Santa Fe Arts Journal

Visual Art

Albuquerque resident Cynthia Cook, who studied art and metals at Parsons School of Design in New York and the University of New Mexico, fell in love with can metal more than 30 years ago.

“I discovered a whole new world when I learned about can metal,” she explains. “It weathers beautifully. Made from steel, aluminum and tin, it takes on a blush when rusting. I find it charming.”

Using coffee cans, cookie tins, grocery store cans and vintage cans scavenged at thrift stores, Cook draws on her jewelry-making skills to creates colorful wall hangings that are on display in the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, which takes place at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center from November 30 through December 2. [Read More…]

Theater and Music

The six clowns that star in the 2018 Circus Luminous show taking place at the Lensic Performing Arts Center during the Thanksgiving weekend try to help humans transcend the negative words and actions that have been dominating recent news.

“These clowns are called to Earth from wherever clowns live,” explains Cynthia Ruffin, who directs this Wise Fool New Mexico production presented November 23 through 25. “They come to us with the power of laughter and love.”

“Clown Alchemy,” the 15th annual Circus Luminous show at the Lensic, is an upbeat, family-friendly performance filled with music, acrobatics, aerial work and dancing that presents serious problems with optimism. [Read More…]

Visual Art

“I paint what people do and throw away as part of the landscape,” explains Bernalillo, New Mexico painter Scott Greene, whose show “Environmental (Ex)change” opens at 5 p.m. on November 9 at Turner Carroll Gallery.

An artist who has been focusing on social and political issues in his work for more than three decades, Greene has had lots of material to work with during recent years. “Things have gotten so intense lately, and that hasn’t made creating work easier for me,” he adds. 

“This work is emotionally driven by extreme shifts in everything we know about being American citizens, whatever that is now. [Read More…]

Visual Art

“I have always been fascinated with the intersection of humans, animals and mythology,” says mixed media sculptor Betsy Youngquist. “My creative pursuits are centered on exploring those connections.”

More than a dozen of Youngquist’s sculptures-made out of high density foam and covered primarily with beads-are on display in Patina Gallery’s show “Season of the Surreal,” which opens at 5 p.m. on November 2.

Starting with a foam form sculpted by her partner R. Scott Long, Youngquist adds eyes to the face and lets the character unfold, one step at a time. “In needing to meet a creature through the eyes, I begin to understand what each character wants to become,” she says. [Read More…]

Visual Art

“Shadows Through a Petal,” Emily Margarit Mason’s new show at No Land that opens on October 27, features photographs of staged scenes reflecting on place and memory that draw imagery from the beaches of Florida where she grew up to the mountains and deserts of New Mexico where she currently lives.

In Mason’s body of work, photography stands in for memory and experience. “What happens between experience and memory?” she asks. “Is memory real to the experience? What does it look like?”

Mason’s process begins by collecting raw materials that are layered together with her own printed photographs in outdoor arrangements and finally photographed. [Read More…]

Visual Art

The exhibition “A Breathing Landscape” contains glass works by Clare Belfrage,  a native of Adelaide, Australia, that were made specifically for this solo show opening at Tansey Contemporary on October 19.

“I have been working on some of the series like “In Deep” and “Quiet Shifting” for a few years,” explains Belfrage, who was recently honored with a 2018 South Australian Living Artist designation. “They are very reflective of landscape while also holding a sense of rock, escarpment, the layers of seeing and the experience of moving through a place.  [Read More…]

Visual Art

“Although I have painted balls exclusively for more than 25 years, I don’t really care that much about them,” says artist John Gibson, who exhibits his recent paintings of balls during a solo show at Gerald Peters Gallery.

An artist who retired from teaching drawing and painting at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in 2017, Gibson has been working non-stop in his studio for the past 18 months preparing work for shows around the country. 

After experiencing extreme frustration with everything revolving around his exhibit in New York last spring, he cut up much of the show’s work into small pieces. “It was a creative, not a destructive, act,” he adds. [Read More…]

Visual Art

Peter Harrington’s drive to find his perfect symbolic expression through combining geometric forms with organic elements in totemic ways motivates this Jemez Springs painter every time he enters his studio.

“I began this series of paintings about 25 years ago,” explains Harrington, who shows some of his latest pieces during a two-artist show at Ellsworth Gallery that opens on October 5. “Up in My Grill: Explorations in Sublime Irreverence” features Harrington’s paintings and ceramic sculptures by Gena Fowler.

Harrington’s background as a practitioner of Buddhism informs his work. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University who also studied art in a master’s program at Purdue University, Harrington spent five years living in Zen monasteries.  [Read More…]

Visual Art

Matthew Mullins’s interest in the connections between people and nature has resulted in a body of work that encompasses paintings, photographs and sculptures. 

A selection of pieces representing several sub-bodies of work within one main body of work are on display in his show “The Sun in our Bones,” which opens on September 28 at form & concept. 

While there are many paintings in the show, Mullins is also exhibiting photos with long pinhole exposure from four days to eight months. [Read More…]