Archive for the ‘Art’ Category



LocalMotion: Northern New Mexico’s November Art & Studio Tours

Posted Friday November 5 2010 by in Art, Cultural & Community Events
1 comment

Painted fish swim across a ceramic celandon sea.  The spout has a jaunty arc and the clever lid has recessed wells for easy grasping.  It’s a marvelous teapot, bought over 25 years ago: a happy reminder of the rich vein of artistic talent that lies along and near the High Road from Santa Fe to Taos.  The teapot’s creator is ceramicist Nausika Richardson, founder of the annual Dixon Studio Tour.

Nausika Richardson, Square Ceramic Bowl

For 29 years, on the first full weekend of November, the artists, artisans and farmers of Dixon have been hosting one of the oldest and best known of New Mexico’s studio tours.  Locals and tourists alike flock annually to this tiny pastoral town, seated at the confluence of the Embudo River and the Rio Grande.  Dixon is rich in historic tradition, creative culture and easy charm, worth a visit for its physical beauty alone. The studio tour is an amiable opportunity to savor the town’s appeal, support local talents and get a jump on holiday shopping where the purchase process is itself a gift.

For one resident’s view of community life, check out the memoirs of Stanley G. Crawford– A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small Farm in New Mexico, and Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico. (Crawford’s books and garlic arrangements will be on sale during the tour.) Grab lunch or an early dinner at acclaimed restaurant Embudo Station off Highway 68 between Dixon and Velarde. (T: 505.852.4707.) Dixon is located about 50 miles northeast of Santa Fe, 25 miles southwest of Taos. For map, schedule and artist info, visit the tour’s website or follow Dixon Studio Tour on Facebook.

*~*~*

In downtown Santa Fe, independent artist Mark Frossard moves his Cafe Tour to The Station Cafe in the Railyard District.  The exhibition, entitled “Pit Stops,” features 5 brand new paintings and several never-before-displayed older works, centered on the theme of transportation, relocation and expansion. Frossard shares his keen observation of human quirks and vulnerabilities with a cartoonist’s economy of line. In his subtle humor and depth of insight, he reminds me  a trace of author and illustrator James Thurber.  Opening reception takes place Friday, November 5th, from 5:00 – 7:00pm. The Station Cafe is located near the Santa Fe Train Depot at 530 S. Guadalupe. If you can’t make the opening, go back for breakfast.  The espresso drinks, made with illy coffee, are top-notch.

~*~*~

Next weekend, November 13-14th, head out to Eldorado for annual Fall Show put on by The Eldorado Arts and Crafts Association. And be sure not to miss the 12th annual Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival (see Art + Green on the Santa Fe Creative Scene.)

For more information on November Art Openings and Events in and around Santa Fe, consult the Calendar at Santa Fe Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s excellent website or check out the offerings at the Santa Fe Gallery Association.

Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent talents. Artists receive 100% of the proceeds from any sale. For up-to-date market info and full access to the MLS, visit: Santa Fe Real Estate Downtown.

Phat Trash: the Art of Creative Renewal in the City Different

Posted Friday October 15 2010 by in Art
1 comment

Bone Art, by Dan Phillips, founder of Phoenix Commotion

Floors made from wine corks?  Windows of crystal platters? In Huntsville, Texas, a community’s cast offs gain new life under the direction of Dan Phillips, founder of Phoenix Commotion, a company which crafts affordable housing out of durable discards from construction sites, roadside pickings and trash heaps. Read more about this visionary project in the New York Times piece, One Man’s Trash. Or watch this intro video from Going Green.

While homes with license plate roofs can’t happen in Santa Fe’s climate of historic preservation, there are plenty of ways the denizens of the City Different celebrate sustainability and creative recycling. We’re still a few weeks away from the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, but you can catch an artistic exultation of trash at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, located in downtown Santa Fe, at 201 West Marcy Street from 10-5 PM, Monday-Saturday. The 2-and-3-D artworks of Waste/Not incorporate a minimum of 50% recycled materials. Featured pieces inspire reflection on issues related to the generation and management of trash, but check them out for their sheer beauty, wit and creative muscle.  New Mexican artists Michael Freed, Goldie Garcia, Geoffrey Gorman, Marion Martinez, Darlene Olivia McElroy, Joe “Buffalo” Nickels, Sallyann Paschall, Patricia Pearce, Bunny Tobias, Felicia Trujillo and Dee Ann Wagner are among the participants.

Sun/Flower/Seed, by Matthew Chase-Daniel

Starting tomorrow, the gallery-in-a-van that is itself a clever bit of recycling, Axle Contemporary , presents Moving Stills an exhibition of still photography from 18 New Mexico filmmakers and video artists. (Photo by participants Eve Andree Laramee below.) The show runs through October 27th, with an Opening Reception at the CCA next Friday, October 22nd.  Axle’s been busy with other intersections of environmental creativity with Matthew Chase-Daniel’s short run exhibit, Sun/Flower/Seed, pictured here, and last weekend’ s 10/10/10 Day of Climate Action, where Axle members taught participants how to roast their own charcoal and make yucca brushes.

As the aspens turn the Sangres de Cristo mountains to gold, and the fading perfume of roasting green chiles co-mingles with the fragrance from the season’s first pinon and juniper fires, Santa Fe heads for Winter with a sense-satisfying burst of creative energy.  From the burning of Zozobra at Fiestas forward, the spirit of Santa Fe in Fall is a contrarian refusal to go gentle into the night of Winter.  Creativity never stops in the City Different, but Fall hits a delightful high water mark of environmental consciousness and creative expression.

7 x 10" photo, by Eve Andree Laramee

This Week on Santa Fe’s Creative Scene, October 1, 2010

Posted Friday October 1 2010 by in Art, Local Events
2 comments

The aspens are changing, the days’ temps swinging in wide arcs from cool to hot.  And the light, the fabulous Santa Fe light, is in its soft, pellucid glory. I love Fall.  It may be the twilight of the year’s cycle, but it feels like a Spring of possibilities.

Is it my perennial optimism or is there a new vigor on the emerging/indie arts scene? Answer the question by checking out some of the offerings around town this weekend.

~*~*~

Tonight, Friday October 1st, between 6-8 PM, head over to Backroad Pizza South for Mark Frossard‘s “casual, unofficial pizza party [art] opening.” Have a little pizza and beer with the easy-going, yet sharply attuned artist who shares his insightful observations of human nature in brightly colored southwestern tableau. Backroad Pizza South is located on Highway 14, just past Santa Fe Brewing Co. on Bisbee Court.

Also on Friday, from 5-7:30 at At MOV-IN Gallery on the campus of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD), see the video/sound installation Jacqui Kuraj – “IN THE YEAR OF BLAME” – THE BODY AS SACRIFICIAL LANDSCAPE. Read an interview with Kuraj on the End of Being website

Classical/Spanish musician Mike Tait Tafoya writes, “my good friend Tommy Vigil is having an art show tonight at Counter Culture (on Baca St.) from 6-9pm. Acrylic Paintings and photos Dia de los Muertos style! If you like skulls and stuff like that, you’ll really dig his art!”

~*~*~

On Saturday, October 2, Axle Contemporary will park its Van Gallery at Española’s 9th Annual Spañapalooza, a concert and skating competition held in Valdez Park.

Saturday night, let a lineup of musical masters stretch your auditory dimensions at the Second Installment in the Fall Series at High Mayhem Emerging Arts Studio

~*~*~

On Sunday, October 3rd, at 8 PM,  head downtown to Corazon, 401 S. Guadalupe St, and shake the kinks out of your week to the tunes of Ty Segall and Ghost Circles, presented by The Process. Spin Magazine says, “Warped sonics do nothing to diminish the impact of his vigorously nostalgic riff and stomp. Segall thunders along with the timeless, impudently rowdy energy of a cement basement dance-off.”

The Care & Feeding of Santa Fe’s Creative Class

the Reciprocal Value of Supporting the Local Alt/Indie Creative Scene
Posted Friday September 24 2010 by in Art, Art Galleries, Local Events
2 comments

Places that succeed in attracting and retaining creative class people prosper; those that fail don’t. –Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class

A thriving music and nightlife scene is critical to attracting and retaining the young, brilliant, awesome people that Santa Fe needs. –After Hours Alliance

Musical Expression, Josh Gallegos

Last Wednesday, Joshua and I sat in on a meeting of the After Hours Alliance (AHA), a volunteer consortium of local music and art promoters dedicated to supporting and sustaining a vibrant, dimensional night scene for the younger set in Santa Fe. Even if you’re neither young, nor interested in the city’s nightlife, here are a few things you should know about the group. AHA supports all-ages access to night time events.  It is dedicated to promoting responsible alcohol consumption at the events it sponsors and has concrete ideas as to how to make this happen (read more on this topic at Activate or Deteriorate).

Its backbone support players are hardworking, resourceful actioneers: people like Shannon Murphy, Dan Werwath, and the folks behind High Mayhem, Meow Wolf, Little Wing, Team Everything and The Process, among others.  All are people who consistently make art and music events happen with or without time, money or a dedicated home.

This weekend, help make Santa Fe a friendly incubator of creative young talent by going where you’ve never gone before: get off the Canyon Road/Santa Fe Plaza art circuit and check out a new venue.  See the list below for alt/indie art and music options worth investigating. Good for you; good for them; good for the city.

~*~*~

This Friday evening, from 4-7 PM, head over to the Railyard Arts District for a double axle delight from Axle Contemporary. If you haven’t seen this marvelously creative mobile gallery, make the detour. Axle Contemporary (the shiny, tricked-out van) will showcase ongoing exhibit, Transmissions.  Axle Annex will be featuring  Sun, Flower, Seed a vehicular installation by Matthew Chase-Daniel.  Transmissions will continue to roll its way around Santa Fe through October 14th, but you have just three days to see Sun, Flower Seed.

Axle Art's Gallery on Wheels

Also on Friday the 24th, from 6-9 PM, for ONE night only, view Conglomerate Perception, at popup gallery, Symphonic Soul, located at 1012 Marquez Place, Unit #108B in Santa Fe (next to Valdez Glass.)  Show features the work of emerging and independent artists Josh Gallegos, Cotton Miller, Mike Rohner, David Hyams, Anne Kelly, Carolyn Wright and Michael Webb. Swing by for food, music and a chance to meet and mingle with artists.

Wish Santa Fe had a better music scene? Then show your support for still young performance and educational space, Little Wing, with a weekend lineup that spans a variety of tastes.

Tomorrow night, check out THE NEXT REVOLUTION Hip Hop Art/Music show presented by TNR Crew with Casuno, DJ Meshak, Galley Cat, DJ Shakedown, Perish and more TBA :::6:30-9pm :::cost TBA

And on Sunday the 26th, don’t miss Pillars & Tongues, Aaron Martin, Secret Spells presented by Red Cell’s, The Process :::8pm $5

Little Wing is located next to the CandyMan, at 851 St. Michael’s Drive. 505.983.5906.

~*~*~

If your musical taste runs avant garde, don’t miss Saturday’s full banquet concert at High Mayhem, 2811 Siler Lane, 505.501.3333  Get an advance-rundown on the show at The Santa Fe Reporter

** Congratulations to Axle Contemporary for today’s write up in the culture section of the New York Times.  “We’re blending the high and the low, the exclusive and the democratic, and taking those boundaries and crossing them,” says Axle’s co-founder Matthew Chase-Daniel of the old Hostess delivery truck — refashioned with track lighting, plastered walls and skylights — that serves as his gallery. Read the full article at Let It Roll: Santa Fe’s Art A Go-Go

I loved hearing the NYT refer to Santa Fe’s art scene as “robust,” referencing last year’s piece, The Art of Being Santa Fe.  There are certainly many working to make the Santa Fe art world ever more broad and vigorous.

Past as Presence: Joanne Lefrak at Box Gallery

Posted Saturday August 28 2010 by in Art, Art Galleries, Santa Fe Downtown
1 comment

Joanne Lefrak is lovely and charming, with a warmth and gentle spontaneity that disarms.

Given the potent mystique of the brooding artist, you might think niceness would be an occupational detriment, or at the least, irrelevant.  But if you’re in the business of brokering relationships and gathering stories, it helps to be the sort of person who invites engagement the way a puppy invites touch.

Surely that effulgent loveliness serves her work at SITE Santa Fe, where she works as education and catalogue manager and runs the Young Curator’s Program. It also enabled her to entice ghost town raconteurs to unfurl the old family stories she pairs with the delicate drawings in her show, Past as Presence, currently on display at Box Gallery.

Like any good works of art, Lefrak’s pieces unveil in layers. The fact that she scratched her drawings onto plexiglass is an immediately appreciable neat trick, especially for anyone who has ever tried NOT to scratch plexi and knows just how touchy a medium it is.  And it’s also quite cool that wall-mounting and front-lighting these scratched plexi panels reveals pallid but precise images in shadow. What follows is what you feel: the haunting resonance of powerful times past–at the Trinity Site, testing ground for atomic bombs, and in the faint, memory-bent remnants of a vigorous family life echoed in a present day ghost town.

Head down to Box Gallery, downtown in the Santa Fe Railyard, and spend a half an hour absorbing these etheric wonders.  Slip on a set of headphones, and listen to the words of the ranchers Lefrak befriended. Share the fresh, direct sense of something not there made real and present by the humble, receptivity of this gentle artist.

Exhibition runs August 27 – October 2, 2010 at Box Gallery “[one of] a dozen galleries … that the serious collector and the discerning tourist would not want to miss.” — Mimi Avins, Los Angeles Times, Travel

Box Gallery is located at 1611-A Paseo de Peralta, across from SITE Santa Fe. Open Tuesday – Saturday 10 – 5; Tel: 505.989.4897

~*~*~*

Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent artistic and musical talents.

This Week on Santa Fe’s Creative Scene, August 20th

Posted Thursday August 19 2010 by in Art, Local Events
0 comments

“I make things to find out what the ideas in my head look like in the physical world.” –David McPherson

Friday and Saturday night, from 5-9 PM, stop by 1800 Hopewell Street, at the corner of Hopewell and 2nd, to lay your eyes on the AV installation event Reflection Contraption: the brainchild of Meow Wolf member, David McPherson. If you don’t know the unique and scrappy genius of the Meow Wolf Creative Collective, you’re missing some of the freshest, most playful art in action.  Poke around their Facebook page and website for a foretaste of the group’s inventive imagination.

“It’s kind of a vintage garage sale where a bomb went off.” (from the Bobby Levin video documentary on Geodecadent)

Bobby Levin (Bobby XI) documents the elements and ideas of last year’s installation, Geodecadent, in a video worth viewing, but it’s a bit like seeing the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in still photos with voiceover.  Nothing can do justice to the experience of visiting a Meow Wolf piece itself.

~*~*~

RSVP for the David Solomon’s Works on Paper Show, or just show up on Friday, from 5-8 PM, at the Jay Etkin Gallery, located in the Artyard behind Warehouse 21: 703 Camino de la Familia, #3103. The installation featured on his Facebook page had nice rhythm. Get a feel for David’s style on his website.

~*~*~

Sam Haozous will be displaying his photographic work at the Open House Meet & Greet at Standing Buffalo Indian Art Gallery & Gifts on 1422 Second Street. Sam’s a down-to-earth genial guy from a renowned art family. We liked his work at the “Generations” exhibition held downtown at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center back in January of 2009 and look forward to seeing more.

~*~*~*

From 7-8 PM on Friday, head over to Little Wing at the Candyman Strings and Things, 851 St. Michael’s, for Invitational Exhibition Opening to see the work of some of Santa Fe’s finest emerging artists as selected by the SITE Santa Fe Young Curators. Artists include Jesse Salazar, Megan Toon, Kassie Marshall, Olivia Bonfiglio and Spencer Byrne-Seres.

This Week on Santa Fe’s Creative Scene–8/13/10

Posted Friday August 13 2010 by in Art, Santa Fe Downtown
1 comment

I’m the luckiest kid, I get to do what I love to do everyday. – Phillip

Phillip’s been counting: Ten days, four days and now one. On Saturday, August 14th, Phillip Vigil will have the Opening at Shiprock Santa Fe that he, and we, have been looking forward to since he was invited to join the gallery last October. We met once emerging artist Phillip in the Spring of ’09, when he reached out to us (and a thousand others) via Facebook.  We gave him space in several of the Changing Gallery group shows, (described in the posts Sights and Sounds and See and Be Scene) because we were impressed by his knowledge of art history, his huge curiosity and his hunger to grow. We also got to know his generosity of heart–a generosity in evidence when he suggested I use a piece by Matthew Chase-Daniel as the visual for the blogpost. “Matthew Chase-Daniel is Amazing!” he wrote. And a few minutes later, “Use the profile photo!”

Matthew Chase-Daniel’s photo-assemblage portraits “[draw] on the traditions of photography, painting and cinematography to capture the dynamic activity [of seeing.]“

“I do not photograph only one moment in time, but rather a group of moments, selecting the most essential details of a place.”

In the photo to the left, he effectively captures a fleeting bit of Phillip: the focus, the intensity, the polygamy of culture, color, medium and technique. We know who and what we know in the aggregate of our acquaintance, as a moving point of moments, experiences, pictures. As artists do, Chase-Daniel helps us to see what we fail to notice.

Shiprock Gallery is located on the Plaza, at 53 Old Santa Fe Trail, 2nd floor,  in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico. Tel: 982.8478 The opening for Phillip’s Exhibition will run from 6:00-8:30, Saturday, August 14th.

Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their real estate listings, where appropriate, to showcase the work of emerging and independent artists. Check out our website at SantaFeRealEstateDowntown.com

This week on Santa Fe’s Creative Scene

Posted Friday July 30 2010 by in Art, Local Events
0 comments

On some nights, creative options spew like a leaking dike in Santa Fe.  However determined, I can’t catch them all.  Friday, July 30th is such a night.  One friend has an art opening  Another is playing music.  Meow Wolf is having a dance party. And then there’s the SushiNMTweetup.

Start your evening at Victoria Price Art & Design, 1512 Pacheco Street.  The Opening Reception for Alexandra EldridgeInvite for We Are Here So Lightly‘s Multi-media exhibition “We are Here So Lightly” kicks off at 5 PM. Come see how salvaged Chinese scrolls transform in the hands of this seasoned talent whose work is a record of layered journeys, both internal and worldly.

Emerging photographer, Carlo Armedariz, will be showing work at Femininity Art Show at Au Boudoir, 1005 St. Francis Drive, #115 from 6-8 PM.

Next, head over to Little Wing, the new performance space at the Candyman, for Electric Miles 2: Yesternow, starting at 8 PM. Musician, teacher and multifarious talent, Peter Breslin, passed over a few rain soaked miles to pull this one together. Bound to be excellent.

Cap your evening at the VFW where the creative forces behind Meow Wolf are hosting Super-Powered Dance Destroyer: the “best dance party in town.”  Starts at 9 PM.

Me? I’ll be in Albuquerque, braiding threads of connection into human bridges between two of the State’s leading creative centers. Or just eating sushi, and hoping I plugged the right hole in the dike.

~*~*~

Real estate agents Malissa Kullberg and Joshua Maes, AKA Changing Gallery, use their listings, where appropriate, to showcase the art, photography, sculpture and other creations of emerging and independent talents.

Santa Fe International Folk Market

Posted Thursday July 22 2010 by in Art, Cultural & Community Events, Local Events
1 comment

Despite my passion for travel, curiosity about world cultures and love of art, I had never managed to make it to the world-renowned Santa Fe International Folk Market.  I’d always been working.  This year, I hit the ground running as a volunteer. Joshua Maes and I spent a few hours working the cashier’s station.  It was a high speed intro to market attendees and a fun opportunity to raise money for the Artists Travel Fund, which subsidizes travel expenses for first time artists.  Volunteering enabled us to get in free and even more, to be a part of the Great Dance.  I highly recommend the experience.

Check out the Market’s Facebook fan page to get a feel for the enthusiasm that fuels the event.   Read the Market Wrap Up, which reports on this year’s financial successes and encouraging firsts. “The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is 501(c)3 organization that provides opportunities for folk artists to succeed in the global marketplace and can make a substantive difference in the life of a participating artist.”

Passing Greatness: a Paean to Musician Bill Hinkley & the Giving Spirit

Posted Monday May 31 2010 by in Art
0 comments

“I’m quite sure that it will take the angel band just a short time to get over the shock of ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ in 5/4 time or ‘Amazing Grace’ to the tune of ‘Gilligan’s Island’.” –Van Mertz

“Bill’s reggae version of the Ballad of Jed Clampett was one of my favorites…” –Mike Tonder

He could sing, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame, backwards.” –Rick Haps Hofacre

*~*~*~*

This past Tuesday morning a musical genius slipped away. Bill Hinkley, musician, teacher, and former member of The Sorry Muthas and, with his wife Judy, the house band for the first season (’74-’75) of A Prairie Home Companion, succumbed to the blood disorder that had hammered his body for some five years.  I knew Bill from the time he lived in our home.  I recall him as skinny, quiet and a bit skittish, a memory that would likely amuse those who knew him as a performer. But I think Bill found his harmony in the world, as many artists do, through observing and responding to what he saw with his medium of choice. And, music, in turn, served as his web of life through which he gave and received generously and joyously.

So what  does the death of a Minnesota musician have to do with a blog on downtown Santa Fe?

Beyond my fumbling grief, I write to celebrate an artistic light and the generative life force that each of us brings to the world. Losing Bill just drives me harder to preserve, extol and uplift the creative spirit that feeds and arguably, defines, the Santa Fe community. And to give where I can: in my profession, in Changing Gallery, our effort to support independent and emerging artists and musicians, and in the face of the needs that confront me.

Whatever you have, offer it up with passion and faith that it matters. Need inspiration?  Check out the Facebook Wall that celebrates the lives and music of Bill Hinkley and his wife, musical companion and conspirator in delight, Judy Larson

“Well, they all went out upon the lake ~ Rocks, strop, Bye, Mr. Gamble

Got Swallowed up by a cottonmouth snake ~ Rocks, strop, Bye, Mr. Gamble

Bread and cheese upon the shelf ~ If you want anymore, you can sing it yourself….

–Froggie Went a Courtin,’Traditional, as sung by Bill on the album, Out in Our Meadow

~*~*~

On Friday, June 11th, I will walk the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life to raise funds for cancer education, treatment and research.  If you’re in the vicinity of Santa Fe High School that evening, stop by.  Check out the ring of farolitos lining the track.  If you’re there before dark, you can get a good look at the names and the spirited drawings and decorations that celebrate the many lives touched by cancer.  After dark, the bags form a glowing ring of comfort and inspiration. Quite the sight.

UPDATE ON RELAY FOR LIFE:

Thanks to my fabulous donors, I was recognized as the Top Participant in this year’s Relay for Life event in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Actually, I think Barbara Blackwell raised more overall–I was the online leader– but without question, Prudential was the Top Team. I = You who supported me and the work of the American Cancer Society. Thank You.

« 1 2 3 4 »
Santa Fe Real Estate
Bottom logo

© 2010 Malissa Kullberg. All rights reserved.