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
The young artists studying at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in the 1960s and 1970s felt free to express themselves in styles not attributed to Native American artists.
“There is a misperception that Native artists at that time only wanted to paint in a certain style,” explains IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) chief curator Manuela Well-Off-Man.
“The instructors at IAIA had studied art at universities around the country and supported experimentation. Their students felt liberated from stereotypical expectations of Native American art.” [Read More…]
Music
A Lisa Lynne and Aryeh Frankfurter concert is about much more than music.
It delves into the history of the Celtic and Swedish tunes that the duo perform and the array of interesting instruments (including Celtic harps and the Swedish nyckelharpa) they bring to each concert.
“We tour with a big trailer full of unique instruments,” says Lynne, who performs with Frankfurter on March 2 at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe. [Read More…]
Music and Dance
The Choir of Man has been described as a party and a concert, complete with high-octane choreography. The Lensic Performing Arts Center hosts this music and dance troupe on February 20. [Read More…]
Music
The Richard Thompson Electric Trio plays tunes from its latest album “13 Rivers” at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on February 14.
Named as one of the top 20 guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine, Thompson is also a prolific songwriter. He has received lifetime achievement awards for songwriting from the Americana Music Association in Nashville and the BBC in Britain. [Read More…]
Music
Santa Fe Symphony’s concertmaster David Felberg is one of two soloists in the symphony’s February 17 concert at the Lensic. He performs Bruce Adolphe’s concerto for violin “I Will Not Remain Silent,” which is based on the life of German/American rabbi Joachim Prinz. [Read More…]
Music
“I love new work,” says tenor James Onstad, who presents a recital of art songs with pianist Nathan Salazar on February 24.
Onstad has selected songs by several living composers to perform at the afternoon concert in First Presbyterian Church, including pieces from “Craigslistlieder” by Gabriel Kahane (b.1981).
“Gabriel is creating a new sound world,” explains Onstad, who was introduced to Kahane’s music while he was working on his master’s degree in vocal performance at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. “He selected some Craigslist ads that are bizarre, eccentric and funny and set them to music.” [Read More…]
Theater
While “We Are Hispanic-American Women…Okay?” is a play focusing on Hispanic sisterhood, generational wisdom and body politics, it’s also a cross-cultural work with which everyone can identify.
“The characters are similar to a lot of women and to many powerful women who have influenced me,” explains playwright Patricia Crespin, a native of Bernalillo, New Mexico. “The play shows how women constantly endure.”
Teatro Paraguas, which staged the play a decade ago, re-stages it from February 7 through 24. [Read More…]
Music
Fattah Abbou and Mohamed Aoualou have been living in California for 20 years but grew up in Morocco. During their youth they learned to play traditional Moroccan music and listened to other genres of music performed throughout their country.
“It gave us a rich musical experience,” says Abbou, who founded the band AZA with Aoualou.
AZA’s two founders and Albuquerque musician Brahim Fribgane perform at GIG Performance Space on February 15. Their unique sounds and instruments are on display during a concert that is not only entertaining but also educational. [Read More…]
Theater
The Oasis Theatre Company continues it second season in Santa Fe with the presentation of William Shakespeare’s play “The Winter’s Tale” from January 31 through February 17. [Read More…]
Music
Mainstays on the Santa Fe music scene since the 1980s, Busy McCarroll and Baird Banner have been playing together in various bands for decades.
Their latest musical venture is Busy y Los Big Deals. The band plays music that has been described as ‘“trippy, edgy, cinematic Southwestern jazz/pop/funk.” It features McCarroll on vocals and rhythm guitar with Banner on drums, Howard Cloud on bass, Kevin Zoenig on keyboards and Kirk Kadish on keyboards and accordion.
“I have eclectic taste in music,” explains McCarroll, an award-winning artist who easily moves from folk to rhythm & blues to southern rock. [Read More…]
Visual Art
For Nika Feldman, garments are a language that people can read.
In Feldman’s new show “Spirits in the Material World,” Feldman communicates through intricately embroidered t-shirt parts and the aluminum pull-tabs embellishing them. The show opens at form & concept on January 25.
“All around the world, people wear t-shirts,” says Feldman, a Santa Fe artist who moved to town from Nova Scotia at the end of 2017. “T-shirts were originally an undergarment. But now, through their logos, they inform others about the specific groups, companies, rock bands and organizations we like.” [Read More…]
Visual Art
ViVO Contemporary’s new show “State of Play” features works created from the practice and enjoyment of play.
For participating artist Norma Alonzo, painting is not only playful but purposeful.
It’s an exploration and expression of feeling and understanding the human state of being.
“Each and every time the work takes me on an inner journey of play, perhaps frustration, perhaps joy and ultimately an exploration of emotion and feeling,” she says.
A California native who moved to Santa Fe 12 years ago, Alonzo studied interior design at San Jose State University and entered the world of residential and commercial design after college. [Read More…]
