Exhibit by John Henry Haseltine
The Mountain Clown and Other Foul Animals is an irreverent jab at our cultural mythologies, specifically our Western and Pioneering narratives.
Jessie Wilber Gallery
February 27 – April 24, 2026
Reception
Opening performance on Friday, February 27th from 6:00-8:30pm, FREE but there will be reserved seating. More details and signup link to coming soon.
Additional show times to be announced.
Artist Statement
Utilizing toys, puppets, performance and comics in addition to painting, Haseltine explores how both self-produced folk art and kitsch mass production equally contribute to the legacy of western mythology. He’s interested in the parallels between historical western expansion and contemporary gentrification in the region, as well as the ways stories can be manipulated to represent local and personal identities.
Haseltine is a self-taught painter primarily inspired by American primitive painting and regional folk art, as well as mid-century kitsch and punk adjacent art from the 70s and 80s.
Artist Bio
John Henry Haseltine is an artist and writer based in Livingston, Montana. His book Westward & Miserable, a collection of paintings and stories gathered from his past gallery shows was published by Elk River Books in 2024 and won a High Plains International Book Award. The Mountain Clown and Other Foul Animals, his solo museum exhibition opened in 2024 at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana and was featured by the New York Times in its seasonal U.S. Gallery and Museum preview.
The exhibition presented a fabricated career retrospective of Mable MacKenzie, a fictional children’s storybook author, complete with literary and biographical excerpts, paintings, toys, comics, and a live gallery performance of Haseltine’s one-person show The Phantom Chuckwagon. In September 2025, Haseltine’s second one-person show The Daredevil, chronicling the career and legacy of an unnamed, Butte-born, death-defying motorcyclist premiered during the Livingston Fringe Festival.
Haseltine graduated from Emerson College in 2009 with a degree in film production and retains a strong interest in narrative focused art that frequently incorporates performance and storytelling.
This exhibit is in partnership with the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association (MAGDA) and Danforth Art Museum.
