Aspen Gateway

Title: Aspen Gateway

Artist: Don Rambadt

Date: 2011

Medium: Mirror polished stainless steel

Location: North Highway 89 Pathway Underpass at the National Museum of Wildlife Art

Funding By: Teton County Pathways

As the public entrance to the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Sculpture Trail, “Aspen Gateway” engages all ages in an interactive art experience. Echoing landscape architect Walter Hood’s philosophy behind the sculpture trail, artist Don Rambadt set out to design a piece that relates directly to the space around it, while at the same time transforming it.

“Aspen Gateway” presents the viewer with a stylized view of an Aspen grove, rendered in mirror-polished stainless steel mounted on a contrasting black background. The reflective steel allows the piece to change dramatically with the surrounding landscape, throughout the day and seasons. Rambadt imagined the piece as a reflection of the sweeping scenery on the National Elk Refuge, as well as a foreshadowing of the wonders that await inside the wildlife museum. When exiting the museum through “Aspen Gateway,” the piece becomes a final point of transition, a final aesthetic experience.