  • Posted on: March 13, 2025

Featured: New Yellowstone Art Museum exhibition opens Friday, February 28th 

featured article:

Yellowstone Art Museum


The Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM) is excited to open its newest exhibition, Tyler Joseph Krasowski: Everything Becomes Something, on February 28, 2025. Krasowski is a virtuosic and accomplished draftsman, and his works reflect his excitement and delight towards the immediacy of drawing. Drawing is often used as a preparatory tool, but for Krasowski, drawings and sketches are valued artworks unto themselves.

Born in Minneapolis, Krasowski grew up in the Chicago area. He went to art school at the University of Montana and earned a BFA in Drawing in 2009. After graduating, Krasowski traveled the country with Drive By Press, received a commission to create a design for Pearl Jam’s world tour, and was hired as a studio assistant to renowned printmaker Tony Fitzpatrick.

He has been a resident at MATRIX Press in 2012 and 2014, designed textiles with Western Sensibility, and exhibited at Spring Break Art Fair in Los Angeles (2022, 2023, and 2024).

Kimberly Gaitonde, the YAM’s associate curator, speaks to the exhibition: “Tyler’s work
showcases a unique quality that is both playful and serious. His use of everyday materials
democratizes the act of drawing and reminds us that you don’t need anything more than
something to write with and something to write on to make a good drawing.” The artist’s work will be exhibited in the Charles M. Bair Family and Northwest Projects Galleries until June 1st of this year. The museum will host Krasowski for an Artist Talk on March 20th; a reception begins at 5pm, and the talk begins at 6pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Tyler Joseph Krasowski: Everything Becomes Something will be exhibited in the Yellowstone Art Museum’s Charles M. Bair and Northwest Projects Galleries and is sponsored by the Missoula Art Museum. The exhibition is also supported by the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association.

Visitors can enjoy free admission to view the exhibition during the YAM’s regular hours, thanks
to the Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.
For more information about the museum, visit www.artmuseum.org.


The nationally accredited Yellowstone Art Museum is the region’s largest contemporary art museum offering changing exhibitions, adult and children’s art education, café, museum store, and the Visible Vault, housing the YAM’s permanent art collection. Museum hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday; 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Thursday; and
Closed Monday. Please check the museum’s website, www.artmuseum.org , to learn about other exhibitions, events, and classes.
Follow the YAM on Facebook and Instagram