Santa Fe Arts Journal

For the past several years, glass artist Elodie Holmes and bronze artist Enrico Embroli have been collaborating on a series of work they call the “Guardian Series.”

The intent of each piece, they say, is to express the spirit of old-world cultures and their relationships with the planet and humankind through the mediums of glass and bronze.

The duo’s latest work, called “Guardian Odyssey,” is on display from June 22 through August 31 at Holmes’s Santa Fe glass studio, Liquid Light Glass.

“The theme of this new work is the odyssey: ornate bronze and glass boats with rising human figures on a journey to another realm of awareness and transformation,” say Holmes and Embroli. “There are also glass waves rising up to convey the figures and boats on a greater journey.” [Read More…]

“Dancing in Paradox,” Rick Stevens’s new show of oil paintings at Hunter Kirkland Contemporary that opens on June 22, is about the connectedness of all things. “One thing flows into the next thing, which flows into the next,” says Stevens, who is celebrating his 13th solo show at the gallery.

For Stevens, paintings emerge from his immersion with nature. He sometimes takes a portable easel into quiet forested areas, but lately he’s been finding that images captured on his phone’s camera provide just the right visual imagery to spark dynamic new works.

“I love beautiful landscapes, and I’m trying to express the ineffable,” he explains.  [Read More…]

Inspired by artist Arshile Gorky’s quotes about abstraction-“abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot see physically with his eyes” and “it is an exploration into unknown areas”- Keep Contemporary’s owner and curator Jared Antonio-Justo Trujillo presents the “Second Annual Abstract Invitational (Beyond the Veil),” which opens at the gallery’s 112 West San Francisco Street location on June 15.

“The invited artists explore the art of abstraction through various media, styles and techniques,” Trujillo says.

Santa Fe artist Anna Booth is interested in conveying how a calligraphic line can express emotion and personality through her abstract drawings and paintings.  [Read More…]

“This is uncomfortable art for uncomfortable times,” says Sasha Pyle, the curator of City of Mud’s summer show ‘Outrage.’ “Artists have not just a right but also a responsibility to express the full range of their human experience through their artworks, not just the pretty or cheerful side of life.”

Close to two dozen artists express their fury about national and international political events, environmental destruction, violence against women, child abuse, border conflict and homelessness through a wide variety of media in “Outrage,” which opens on June 15.

Gallery partner Jamie Chase, who is a painter and illustrator, focuses his attention on some of life’s horrific experiences in his series “Atrocities.” Scenes of conflict and destruction are painted with acrylics on irregular shapes of torn cardboard. [Read More…]

Marc Howard might not be the master jeweler he is if he had found a great journalism job after graduating from Colorado State University.

“I looked for a job in places like Boston and D.C., and when I couldn’t find one, I went back to Cleveland where my parents were living and got a job running a silversmithing shop,” he recalls.

Howard has been creating works of art with metals and stones in Santa Fe for more than two decades and is the master jeweler at his store Marc Howard Custom Jewelry Design, which moved in May from Montezuma Avenue to a slightly smaller space at 1413 Paseo de Peralta, Suite D. [Read More…]

Gallery owner Deborah Fritz ventures out into the business world again, opening her third gallery space in Santa Fe on June 8.

A sister gallery to Giacobbe-Frtiz Fine Art, which was opened in 2001 on Canyon Road with Fritz’s sister and business partner Kimberly Giacobbe, and GF Contemporary, also located on Canyon Road and opened in 2009, galleryFRITZ joins the Railyard neighborhood at 540 South Guadalupe Street.

With close to 5,000 square feet, galleryFRITZ is a space conducive to many different kinds of installations. “The division of two floors allows a differentiation of projects, installations, process and video installations,” Fritz explains. “We’re taking more chances, working with a different kind of space, where sculpture is mingling with 2D art and video.” [Read More…]

Wendy Copp and Jessica Mongeon share a love of exploring the natural world and humanity’s place within it through their art.

“Forest for the Trees,” Freeform Art Space’s new show opening on June 9, brings together Copp’s 3D pieces using materials gathered from trees and fields with Mongeon’s acrylic paintings on eco-friendly tree-free paper made out of calcium carbonate and resin. 

“My works in the show-a pair of coyotes, a coat, a pine needle dress, a pair of boots and a small cape-represent a range of my interests,” explains Copp. “The reason for my ongoing use of natural materials include the texture variations they offer, the life cycle, history and evolution they inform us of, the passing of time they embody and the beauties of nature inherent in them. They also allow me to bring the wild inside so that nature is showcased.” [Read More…]

The Santa Fe Film and Digital Media Commission launched a new project, the Emerging Media Alliance, several months ago after commissioners decided that Santa Fe’s digital media community could use a boost of support.

“Everybody who attended a series of summer and fall meetings feels a sense of possibility of the flourishing of media arts in Santa Fe,” explains Chris Jonas, a commissioner with the Santa Fe Film and Digital Media Commission and the executive director of Littleglobe, an organization that is committed to interdisciplinary, collaborative art projects that foster life-affirming connections across the boundaries that divide us. “We have enough talent and energy in town to form our own community.”

The Emerging Media Alliance’s mission is to galvanize and amplify the rich and diverse community already dedicated to media arts, which is an artistic expression that utilizes a variety of tools including virtual reality, social media video, interactive storytelling, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and 3D printers. [Read More…]

“I am fascinated by the exquisite architecture of cellular growth and how these biologically-derived structures are reflected in our built environment,” says Australian glass artist Matthew Curtis about his work, which is on display at LewAllen Galleries.

“Intersect,” Curtis’s show that opens on June 8, features a selection of sculptures made out of blown and fused glass with stainless steel. Curtis enjoys combining steel, the language of the human-built world, with delicate filaments of glass that reference the complexity of cellular growth.

Curtis works on the various processes of glass making, forming and finishing in his studio and develops his own colors in his hot shop. He uses stainless steel as a “device” that frames and supports the glass structure. [Read More…]

Musician Steve Guthrie is the subject of many of Charis Congail’s realistic paintings on display in the solo show “The Idea of Wilderness,” which opens at 7Arts Gallery on June 2.

“Steve and I initially met at the Santa Fe Brewing Company Eldorado Taphouse, and when I saw him another time I walked up and said I was going to paint him,” Congail recalls. “His response was ‘why.’ I simply said, ‘you’re beautiful, man.’”

When Congail first saw Guthrie, she pictured him in a natural environment. Guthrie has inspired Congail’s latest body of work that explores the relationship between man and nature and what wilderness means to people. [Read More…]