Before Gendron’s work hits museum circuit, it lands at Tinman

Beginning this fall, the works of accomplished local painter Ric Gendron will spend two years touring Western and tribal museums around the country.

The last local showing of Gendron’s work until the tour’s end opens this week at the Tinman Gallery in the Garland District.

The show, titled “Nowhere Man,” will include new works on paper as well as paintings on canvas. It opens with a reception Friday, and will run through June 16.

The traveling exhibit, called “Rattlebone,” will open at the Missoula Museum of Art in November, before it travels to Pendleton, Ore., for a run at the Tamástalikt Cultural Institute of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, and then the Museum of Northwest Art in LaConner, Wash. The University of Washington will publish a book of the exhibit in time for the opening in Missoula; it will be available at Tinman, according to a news release.

Gendron, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, lives and paints in Spokane. Four of his large, colorful paintings of musicians grace the exterior of the Hotel Ruby, at the corner of Lincoln Street and First Avenue. He has recently completed a large painting for the Colville Confederated Tribes Museum, and has been commissioned by the Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane to paint a mural for the new Native American Activity Center.