American Sites at The Range in Saguache to benefit Cano

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Contributed photos The Range in Saguache began hosting an exhibition on Saturday, March 12, American Sites, and a retrospective exhibition of the photography of Fred Scruton. The show will benefit Antonito resident Dominic ‘Cano’ Espinoza who lost his residence during a fire in January.

SAGUACHE — The Range in Saguache began hosting an exhibition on Saturday, March 12, American Sites, and a retrospective exhibition of the photography of Fred Scruton. The show will benefit Antonito resident Dominic “Cano” Espinoza who lost his residence during a fire in January.

Scruton is making available posters and prints of Cano’s Castle in Antonito for purchase. Although Cano lost his home in a fire, his Castle still stands. The Castle is a shrine in progress, that Cano only allows himself and Jesus Christ to enter.

Funds from these editions will be given directly to Cano in support of his post-fire needs.

In a 2015 interview with Raw Vision, Cano said of his castle, “So I have a different image of the castle, we call it ‘the castle,’ but still it's something that God made, he just used me, I can’t explain it.”

American Sites features photographs of a wide variety of artists and art environments from across the Country.

For the last 20 years, Scruton has traveled extensively and specialized in documenting self-taught and folk artists. Through repeated visits, Scruton establishes long-term collaborative relationships with the artists he photographs. He works to preserve artists’ visions while expanding traditional understandings of the documentary process.

The artists draw from their own life experiences, cultural histories, and inner-musings, with little influence from the marketplace or the academy. Their desire to make sense of the world through their artworks and built-environments provides an authentic and too often overlooked perspective on American culture.

Since first visiting Cano’s Castle in Antonito during his honeymoon in 2008, Scruton has made yearly return visits to the San Luis Valley.

Scruton has published numerous articles on self-taught artists, including profiles of Espinoza and Ramblin’ Roy Smith of Saguache for Raw Vision and Folk Art Messenger magazines respectively. Scruton is a professor of art in northwestern Pennsylvania.

There will be a night of films featuring artist environments on Saturday, April 2, at gallery. For more information, visit www.therangeontheinternet.com.

The Range will be open during the exhibition on Thursday evenings from 5-7 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and is located at 307 4th St. in Saguache.

The exhibition is on view from March 12 through April 23. A closing reception with Scruton is scheduled for April 23, from 3-6 p.m. Ring the bell or call 646-734-1373 to visit the exhibition outside of these hours.