Lift Ticket Artwork

Lift Ticket Artwork Program

Since 2005, Aspen Snowmass has treated ski passes as canvases for works of art. The idea of inviting contemporary artists to participate in the cultural life of the valley was first proposed to us by the Aspen Art Museum. Ever since, skiers and snowboarders on Aspen’s four mountains have accessed the slopes with ski passes displaying the work of artists including Takashi Murakami, FriendsWithYou, Hank Willis Thomas, Yutaka Sone, Carla Klein, Mamma Andersson, and Mark Grotjahn.

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2023-24

Claudia Comte

Swiss-born Comte calls the mountains near Basel, Switzerland her home. As a multi-discipline artist with a B.A. in visual arts an M.A. in science of education, Comte works in installation, painting, engraving, murals, and sculpture. Her wood pieces depicting cactuses, for example, were created using her chainsaw.

The 2023-2024 ArtUP collection consists of five of Comte’s recent works, each offering a unique perspective on how we view the environment and climate crisis. Some are more subtle, like “Underwater Sculpture Park, Jamaica,” which depicts cactus sculptures on an ocean floor, or “10 Rooms, 40 Walls, 1059 m2,” showing a beautifully hand-crafted wooden cactus sculpture in a studio setting with a drawn fence, moon, and sun on the wall behind it.

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Claudia Comte art in unexpected places lift ticket 2

Claudia Comte art in unexpected places lift ticket 3

Claudia Comte art in unexpected places lift ticket 4

Claudia Comte art in unexpected places lift ticket 5

2022-23

Rashid Johnson

Born and raised in Chicago, Johnson studied at both Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, before spending a large part of his career in New York City. He is known for his photography, sculptures, mosaics and collages, text work, drawing, filmmaking, and more. Considered prolific due to the volume and impact of his multi-disciplinary work—like his film adaptation of Richard Wright’s book “Native Son” on HBO Max or his plant installations exhibited in Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art which transcended tense international politics—his artwork is often a nuanced and subtle commentary on culture, history, identity, and beyond.

The works decorating the 2022-2023 season’s Aspen Cards will include images of Johnson’s mosaics and collages titled “Broken Men,” “Escape Collage,” and “Broken Crowd,” as well as photography of his towering plant installation titled “The Crisis.” In addition to the works featured on this season’s Aspen Cards, there will be a limited-edition ski featuring Rashid’s work, exclusively available for sale at ASPENX.

2021-22

Paola Pivi

Born in Italy in 1971, Paola Pivi’s artistic practice is diverse and enigmatic. Known for combining the familiar with the unusual, Pivi often works with commonly identifiable objects which are modified to introduce a new scale, material or color, challenging the audience to change their point of view. Animals are often cast as characters in Pivi’s world. Her inspiration comes from her connection to wilderness, mountains and a love of bears — perceived characteristics and seemingly human mannerisms.

As part of her third solo exhibition in the United States, Paola Pivi worked with a taxidermist to design colorful, feathered polar bears arranged in charming and uncannily human-like positions, which are included on this edition of our lift ticket art.

2021-2022 Aspen Snowmass Lift Ticket by Paola Pivi – Pink Bear

2021-2022 Aspen Snowmass Lift Ticket by Paola Pivi – Orange Bear

2021-2022 Aspen Snowmass Lift Ticket by Paola Pivi – White Bear

2021-2022 Aspen Snowmass Lift Ticket by Paola Pivi – Crimson Bear

Paola Pivi's blue bear for Aspen Snowmass 2021-22 lift tickets

2020–21

Friendswithyou

FriendsWithYou, the collaborative artist duo of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, are well known for their unique experimental pop visions taking form in a variety of mediums, all for the betterment of culture, and based in compassion for humankind and our world. Most notably, they have created the successful animation show True and the Rainbow Kingdom on Netflix, participated in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2018 featuring their iconic Little Cloud character, and have exhibited their artworks in museums and public venues worldwide.
FriendsWithYou’s vision is to greatly impact our world with positivity and connectivity. Follow along @FriendsWithYou / www.FriendsWithYou.com.

FriendsWithMe - Aspen Snowmass 2020-21 Lift Ticket Art

2019–20

Susan Te Kahurangi King

When you think of skiing, what emotion comes to mind: Exhilaration? Bliss?

For the 2019–2020 ski season, Aspen Snowmass is proud to be working with Susan Te Kahurangi King, an artist whose body of work captures the emotions found in life's more vivid moments.

"Susan King’s art sparks a similar joy to spending time in our beautiful mountains and in this incredible community," says Mike Kaplan, president and CEO of Aspen Skiing Company. “Though her point of view was formed on the other side of the globe, there’s an appeal to her visual language that resonates equally well here.”

A native of New Zealand, the 68-year-old King has always made art for herself, not the marketplace, and this authenticity is transmitted in the series of drawings showcased on Aspen Snowmass’ lift tickets. King’s artistic journey began as a young child, when at age 5, she began to lose her ability to speak. By age 7, she had stopped speaking entirely. During the same period, encouraged by her grandmother, King became an increasingly talented and prolific artist, capable of focusing on her drawing for hours on end. In the ensuing six decades, King has produced a substantial body of work, despite taking a 15-year break starting in the mid-90s.

According to her website’s biography, “King’s exhibition history is extensive with representation in major art fairs, galleries and museums by prominent curators. She has been featured in many exhibitions, events and publications in a range of contexts both as an ‘Outsider Artist’ and a ‘Contemporary Artist’. These include The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; American Folk Art Museum, New York; Marlborough, London; Outsider Art Fairs in New York and Paris with Chris Byrne; Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York; Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington; City Gallery Wellington, TSB Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland; and the Auckland Art Fair 2018.”

2018–19

Hank Willis Thomas

The six featured lift ticket designs are derived from Thomas’ series titled Fair Warning, which features text-based works from 1960-80 cigarette advertisements. By isolating these texts from the original advertisements, Thomas creates a dialogue around oftentimes gendered advertising ideals, including sexuality, style, and power. Fair Warning reveals the hyper glamorized personas which target the consumer and highlight the way in which language can influence lifestyle.

Thomas recontextualizes the same text that was once used to try to sell the idea of polluting our air and our lungs, which now become words of encouragement as skiers conquer the mountain at high altitude. These slogans remind us that in this atmosphere, the oxygen that is available is vital and only our continued protection of the environment can make it possible.

2017–18

Paula Crown

Paula Crown's five lift-ticket designs give a curated view into Crown’s sprawling sculptural installation, SOLO TOGETHER. Using the form of the crushed red Solo cup in the form of 150 unique hand-painted plaster sculptures, the work unpacks the symbol of all-American fun. The ubiquitous, single-use plastic cup offers an opportunity to contemplate a number of complex ideas including environmental awareness, the singular experience of togetherness, FOMO, and a consumer culture defined by abundance and optimism.

In their full form, SOLO TOGETHER’s cups stand in the absence of a party, each sculpture titled with the personality that may have created it. With titles like “Failing Out” and “Keeping Up Appearances,” a taxonomy of characters is assigned to the forms. The imagined internal and social energy is stored in the facsimile of crushed plastic. Crown points to the transference of energy that takes place as we record our presence in everything we touch. Looking toward a new generation defined by climate change, SOLO TOGETHER takes the leftover traces we make in plastic and makes them uncannily heavy underneath the bright and cheerful red coating.

2016–17

Laura Owens

The Aspen Art Museum and Aspen Skiing Company continue their longstanding lift pass collaboration for the 2016-2017 ski season setting Aspen apart as a unique cultural/recreational destination. In celebration of this groundbreaking partnership, the latest edition features the artwork of renowned contemporary artist Laura Owens, with 11 unique, standalone images for the 2016-2017 ski season lift ticket commission. Born in Ohio in 1970, Owens is recognized for her distinctive abstract and almost historical style—in this series using flat stylistic characteristics of Pop Art while simultaneously incorporating a vintage still life, reminding us of the power of art to pose questions and challenge assumptions.