THE ART OF KINGFISHER

When four partners created Kingfisher in 1993, they knew from the start they wanted to establish an American grill that would serve up the freshest seafood possible. And they knew that they wanted to buy local art for the walls. “We’re not most restaurants,” says partner Jim Murphy. “We try to do something different.” Over the years, Kingfisher’s partners have sought out sophisticated work by some of Tucson’s most acclaimed artists, amassing a collection that serves as window onto the city’s lively art scene. The many works range from daring glass “rock” sculptures by Tom Philabaum to paintings by Jim Waid that capture the intense heat and light of the desert Southwest. Acrylics by the late Nancy Tokar Miller turn watery landscapes into meditative abstractions, and photos by William Lesch render the big skies of the West in startling black and white. Kingfisher purchases all the art in its collection, putting money back into the community. “It’s about supporting local artists,” Murphy says. Murphy first met late business partner Tim Ivankovich in the 1980s when both were working at a restaurant on Tucson’s eastside. The food was acclaimed but the art was not. “It was of ducks with bonnets and bows,” Murphy recalls with a chuckle. “It was just cute, goofy art.” The two swore that if they ever had a restaurant of their own, they would buy only art of the highest quality. They had that chance some years later after meeting Jeff Azersky and Johnny Burke on the job at Boccata restaurant. The four joined forces to create Kingfisher, buying the old Iron Mask, a restaurant with a continental menu and dark wood paneling on the walls. The four partners shifted the menu to fresh seafood and local produce, tore out the paneling and transformed the walls into a canvas for local art. Working primarily with Etherton Gallery, the partners assembled a thoughtful collection. They bought urbane figure paintings by the late James Davis, riveting painted photos by Kate Breakey, shadowy photos by Ken Rosenthal. Some of the art playfully alludes to the restaurant’s namesake bird – there’s a kingfisher in stained glass, another in an Audubon print. Terry Etherton, proprietor of Etherton Gallery and a photographer in his own right, pushes the seafood theme with his five-part photo “Oysters.” Many of the artists whose work the partners acquired were neighbors, or customers. “We’d see Cynthia Miller and we’d say, `Come over and show us what you have,’” Murphy says. “Nancy Miller was up the street, a friend. Steve Orlen (husband of painter Gail Marcus-Orlen) was my brother’s friend. We get local people.” Kingfisher also engages in art philanthropy, recently donating a large-scale painting by David Andres to Tucson Medical Center. Andres’s elegant image of the Sea of Cortez now soothes the suffering of patients. Every summer, Kingfisher closes for two weeks to have the walls repainted by local artist Don Montrose who uses a trowel and plaster to meticulously layer the colors. Bea Mason of Lewis Framing Gallery shuffles the artwork, rehanging the pieces in new places to keep the look fresh. The two remaining owners, Murphy and Azersky, see their gallery-in-a-restaurant as a continuing contribution not only to the arts but to the community. “It’s something we’re sticking with,” Murphy says.

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WILLIAM LESCH

William Lesch came to Tucson, Arizona from Indianapolis, IN in 1977 to attend the

University of Arizona, where he received his B.F.A. and pursued graduate studies. He currently works as a fine art and

architectural photographer. He has been featured in numerous exhibitions and was also the subject of a PBS

documentary, Arizona Artforms. Lesch’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of public institutions

including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Tucson Museum of Art, and the Center for Creative Photography

at the University of Arizona.

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NANCY TOKAR MILLER

Nancy Tokar Miller was known for her shimmering near-abstractions of land, sea and sky, painted in brilliant, liquid colors.

Born in 1941, Tokar Miller grew up in Los Angeles, near the ocean, but she had lived in Tucson since 1968. She studied art at the

University of Arizona, earning a master's in 1971. She traveled the world with her beloved husband, Walter, and what she saw —

in Asian jungles and Moorish cities — made its way into her art back home in her Tucson studio. In recent years, she was inspired

by the sandhill cranes on Arizona's Willcox Playa and the beaches and mountains of Hawaii.

"We're extremely saddened by the loss of our longtime friend and artist," said Hannah Glasston, director of Etherton Gallery,

which represented her. "Her death is a huge loss to us personally and to the community. She worked so hard and stuck to her

vision. Her beautiful work, fortunately, is still here."

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CYNTHIA MILLER

Cynthia Miller was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin but has spent most of her

life near the Sonoran Desert since moving to the Southwest as a child in 1963. She studied creative writing at the

University of Arizona, and then painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. In addition to earning a reputation as one of

Tucson’s premier painters, in the early 1980s Miller created sculptural installations such as Yaqui Goes to LA for the

Scottsdale Center for the Arts. She has also collaborated on dance theatre projects with the Orts Theatre of Dance, and

created several books with Chax Press. Miller is the recipient of numerous awards including the Arizona Arts Award and

a Painting Fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. In 2008, she had her first solo show at the CUE Art

Foundation in New York. Miller has been teaching studio art to children and adults in the Tucson area for over twenty

years; she currently teaches at The Drawing Studio and The Learning Curve, an independent arts and humanities forum.

A member of the Tucson Artist Group (TAG) and Tucson Poetry Group (POG), she shares a studio and life with husband

and poet Charles Alexander of Chax Press and their two daughters.

KEN ROSENTHAL

Since 2002 Ken Rosenthal’s work has been featured in more than 150 solo and group exhibitions internationally.

Recent solo exhibitions of have been held at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA; Centro Cultural

Recoleta, Buenos Aires; El Cabildo de la Ciudad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Espacio Foto, Montevideo, Uruguay;

and Etherton Gallery in Tucson, AZ. In September 2010 a solo exhibition of new and recent work will open at DeSantos

Gallery in Houston, Texas.

Rosenthal’s photographs are in the permanent collections of prominent public institutions including The George

Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Portrait Gallery, London; The Art Institute of

Chicago; Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Worcester Museum of

Art, Worcester, MA; and the Wittliff Gallery of Southwest and Mexican Photography, which recently established a

major collection of his work.

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JEFF SCOTT

Jeff Scott is known for his dramatic imagery of America’s historic and cultural landscape. He has exhibited widely in the United States; and his work is in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, Elvis Presley Enterprises, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Selections from the series based on Elvis’s personal archives were exhibited recently at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA. Jeff Scott is also the author of Elvis: The Personal Archives, a collection of his artwork from this series.

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JIM WAID

Jim Waid has lived and worked in Tucson for 40 years. He received a BFA from the University of New Mexico and an

MFA from the University of Arizona. From 1971-1980, he taught art at Pima Community College. In 1985, he received

a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship. He has been a visiting artist at the University of Arizona, the

University of Idaho, Arizona State University, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and the University of Oklahoma.

He was a founding member of Dinnerware Artists Cooperative in Tucson. Jim Waid’s work has been exhibited in

galleries and museums around the country, and is in several public collections including the Arizona State University

Art Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art; the University of Arizona Museum of Art; the Phoenix Art Museum, the

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, NY; Smith College Museum of Art,

Northampton, MA; and the Museum of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. In 2013, Waid was awarded the Arizona

Governor’s Arts Award.

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BARBARA SMITH OTT

Barbara Smith was born in Pasadena, California, where her early connection with several art instructors led to a lifelong

passion in visual art. She migrated to the southwest in 1966 and received her BFA from the University of Arizona in

1979. While at the University of Arizona, Smith’s work was inspired by professors Bruce McGrew, Doug Denniston and

Charles Littler. Her work has been included in national competitions and shows, for which she has received multiple

awards and recognition. Barbara Smith is represented in the permanent collections of private and public institutions

across the country, including the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson International Airport, Northwest Hospital, Janos

Restaurant, Miraval Resort, the IBM Corporation in San Jose and the World Trade Center in Dallas.

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TERRY ETHERTON

Terry Etherton established Etherton Gallery in Tucson, Arizona in 1981 and began a career that has brought his gallery

recognition as one of the top photography galleries in the United States. The gallery is known for its museum quality

exhibitions and extensive inventory of works by master photographers including Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Elliott

Erwitt, Flor Garduño, Emmet Gowin, Graciela Iturbide, Mark Klett, Danny Lyon, Richard Misrach, Frederick Sommer,

Garry Winogrand, Joel-Peter Witkin and many others. Etherton Gallery participates in major art fairs, such as The

AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) Photography Show in New York, Paris Photo Los Angeles,

and Classic Photographs LA. Terry Etherton has long-standing relationships with public institutions, corporations and

private collectors worldwide. He is an Accredited Member of The American Society of Appraisers and regularly

consults on all matters relating to photography, including conducting appraisals.

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MICHAEL O'NEILL

Michael O’Neill was born in the United States in the United States in 1946. His photographic career

started in the jungles of Chiapas and Quintana Rao, Mexico in 1965. O’Neill’s commercial work,

spanning the decade from 1970-1980, won him many industry awards for his still-life advertising

photography and television direction.

In 1980 he started a transition into portraiture accepting many editorial magazine assignments.

O’Neill’s portraits of film stars, celebrities and politicians have been used extensively by Vanity Fair,

The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Time, Sports Illustrated, People, InStyle, and Newsweek as well as

major film studios and advertising agencies.

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JAMES G. DAVIS

The late James G. Davis was a native Mid-Westerner who lived and worked in the

Northern Sonoran desert since 1967. He received his formal education at Wichita

State University, earning a BA and MFA from that institution. Davis spent several

years working in Mexico and in Spain and has spent time in Deya, Mallorca.

Davis taught at the University of Missouri and the University of Arizona for before

taking an early retirement to focus on his painting and exhibition schedule.

His paintings are in the permanent collections of major public institutions including, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York, NY; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute,

Washington, D.C.; the Phoenix Museum of Art and the Tucson Museum of Art. He also has work in several other

institutions in the US and Europe.

In addition to his Arizona studio, the Davis maintained studios in the Colorado Rocky Mountains near Woodland Park

and in Nova Scotia, Canada on the Atlantic south shore. He also worked and exhibited in Berlin.

BARBARA ROGERS

Rogers has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally including 44 solo exhibitions at major galleries and museums in

San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Scottsdale, Germany, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. Her work

is in major public and private collections including The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Scottsdale Museum of

Contemporary Art, The Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona State University Museum of Art, The Oakland Museum of Art and the San

Jose Museum of Art.

Barbara’s works has been reviewed in such major publications as The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune,

Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times, Art News, Art Forum and Art in America.

Rogers was born in Newcomerstown, Ohio and grew up in Canton Ohio. She graduated in Commercial Art from Timken High

School, and graduated with a B.SC degree in Arts Education from Ohio State University. In California she studied painting at The

San Francisco Art Institute with Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff and Frank Lobdell. She studied life drawing with Nathan

Oliviera at California College of Arts and Crafts. She received the Eisner Prize and her MA in Painting from the University of

California at Berkeley. At UC Berkeley she studied with NY painters Michael Goldberg and Angelo Ippolito. Her major professor

was the Chicago/NYC painter, Felix Ruvolo.

Rogers has been a faculty member or visiting artist at the University of California Berkeley, CA, University of Chicago, San Jose

State University, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, The San Francisco Art Institute, Cooper Union, New York City, NY, University of

Washington, Seattle, WA, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. Pusan National University, Pusan, South Korea and Zayed

University in Adu Dhabi. In 2007, After numerous mentoring and teaching awards, Rogers retired from the University of Arizona

and is now Professor Emeritus of Painting and Drawing in the School of Art at The University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ

KATE BREAKEY

Kate Breakey is internationally known for her large-scale, richly hand-colored

photographs, including her series of luminous portraits of birds, flowers and animals.

Her photography has been published in the volumes Small Deaths: Photographs

(2001); Birds/Flowers (2003); Painted Light (2010); and Slow Light (2011). Breakey’s

new book, Las Sombras/The Shadows (2012), includes contact prints known as

photograms or photogenic drawings that record her love of the desert Southwest. Breakey’s work has appeared in more

than eighty one-person exhibitions and more than fifty group exhibitions in the United States, the United Kingdom,

Australia, Japan, China, New Zealand, and France. Kate Breakey’s work is held in many public collections, including the

Australian National Gallery in Canberra, the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, the Museum of Photographic

Arts in San Diego, and the Museum of Fine arts, Houston.

A native of South Australia, Kate Breakey moved to Austin, Texas in 1988. She completed a Master of Fine Art degree at the University of Texas in 1991 where she also taught photography in the Department of Art and Art History until 1997. She has lived in Tucson since 1999.

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ROBERT LAZUKA

Robert Lazuka studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and printmaking at Arizona State University, where he

earned his MFA degree. He has been a faculty member at Ohio University since 1984, serving five years as Director of the School of

Art from 2001 to 2006. Robert also worked as Chief Faculty Consultant in Studio Art for the College Board from 1997 to 2000,

chaired their Studio Art Development Committee for five years, has served on its Arts Advisory Committee since 2002, and began

service on the Steering Committee for the Task Force on the Arts in Education in 2007.

Professor Lazuka’s prints have been selected for inclusion in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art

and the Smithsonian National Museum of Art; Washington, D.C.; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Bibliotheque

Nationale de France, Paris; The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; and The Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown,

New York, among others.

He has had numerous one-person shows including moment/momentum at the Peppers Art Gallery, University of Redlands,

California, On the Horizon at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina and Prints on the Landscape at Columbus Cultural Arts

Center in Columbus, Ohio. He has also shown in the group exhibitions Outstanding American Prints in Ann Arbor, MI, 20th Harper

National Print and Drawing Exhibition at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, Rock and Roller at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio,

and the 26th National Print and Drawing Exhibition at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He currently lives and works in Athens,

Ohio.

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TOM PHILABAUM

Tom Philabaum built his first glassblowing studio in 1975 in downtown Tucson, AZ and opened a gallery in 1982. The following

year, 1983, the Glass Arts Society (G.A.S.) conference took place in Tucson, with Tom as the liaison for the local glass community.

In 1985 the present location on South 6th Avenue became the new home of Philabaum Glass and in 1997, the G.A.S. conference

returned to Tucson with Tom as co-chair and Philabaum Glass Gallery & Studio being the major venue for demos and exhibitions.

Tom's wife Dabney runs the Philabaum Glass Gallery, featuring glass artists from around the world while Tom runs the glass

blowing studio as well as the sculptural area where a broad array of techniques including kiln casting, fusing slumping and saile de

verre are used.

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