Artist Charles Parson’s love for the Eastern High Plains is celebrated in the exhibit, Altars to the Earth, on display December 5, 2024 through February 23, 2025 in the PACE Center Art Gallery.

The exhibit features site-observation drawings, sculptures, and dimensional pieces that merge abstract geometry with representational imagery, all inspired by Parson’s plein air studies in the remote eastern High Plains.

Parson’s emphasis on the vast, western space of Eastern Colorado and the contemporary, fragile place of the individual began in 1974, when he moved to the West from Michigan. At that time, living in the High Plains town of Elbert, Colorado, while working as an itinerant sign man, created a life-long impact in his art of deep, open spaces… what he calls an “Ocean of Land.” This impact has woven through Parson’s career of paintings, drawings, prints, murals, sculptures, interactive installations, performance art, and monumental public sculptures. His eighty one-person exhibits in galleries, art centers and museums throughout the United States have been extensively reviewed and featured in local, regional and national media.