Creative Coverage of Santa Fe's Arts Communities
Welcome to Santa Fe Arts Journal, an online magazine focused on Santa Fe’s visual and performing arts community that’s written and curated by Emily Van Cleve, an artist and journalist with 24 years’ worth of experience writing about the arts for local, regional and national publications. Enjoy reading about select upcoming shows and performances in SFAJ’s LOOK, LISTEN and LEARN MORE sections below!
Emily Van Cleve
Founder/Editor
Visual Art
Ryan Singer’s colorful acrylic paintings combine traditional Navajo images with contemporary imagery. They’re on display in the show “Childhood Mythologies,” which opens at form & concept on March 29.
Now a resident of Albuquerque, Singer spent his childhood both on and off the Navajo reservation. He enjoyed summers with his grandparents, who lived west of Tuba City, Arizona and raised sheep.
“I would gather my toys and take them with me while I herded sheep all day for my grandparents,” recalls Singer, who often depicts his childhood toys in his paintings. [Read More…]
Music
Two of composer Hannah Lash’s works, “Stoned Prince” and “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep,” are performed at SITE Santa Fe when Lash and the chamber ensemble loadbang come to town on April 13.
While “Stoned Prince,” which was written in 2013, has received a number of performances, “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep” enjoys its world premiere.
“Stoned Prince” was the first collaboration I did with loadbang,” says Lash, who is also a harpist playing during the concert. [Read More…]
Dance
The Malpaso Dance Company is making a splash in its Cuban home. It was founded in 2012 by artistic director Osnel Delgado. During the past six years, the company has been establishing a reputation far beyond its Cuban borders.
Malpaso’s mission is to feature works by Cuban choreographers as well as up-and-coming choreographers from around the world. [Read More…]
Music
The award-winning Elias String Quartet, which takes its name from Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah,” performs on March 31 in St. Francis Auditorium as the guest of Santa Fe Pro Musica.
On the program are two classic works-Schubert’s “Quartet in A Minor, D. 804” and Schumann’s “Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1”- as well as Sally Beamish’s new work “String Quartet No. 4, Nine Fragments.” [Read More…]
Visual Art
Turner Carroll Gallery celebrates some of its favorite female artists who speak out about important issues of the day in their work in the show “Can’t Lock Me Up.”
Opening at the gallery on March 29, the exhibit honors the loud and clear expressions of women’s voices. Among the artists with work in the show are Fatemeh Baigmoradi, Judy Chicago, Jenny Holzer and Ambreen Butt. [Read More…]
Visual Art
LewAllen Galleries presents “Boundaries Extended,” a show of work by abstract painter Sammy Peters. A resident of Arkansas, he has enjoyed a five-decade-long career.
Painting in oils and mixed media, Peters creates multi-layered, textural canvases with geometric forms that seem to float in space. [Read More…]
Visual Art
Jared Antonio-Justo Trujillo’s solo exhibition “When There is Darkness, You Are the Light” features new LED backlit aluminum sculptures and a site-specific installation. It opens at KEEP Contemporary, the gallery Trujillo has owned and operated since 2016, on March 23.
Trujillo brings the freedom and autonomy he feels as a graffiti artist to his work.
“I’ve been an artist all my life, but I started really focusing on my work in 2005,” explains Trujillo, a native of Santa Fe who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Santa Fe University of Art and Design in 2010. [Read More…]
Visual Art
Santa Fe woodworker and entrepreneur Jonathan Boyd is frustrated when he sees a vacant commercial space in downtown Santa Fe. In his mind, he visualizes art filling the space.
“Downtown rents are out of reach for most emerging artists or artists whose work isn’t guaranteed to sell by strict adherence to the mainstream style and media,” he says. “Santa Fe’s artistic history is rich and deep. It is threatened by rising property costs and costs of living. Social, political and economic forces can suppress artistic growth by limiting access to resources and opportunities.”
Enter Vital Spaces, a new 501(c)(3) founded by Boyd that’s in the business of locating vacant commercial spaces in Santa Fe and finding a way to transform them into places for art shows, studio spaces and performances. [Read More…]
Theater
The play “Trevor” by Nick Jones is about a former showbiz chimpanzee on the edge of despair. Opening at the Santa Fe Playhouse on March 14 and directed by Monique Lacoste, “Trevor” stars Evan Dalzell as a chimp who once performed in commercials with famous actors including Morgan Fairchild. His owner is a woman named Sandra.
“The playwright specifically indicated that Trevor should not be played by an actor dressed as a chimp,” explains Lacoste. “The role has to be conveyed by characterization.” [Read More…]
Visual Art
In “Future perfect tense,” Amanda Lechner’s installation in Axle Contemporary’s van, every surface of the van’s interior is covered in one huge ink on paper painting.
“I used a brush and a couple of other tools to apply both a saturated India-type ink and watered down ink to the paper,” explains Lechner, a practicing artist and university instructor who grew up in Santa Fe.
“Future perfect tense” opens on March 15. The van will be parked at the Santa Fe Railyard Farmers Market Shade Structure. [Read More…]
Visual Art
Chris Kain calls her collages “paper paintings.” It’s a perfect description. Layers of hand-torn pieces of colored paper are assembled into imaginary landscapes.
“Yellow Days, Blue Nights” is Kain’s show of paper paintings at Counter Culture Cafe.
Kain’s scenes are based on watercolor sketches that she creates when she’s spending time in the wilderness. One of her favorite spots is the 27-mile road that follows the Conejos River in the South San Juan Wilderness of southern Colorado. [Read More…]
Visual Art
Part of the reason that arts and culture magazine The Magazine moved to a new office on West Alameda Street late last fall is to have the space to be able to host art exhibits.
The Magazine’s first show, “12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now,” opens on March 1 and features a wide range of 2D and 3D work. More than 450 submissions were received after publisher Lauren Tresp put out a statewide call for artists to be featured in The Magazine’s February/March issue.
“Jenn (managing editor Jenn Shapland) and I were impressed with the quality of the work in the submissions,” explains Tresp. [Read More…]
