Santa Fe’s Monthly
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of and for the Arts • November 2010
OLD SCHOOL
V I N TA G E N AVA J O B R AC E L E T S
53 Old Santa Fe Trail Upstairs on the Plaza Santa Fe, NM 505.982.8478 shiprocksantafe.com
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&A Bo Ut pre vie John ws: Le e ’s C olle Montgo 41 m g e; a nAt nd S ery: Rad ion io treet AL 43 Art f Net Rem spo rom tLi feA gh the C ix at G tU t: S re: en oast avin 47 Abo s and erator g Gr ut S Crit (A ace: the P tree ic A Ce opul lb.); Sem t Ar San al Refl l i t e st Ph i : b ta e The ratio enom nar on t Patr Fe Cl ctions: I n of n he v a e a ic non rian Hai A at 5 Mahabh tian t Ne Dw k McF y; Davi rtist P 16 A ar d er ar Art ig ed o at A rts ( ata at Ron ht Hac lin at L Solomo spectiv f Hu f fi St. ald e k A n a m r s e m u lb.) at an E tt n a Dav atio 59 xpre n Ar is at Projec ch Pro Jay Et t Gera gre ki je ssio ld ts, N ts Cha en n by pLA ew rlot ; Peter cts; Pat n Galle Peters 61 F York net t M r r e r y i Gall ck N anc illet ; Ge Jack : Sp Arc City e e t n a s s r l it Es ca S on F at C dron y; C gata hit hiar tate eare onn n ect i n J i 62 e e a n o , ph Ur Art r scur t UN sen a ectio AL wr otog ns a oC t th det MA itin r o n a e A r p d n iLs t gs H h by tem : Yu : his por Museu arwoo Scuba Jenn cca/ tory a m r i f R y er E (Alb d Mus & Sean of a ock/ ; Rik sper noth e Petr A l l en a .); Pere um (T at anza ogly er, b ao g t p r B y An h at ine lue Hon s); dre Alam R a i n a L. oM Gall ig at Wat oun ery; son tain and , NM , ph oto grap h by Joan Zale nsk i 38
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Prefab and modular housing has been around for over a hundred and fifty years. In recent years, the category has generated buzz with contemporary designs from architects such as Rocio Romera, Luigi Colani, and Marianne Cusato (who designed the “Katrina Cottages”) in sizes ranging from 308 to 1,807 square feet. Since most custom-designed modernist architecture is beyond the financial reach of most people, prefabricated builidings are viewed as an affordable alternative for many. Prefab Houses (Taschen, $39.95) follows the development of mass-produced housing—from simple homes produced in Australia in the 1800s to high-end contemporary structures around the world. This publication is both handsome and informative. Save a place for this book on your coffee table, whether it’s an Eames or an IKEA. Above: Kip House, Denmark. Courtesy of 3XN Architects. Photograph: Adam Mark.
TICKETS: $6 general / $3 student + senior with ID. Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W. San Francisco St, Santa Fe, NM. Tel 505.988.1234 www.lensic.com
TickeTs on sale november 6
Lannan is podcasting Readings & Conversations! Please visit http://podcast.lannan.org, to learn more, listen, and subscribe to have the events automatically downloaded to your computer.
Charles Bowden is a nonfiction author, journalist, and essayist who has written more than a dozen books, including A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior; Down By the River: Drugs, Money, Murder and Family; Juárez: The Laboratory of our Future; and Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America. His most recent book is Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields. In this book, he presents a devastating chronicle of a city in collapse where not just the police and drug cartel members die, but where violence infects every level of society. Luís Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil’s Highway, says “…in Murder City Bowden plunges in head-first, without a parachute. There are moments when the book threatens to burst into flames and burn your hands.” Bowden is a contributing editor for GQ and Mother Jones, and also writes for Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and Aperture. Recipient of a 1996 Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, he lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
R e a d i ng s & Conv e R sat i o n s R e a d i ng s & Conv e R sat i o n s
Charles Bowden with Avi Lewis Wednesday 15 December 7 pm
LETTERS
magazine
VOLUME XVIII, NUMBER V WINNER 1994 Best Consumer Tabloid SELECTED 1997 Top-5 Best Consumer Tabloids SELECTED 2005 & 2006 Top-5 Best Consumer Tabloids pUBLisher / creAtive director Guy Cross pUBLisher / food editor Judith Cross Art director Chris Myers copy editor
edGar sCully
Annual Group Show at Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, 435 South Guadalupe Street. Artists include Mark di Suvero, Guy Dill, and Donald Woodman, among others. Reception: Friday, November 26, 5-7 pm. Image: Holly Roberts
proofreAders JaMes rodewald KenJi Barrett stAff photogrAphers
dana waldon anne staveley
cALendAr editor liz napieralsKi editoriAL AssistAnt elizaBeth harBall weBmeister
Jason rodriGuez contriBUtors
diane arMitaG ita e, Joshua Baer, itaG Kristin Barendsen, susanna Carlisle, Kathryn M davis, Jennifer esperanza, shepard fairley, anthony hassett, BruCe helander, alex ross, franCesCa C searer, Ca riChard toBin, and andrea l. watson cover Global WarmnG By B hepard
s
fairey
Courtesy: oBey Giant art
TO THE EDITOR: Some comments on the Henry Darger article in the September issue. Henry Darger—what a phenomenon. One wonders what he confessed to the priest back in his Chicago solitude. Was he guilty of aiding the innocent? Did he subversively engage in conjuring and calling up powers from the pagan past? Girls with dragon tails and ram’s horns rallying dead confederate soldiers. Stirring up memories and ghosts from the other side. Was Darger guilty of being an artist? Alone in his studio, unsupervised. Who knows what devilment transpired? You know, it’s so true—who comes to help the innocent? Who comes to the aid of brave girls, or defends the Vivian girls from their predatory custodians? No one. But in Darger’s magic cutouts he worked to right that wrong. He labored all his life—day and night. Henry Darger—an invisible Shaman. Also in the same September issue is a Peter Korniss photograph of a Romanian girl. She is in warrior garb astride her donkey with ram’s horns. Synchronicity? —suzanne vanderBooM, taos, nM, via eMail TO THE EDITOR: Roger Salloch has done it again with his brilliantly written Henry Darger article, which follows his stellar pieces on Robert Longo and Lucian Freud. Salloch is a writer who does not screw around—he gets right to the heart of the matter in his articles. Another one of your writers, Diane Armitage, is a wonderful counterpoint to Salloch. Her piece on Marina Abramovic a few months ago makes me wonder why I do not see her astute writing in national art magazines. —p p. MaC pl. a hen, Boulder, Co TO THE EDITOR: Thanks so much for printing the swell review of my work by Kathleen Sloan in your October issue. It’s always a pleasure to read what reviewers say of one’s work. Well, almost always a pleasure. This time it definitely was a pleasure. And thank you also for the nice-sized picture. So writes the unbiased artist. —nolan winKler, truth or ConsequenCes, nM, via eMail
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JiMMyy Montoya: 470-0258 (MoBile) THE magazine is published ten times a year by THE magazine Inc., 1208-A Mercantile Road, Santa Fe, NM 87507. Corporate address: 44 Bishop Lamy Road, Lamy, NM 87540. Phone: (505) 424-7641. Fax: (505) 424-7642, E-mail: themagazineSF@gmail.com. Website: www.TheMagazineOnLine.com. All materials are copyright 2010 by THE magazine. All rights are reserved by THE magazine. Reproduction of contents is prohibited without written permission from THE magazine. All submissions must be accompanied by a SASE envelope. THE magazine is not respon sible for the loss of any unsolicited materials. THE magazine is not responsible or liable for any misspellings, incorrect dates, or incorrect information in its captions, calendar, or other listings. The opinions expressed within the fair confines of THE magazine do not necessarily represent the views or policies of THE magazine, its owners, or any of its, employees, members, interns, volunteers, agents, or distribution venues. Bylined articles and editorials represent the views of their authors. Letters to the editor are welcome. Letters may be edited for style and libel, and are subject to condensation. THE magazine accepts advertisements from advertisers believed to be of good reputation, but cannot guarantee the authenticity or quality of objects and/or services advertised. As well, THE magazine is not responsible for any claims made by its advertisers; for copyright infringement by its advertisers .and is not responsible or liable for errors in any advertisement.
TO THE EDITOR: Forgive my incredulity, but was last issue’s Green Planet page a parody? I mean, “We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can’t bomb it into peace.” Really? Seriously? Okay. Well, although I find that quote awful, I’m bound to admit I’m also somewhat aweful. No? Okay. How about, “We can bomb the world into different sects, but we can’t bomb it into sex!” That says it for me, anyway. Wordplay ain’t wisdom! —l larry winters, CaMBridGe, Ma, via eMail TO THE EDITOR: Thanks so much for the October Studio Visits photo shoot where I met your great photographer—Anne Staveley. What a blast! (Hmm... my Nagasaki show is over, time for me to stop military metaphors.) October was another great issue, as always. I continue to appreciate THE magazine, its depth and breadth. I am excited that you are now online. So far, that is how I have seen the current issue. Great for us rural readers! — udy asBury, JeMez pueBlo, nM, via eMail —J Letters:
| novemBer 2010
themagazine sF@ gmaiL . com or
TO THE EDITOR: I realize it is possibly past time to comment on the October issue of THE magazine. However, as I was getting to my “stack” of things to read, re-read, consider, and so forth, I saw a November event titled Critical Santa Fe: Developing Criticism: Interpretation and Judgment. I would strongly suggest that Anthony Hassett be among the attendees. I take considerable exception to his review of the Johnnie Winona Ross exhibit at the New Mexico Museum of Art. The long and short is that this review is not about Ross’s work, but about some sort of personal mindmeld that Hassett seems to be having with his own life. I find this review, in its entirety, insulting to the artist. I have followed Ross’s exhibitions for many years, and it is my personal opinion that this reviewer has completely missed the point of Ross’s artistic perspective. For those of us who have experienced the real time, slow release of water in secluded areas of the West—untraveled by many—Ross’s work is not the snake oil Hassett describes, but a portrait of a part of this country I have witnessed and can attest to as being real and present. Ross travels these remote places (not by automobile) and represents them for us again and again. Metaphor, yes. Hassett’s words lie flat, without imagination or experience. —susan Christie, truth or ConsequenCes, nM TO THE EDITOR: Two of your October reviews disappointed this reader—one by going off on tangential issues barely relevant to the work, the other by failing to perceive the essence of the art. Discussing Johnnie Winona Ross’s show at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Anthony Hassett diverges into a tirade involving sheetrock and “the increasingly second-rate suburban wall,” and criticizes the show’s catalogue essays without noting their accuracy. In fact, the little excerpts that he quotes from those essays do indeed reflect one’s experience of Ross’s paintings, something that cannot be said of Hassett’s review. Ross’s subtle works demand that the viewer spend some quiet time taking them in. Indeed, they assist in that process of self-centering, an effort worth taking from time to time, especially in a domestic setting, even perhaps “in the rooms of hedge-fund managers and realtors.” The power in these finely calibrated paintings propels them well past the realm of the merely decorative. Richard Tobin, usually a perceptive critic, seems to have completely missed the process-generated quality of Stephen Auger’s work at Zane Bennett. Tobin’s discussion of impasto—the oldworld method of building up thickened layers of oil paint with a brush—doesn’t describe Auger’s method, which somehow involves pouring liquid paint and stopping its flow at just the right moment—like hot lava arrested on the canvas. The exact process of allowing or coaxing the glass-bead-laden paint into these configurations remains mysterious, evoking the mystery of creation and, perhaps, Creation. Auger’s intention in his paintings seems to be more poetic and less scientifically optical than Mr. Tobin will allow. —wayne GiBson and dara MarK, via eMail —w
1208-a mercantiLe road, sF 87507. Letters
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THE
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Saara Ekström & Stuart Frost October 22 - December 17 (gallery closed November 25 - December 9th)
Dunham Aurelius Mark di Suvero guy Dill Henry Jackson David Kapp Mitchell Marti Olivier Mosset Joe Novak Holly Roberts
Group Show November 26, 2010 through January 7, 2011 OpeNiNg ReceptiON:
Friday, November 26th, 5–7 pm
Rachel Stevens Donald Woodman The Portable Grove installations by Stuart Frost can now be viewed at The Albuquerque Zoo & at The Harwood Art Center! Richard Levy Gallery
•
Albuquerque
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www.levygallery.com
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505.766.9888
AMONg OtHeRS
ZaneBennett contemporary
art
435 S. guADAlupe, SANtA Fe, NM 87501 505 982-8111 www.zanebennettgallery.com tue–Sat 10:00–5:00, or by appointment Railyard Art District Art Walk Friday, November 26th
CHARLES ARNOLDI:
AN EXHIBITION OF WORKS FROM 1998 - 2001
NOVEMBER 5 - DECEMBER 5 Artist Reception Friday, November 5, 5 - 7 P.M.
CHARLOTTE JACKSON FINE ART
Railyard Art District 554 South Guadalupe, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 Tel 505.989.8688 / www.charlottejackson.com
A r n o l d i s t u d i o 1 9 9 9 . B o t t o m r i g h t : M i l e s t o n e , 2 0 0 1 , c a s t b r o n z e , 6 7 1/ 2 x 3 4 x 2 2 i n c h e s
GLASS + KILN = ART Bullseye Resource Center, Santa Fe CLASSES
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What Is Kiln- glass? N ovember 10 Cl ass
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S A N TA F E C L AY CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS
805 Early Street, Building E 505- 467-8951 santafe@bullseyeglass.com www.bullseyeglass.com/santafe
John Chwekun · Nathan Craven · Walter McConnell Jonathan Mess · Cheryl Ann Thomas October 29 - December 4 545 Camino de la Familia, Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.984.1122
www.santafeclay.com
FRANCESCA YORKE and TAYLOR MOTT November 12th to December 15th, 2010 Reception, Friday, November 12th, 5 to 7pm
THE FISHER PRESS 307 Camino Alire Santa Fe, NM Phone: 505 984-9919 www.thefisherpress.com
SUSAN YORK NEW GRAPHITE SCULPTURE & DRAWINGS THROUGH DECEMBER 11
J A M E S K E L LY C O N T E M P O R A R Y 1601 PASEO DE PERALTA, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 87501 T 505.989.1601 F 505.989.5005 JAMESKELLY.COM TILTED WEDGE 2010, SOLID GRAPHITE,17 3/4 X 475/8 X 10 1/2 INCHES, 500 LBS.
american painterly abstraction 7 painters
october 29–December 12, 2010
Dan Christensen emilY mason ronalD Davis William Pettet ronnie lanfielD Joan snYDer Peter Young
Peter Young #22 (detail), 1992, acrylic on canvas, 59½" x 78¼"
A major exhibition of 7 historically important painters whose pioneering processes and distinct visual languages helped to revitalize American abstract painting. Curated by ronnie landfield
Santa Fe’s Monthly
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a t t h e r a i ly a r d
1613 paseo de peralta santa Fe, new mexico (505) 988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com info@lewallengalleries.com Ronald Davis appears in this exhibition courtesy of Charlotte Jackson Fine Art.
of and for the Arts
•
Since 1992
Two Double Issues Coming Up
December 2010/January 2011 & February/March 2011
December/January 2011: “Best Books 2010 Issue”
Photograph by Herb Ritts. From “Herb Ritts: The Golden Hour”
Space Reservations for December/January: Wednesday, November 17 Camera-Ready Art: Monday, November 22 Calendar Listings by: Tuesday, November 16
TO RESERVE SPACE THE magazine: 505-424-7641 Edie Dillman: 505-577-4207
LewAllenGalleries
e
Vince Foster: 505-690-1010 Cynthia Canyon: 505-470-6442 Katherine Maxwell: 505-920-0415
www.themagazineonline.com
MONROE GALLERY of photography
'TIS THE SEASON
Carl Mydans: Reindeer being herded, Finland, 1940 ©Time Inc
Opening Reception: Friday, November 26 5-7 PM Exhibition continues through January 30 Open Daily 112 DON GASPAR SANTA FE NM 87501 992.0800 F: 992.0810 e: info@monroegallery.com www.monroegallery.com
Rebecca Farr Darcy Gray Jane Otten Charlotte Scot
Dwight Hume (1947-2009)
“Quartet”
Sun and Moon World, Travertine and Steel, 80” x 48” x 14”
November 20 to December 17
The La Tienda Exhibit Space Opening Recepton: Saturday, November 20 from 5 to 7 pm 7 Caliente Road, Suite A-6, Santa Fe, NM 87508 (Eldorado 2nd entrance) www.latiendaexhibitspace.blogspot.com Gallery hours; Wednesday thru Friday from 11am to 2 pm and Saturdays from 11 am to 7 pm
Gallery J
Chartreuse
216 Washington Ave | Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.992.3391 | gallerychartreuse.com
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WWW.SaNTaFEaRTaUCTiON.COM PO Box 2437, Santa Fe, NM | 87504-2437 Tel 505 954-5858 | curator@santafeartauction.com
lOT 160: JOSEPh h. ShaRP (1859-1953, FiRESiDE, Oil ON CaNVaS, 25 x 30 iNChES. ESTiMaTE: $300,000 - $500,000
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Saturday, November 13th 1:00 - 6:00 pm Encaustic Art Institute 18 County Road 55-A Cerrillos, NM. 87010 505 424-6487 EAINM.COM
Bryan Adams, Richard Gere, Greg Gorman, Harrison Ford, Andre Kertesz, Steve Martin, Irving Penn, Herb Ritts, Steven Spielberg & Albert Watson have all had frames made by
Randolph Laub 1408 Wazee St. suite 200 Denver, CO 80202 303 825-9928 www.laubworkshop.com
A non-profit arts organization
A N D R E W S M I T H G A L L E RY,
Masterpi e c e s
o f
P h o t o g ra p h y
INC.
Annie Leibovitz
Currently featuring a large selection of Annie Leibovitz photographs as well as spectacular photographs by Laura Gilpin, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paul Caponigro, Lee Friedlander, Ansel Adams, Edward S. Curtis, Elliott Erwitt and many more.
© Annie Leibovitz, Patti Smith, New York City, 1996
122 Grant Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501 Next to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
• 505.984.1234 • www.AndrewSmithGallery.com
gallery
F i tz Maurice “Maurice’s goal is that her art gives viewers a spiritual lift and makes art an essential component of their lives.”
233 Canyon Road Santa Fe New Mexico 87501 505 983 1012 info @ marjigallery.com marjigallery.com
WHEN WE ENCOUNTER THE PERSON AND THE WORK OF PRISCILLA HOBACK, WE ENCOUNTER NEW MEXICO’S ANIMA. HOBACK HAS IMMERSED HERSELF IN HER NATIVE SOUTHWESTERN ENVIRONMENT, DRAWING INSPIRATION AND MATERIALS FROM THE LAND. SHE LIVES AND WORKS IN A HISTORIC BUILDING IN GALISTEO, SURROUNDED BY THE CREATURES AND LANDSCAPES PRESENT IN HER WORK. HOBACK IS A SELF-TAUGHT POTTER, qUARRYING HER OWN CLAY. MANY OF HER PETROGLYPH-STYLE WORKS ARE INSPIRED BY CONSTELLATIONS IN THE NIGHT SKY. HOBACK’S PIECES ARE NOT PRODUCTS BUT EFFORTLESS PARTS OF NEW MEXICO.
UNIVERSE OF
Clay as Canvas I explore native clay and the nature of the Galisteo Basin. The relationship with clay is working with something wiser than me. Clay is wet and plastic; it can receive ideas and still retain its essence. Wild clay contains the surprise of geology and history. It’s different from a blank piece of paper and it meets me more than halfway. To this I add form, lines, and color.
proCess Process interests me. I begin with mud and end up with rock. The heat of the kiln is a test of fire that fuses materials with stories. What shows in the finished piece includes wrinkles, blemishes, and character, revealing presence and soul.
the worK My murals are narrative in nature—a wolf and a raven, the past, the buffalo and the mountains, a legend. These imprints that pass by include humans and animals; these are the images that I work with. They are usually interacting with different kingdoms, plants or stars, horses, the sky at night, and the ever-present wind.
BottoM line I never know whether I’m working or playing. Maybe that’s what art is. Daydreaming can turn into the next successful piece, or just watching the light change as clouds go by. I wouldn’t trade this life for anything. Whatever this life is, it’s very interesting. D
photoGraph By
| novemBer 2010
dana waldon
THE
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Books of Interest
Photo: Elizabeth Cook–Romero
Leo and Elizabeth, Booksellers
ART BOOKS ■ Photography New Mexico ■ Music (CDs & Records) Literature ■ History ■ Movies ■ More
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Other services include: Photo documentation and collection cataloging. Art safe wrapping, packing & boxing for transport or storage. Crates for traveling exhibitions, traveling frames & single use crates. Responsible arrangement for local and national fine art transport. Storage & transportation insurance for local, national & international shipments. Aesthetic placement & secure installation of fine art.
STUDIO VISITS
Ansel Adams said,
“A photograph is usually looked at—seldom looked into.” We asked two ARTISTS to comment on THis.
When I walk out of this world and journey into that other world called wilderness, after a few miles I can begin to absorb what is all around. then I slowly follow my eye wherever it wants to lead me. Sometimes, if I look hard enough the world allows me a glimpse of some essence, and if I am very lucky I can record a part of this. For me, Adams’ quote implies that few allow themselves to imagine the stories held within the recorded image. —Jason Russell Poole Poole is represented by the Lotus Gallery in Austin, Texas.
Photographs by Anne Staveley
It has been said that the average amount of time most visitors spend looking at an art exhibit is about three seconds per image. In that context Adams makes a point that “a photograph is usually looked at—seldom looked into.” When I make a print I am aiming for a finished art piece that provokes an emotional response or makes a statement. I like to execute the image in a process that is unique, one that forces the viewer to look longer than three seconds—maybe three minutes—to figure out what it is, or wonder where is this place? When I look at photography I am attracted to images that are powerful, cutting-edge, bold statements that inspire me to find out more—the longer you look, the more you see. The kind of work that gives me a 3-D feeling that I’ve either been there or I have to go there—whether it’s in the mind or a physical place. —Joan Zalenski Current work by Zalenski is on view through December18, 2010, in a show entitled Artpark: 1974-1984 at the University of Buffalo Art Gallery, Center for the Arts, Buffalo, NY. What Lies Beneath—a permanent installation—is on display at the Santa Fe Convention Center. See page 61 for an architectural detail photograph by Zalenski. She is represented by The Artistic Image Photographic Art Gallery in Albuquerque, NM. www.joanzalenski.com
| november 2010
THE magazine | 21
Family Chronicles Capturing your most Cherished Moments
Bob Witkowski Photography
rjpix@familychronicles.net www.familychronicles.net Yours with discretion and confidentiality
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The Milkmaid (1658) by Johannes
Vermeer
In Vermeer’s painting The Milkmaid, a plain young woman carefully pours milk into a Dutch oven. On the table, broken pieces of bread suggest she is making a bread pudding. The low perspective of the painting makes her seem dignified, even weighty. Her clothing is modest and she takes great care with her task. She appears to be the embodiment of domestic goodness. Or is she? In the 1600s, kitchen maids were reputed to be promiscuous, and were often depicted erotically. If viewers were to see Vermeer’s painting in this light, they would soon focus on the slight smile on her face, the gaping jug, the white stream of milk, and the very small picture of Cupid on a tile to her right. The tile of Cupid might imply the arousal of the woman or simply that while she is working she is daydreaming about a man. However, these elements are quite subtle, certainly more understated than other paintings of kitchen maids by Vermeer’s contemporaries. The painting could just as easily be one of the most sympathetic portrayals of a maid’s work. Whatever is causing her to smile, it does not distract her from her work. If she is indeed making bread pudding, she must be careful to add just the right amount of milk so as not to ruin the mixture. She pours milk into the Dutch oven to cover the mixture because otherwise the bread, if not simmering in liquid while it is baking, will become an unappetizing, dry crust instead of forming the upper surface of the pudding. Although her task is humble and her surroundings rustic, she is illuminated by a light and a color scheme that are more brilliant than in any of Vermeer’s earlier works. The Milkmaid may simply be the artist’s quiet celebration of honest, careful work. D
| november 2010
THE magazine | 23
Photo: David Woodard
memorable food...historic setting
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ONE BOTTLE
One Bottle:
The 2009 Castello
di
Ama “Rosato”
by Joshua Baer In the beginning, Santa Fe was a secret. The moon, the sun, and the stars
After the Anglos arrived, the Spanish experienced a certain degree
knew the secret but they were the only ones who knew. Slowly, over
of resentment. “These Anglos,” they said. “Five minutes after they get
millions of years, the moon, the sun, and the stars told the secret to the
here, they start acting like they own the place. They smell bad, they
mountains, the mountains told the secret to the land and the rivers, and the
drive like maniacs, and they look down on anyone who’s not white.
land and the rivers told the secret to the plants and the animals. Then the
All they care about is money, and they have no respect for the land.
original people arrived.
It was better before they got here. Things will never be the same.”
After the original people arrived, the plants and the animals experienced
Which brings us to the 2009 Castello di Ama “Rosato.”
a certain degree of resentment because the original people liked to kill and
There are wine experts who will tell you that rosé wines are
eat plants and animals. They did not want to kill and eat all of the plants
not serious wines and that the only time to drink rosés is during
and the animals but they wanted to kill and eat some of them, and they
the summer. I could not disagree more. During the last twenty years,
never stopped killing and eating. The plants and the animals recognized this
wine makers in Burgundy, Languedoc, Provence, and Italy have produced
but had no way to stop the original people. Their only choice was to adapt
rosés that are on a par with the best red wines and the best white
to the new reality and hope that the original people would eventually show some restraint. When the plants and the animals talked among themselves
wines in existence. The fact that even the most famous rosés sell for less than $50 a bottle is the only reason rosés are still regarded as less important than their red and white counterparts.
they criticized the original people. “These people,” said the
Certain wine experts will also tell you that rosés do not age.
animals. “Five minutes after they get here they start acting like
Those experts are wrong. Rosés are like attractive women.
they own the place. If they knew the secret, they wouldn’t
The more authentic they are, the more beautifully
act that way. They’d show more respect—for this place and
they age.
for the secret.”
In the glass, the 2009 Castello di Ama “Rosato” is
“You’re wrong,” said the plants. “They knew the secret
a clear, sensuous carnelian. The bouquet manages to
before they got here. That’s why they came. It’s all over.
be simultaneously wild and tame. The attack is precise
Things will never be the same.”
but not fussy. It gives you moment after moment of
For several thousand years, the original people lived in
sustained, focused pleasure. The finish takes you to a place
harmony with the plants and the animals. The original people
where excitement, relief, and contemplation converge.
knew the secret and were careful to keep it to themselves.
At $15 a bottle, I think the 2009 Castello di Ama “Rosato
They knew there were barbarians in other parts of the world
qualifies as more than a bargain. I think it qualifies as living
and they had heard stories about how brutal and careless
proof that price has nothing to do with value.
those barbarians could be. Their hope was that the barbarians
My family and I moved to Santa Fe in September
would never come to Santa Fe and discover the secret. Their
of 1985. We had been living in California, and we liked the
fear was that the barbarians would learn the secret on their
way New Mexico felt like another country. During our first
own and come to Santa Fe to find out if the secret was true.
winter here, we met so many people and made so many
Then the Spanish arrived.
friends that our memories of California faded away. We
After the Spanish arrived, the original people experienced
knew California was still there, and we missed the ocean,
a certain degree of resentment. “These Spanish,” they said.
but Santa Fe became our home. It became the place where
“Five minutes after they get here they start acting like they own
we celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and our
the place. They eat, they drink, they ride around on horses, they
birthdays. Santa Fe spoke to us in a language that made us
shoot us whenever they feel like it, and all they talk about is
wonder if it would ever be possible to live anywhere else.
their god, and how he forgives them for their sins. It was better
As we learned that language, we spoke it to each other,
before they got here. Things will never be the same.”
to our friends, and to ourselves.
The original people and the Spanish lived together in
Will things ever be the same? No. Not
Santa Fe for centuries. During those centuries, the Spanish
on this planet. Can Santa Fe remain
learned the secret. They gave Santa Fe its name (which
a secret, even if everyone knows
means “Holy Faith”), and they came to believe that the
where it is? After twenty-five years,
secret belonged to them just as much as it had belonged
I have to say “Yes.” D
to the original people. The Spanish thought Santa Fe was a sanctuary, a place where the sacred and the profane could coexist, and they believed in the power of Spanish culture. It never occurred to them that another culture would come along, learn the secret, and tell it to the rest of the world. Then the Anglos arrived.
| november 2010
One Bottle is dedicated to the appreciation of good wines and good times, one bottle at a time. The name “One Bottle” and the contents of this column are ©2010 by onebottle.com. For back issues, go to onebottle.com. You can write to Joshua Baer at jb@onebottle.com
THE magazine | 25
DINING GUIDE
Knockout Pizzas and more at
Mangiamo Pronto! 228 Old Santa Fe Trail
$ key
ineXpensive
$
up to $14
moderAte
$$
$15—$23
eXpensive
$$$
very eXpensive
$24—$33
$$$$
Prices are for one dinner entrée. If a restaurant serves only lunch, then a lunch entrée price is reflected. Alcoholic beverages, appetizers, and desserts are not included in these price keys. Call restaurants for hours.
$34 plus
eAt A oUt more often! At
...a guide to the very best restaurants in santa fe and surrounding areas... 315 restAU est rA r nt & wine BAr 315 Old Santa Fe Trail. 986-9190. Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free inside. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ cUisine: French. Atmosphere: Reminiscent of an inn in the French countryside. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Earthy French onion soup made with duck stock; squash blossom beignets; crispy duck; and one of the most flavorful steaks in town. comments: Recently expanded and renovated with a beautiful new bar. Superb wine list. New spring menu. AmAvi A restAU Avi est rA r nt 221 Shelby St. 988-2355. Dinner/Sunday Brunch Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$$ cUisine: Mediterranean Atmosphere: Elegant. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : The tapas appetizer thrills and the pollo al mattone, marinated for two days and served with pancetta, capers, and house preserved lemon, may be the best chicken dish you’ve ever had. Also try the tiger shrimp. comments: Farm to table. Chef Megan Tucker is doing it right, AnAsAzi A restAU Azi est rA r nt Inn of the Anasazi 113 Washington Ave. 988-3236. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Smoke-free. Valet parking. Major credit cards. $$$$ cUisine: Contemporary American cuisine. Atmosphere: A casual and elegant room evoking the feeling of an Anasazi cliff dwelling. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : To start, try the smoked chile and butternut squash soup with pulled spoon bread croutons and cumin crema. For your entrée, we suggest any of the chef’s signature dishes, which include blue corn crusted salmon with citrus jalapeno sauce, and the nine spice beef tenderloin with chipotle modelo glaze. comments: Attentive service. AndiAmo! 322 Garfield St. 995-9595. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Start with the Steamed Mussels or the Roasted Beet Salad. For your main, choose the delicious Chicken Marsala or the Pork Tenderloin. comments: Good wines, great pizzas, and a sharp waitstaff. BoBcAt A Bite restAU At est rA r nt Old Las Vegas Hwy. 983-5319. Lunch/Dinner No alcohol. Smoking. Cash. $$ cUisine: American. Atmosphere: This is the real deal—a neon bobcat sign sits above a small, low-slung building. Inside are five tables and nine seats at a counter made out of real logs. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : The enormous inch-and-a-half thick green chile cheeseburger is sensational. The 13-ounce rib-eye steak is juicy and flavorful. Body cAfé 333 Cordova Rd. 986-0362. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
Major credit cards. $$$ cUisine: Organic. Atmosphere: Casual. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : In the morning, try the breakfast smoothie or the Green Chile Burrito. We love the Asian Curry for lunch or the Avocado and Cheese Wrap. comments: Soups and salads are marvelous, as is the Carrot Juice Alchemy. cAfe cAfe itAL t iAn griLL 500 Sandoval St. 466-1391. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : For lunch, the classic Caesar salad; the tasty specialty pizzas or the grilled eggplant sandwich. For dinner, we loved the perfectly grilled swordfish salmorglio and the herb-breaded veal cutlet. comments: Very friendly waitstaff. cAfé pAsqUAL’s 121 Don Gaspar Ave. 983-9340. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ cUisine: Multi-ethnic. Atmosphere: The café is adorned with lots of Mexican streamers, Indian maiden posters, and rustic wooden furniture. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Hotcakes get a nod from Gourmet magazine. Huevos motuleños, a Yucatán breakfast, is one you’ll never forget. For lunch, try the grilled chicken breast sandwich with Manchego cheese. the compoUnd 653 Canyon Rd. 982-4353. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$ cUisine: Contemporary American. Atmosphere: 150-year-old adobe with pale, polished plaster walls and white linens on the tables. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Jumbo crab and lobster salad. The chicken schnitzel is flawless. Desserts are absolutely perfect. comments: Seasonal menu. Chef/owner Mark Kiffin didn’t win the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef of the Southwest” award for goofing off in the kitchen. copA op de oro Agora Center at Eldorado. 466-8668. Lunch/Dinner 7 days a week. Take-out. Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: International. Atmosphere: Casual. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Start with the mussels in a Mexican beer and salsa reduction. Entrees include the succulent roasted duck leg quarters, and the slow-cooked twelvehour pot roast. For dessert, go for the lemon mousse or the kahlua macadamia nut brownie. comments: Worth the short ten-minute drive from downtown Santa Fe. corA orAzón Azón 401 S. Guadalupe St. 424-7390. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: Pub grub. Atmosphere: Casual. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : You cannot go wrong with the not-to-be-believed thin-cut grilled
ribeye steak topped with blue cheese, or the flash fried calamari with sweet chili dipping sauce; or the amazing Corazón hamburger trio. comments: Love music? Corazón is definitely your place. coUnter cULt UL Ure 930 Baca St. 995-1105. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Cash. $$ cUisine: All-American. Atmosphere: Informal. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Breakfast: burritos and frittata. Lunch: sandwiches and salads. Dinner: flash-fried calamari; grilled salmon with leek and Pernod cream sauce; and a delicious hanger steak. comments: Boutique wine list. cowgirL hALL of fAme 319 S. Guadalupe St. 982-2565. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: All-American. Atmosphere: Popular patio shaded by big cottonwoods. Great bar. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : The smoked brisket and ribs are fantastic. Dynamite buffalo burgers and a knockout strawberry shortcake. comments: Lots of beers coyote cAfé 132 W. Water St. 983-1615. Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$$ cUisine: Southwestern with French and Asian influences. Atmosphere Bustling. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : For your main course, go for the grilled Maine lobster tails or the Southwestern Rotisserie, or the grilled 24-ounce “Cowboy Cut” steak. comments: Good wine list and unique signature cocktails. downtown sUBscription 376 Garcia St. 983-3085. Breakfast/Lunch No alcohol. Smoke-free. Patio. Cash. $ cUisine: Standard coffee-house fare. Atmosphere: A large room with small tables inside and a nice patio outside where you can sit, read periodicals, and schmooze. Over 1,600 magazine titles to buy or peruse. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Espresso, cappuccino, and lattes. eL fAróL 808 Canyon Rd. 983-9912. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ cUisine: Spanish. Atmosphere: Wood plank floors, thick adobe walls, and a postagestamp-size dance floor for cheek-to-cheek dancing. Murals by Alfred Morang. eL mesón 213 Washington Ave. 983-6756. Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: Spanish. Atmosphere: Spain could be just around the corner. Music nightly. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Tapas reign supreme, with classics like Manchego cheese marinated in extra virgin olive oil; sautéed
spinach with garlic and golden raisins. feLipe’s tAcos 1711-A Llano St. 473-9397 Breakfast/Lunch Smoke-free Major credit cards. $ cUisine: Mexican. Atmosphere: Simple and friendly. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : For breakfast, try the Choriza and eggs or the La Mexicana: eggs, pico de gallo, with beans and potaotes. For lunch, we suggest the Pollo Asado and the Carne Asada— both served on fresh, hot corn tortillas. The tostadsas and quesadillas are teriffic. You cannot go wrong with any of the combination entrees, especially the Burrito Combo—charbroiled chicken, steak, or pork with cheese, beans, avacado, and fresh salsa. comments: Felipe is from California, and his mother’s recipes are from Zacetecas, Mexico. Felipe’s is health conscious—lean steaks and skinless chickens, no lard is used at all, and the salsas are prepared daily. A great taqueria! geronimo 724 Canyon Rd. 982-1500. Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free dining room. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$ cUisine: French–Asian fusion fare. Atmosphere: Kiva fireplaces, a portal, and a lovely garden room. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Start with the superb foie gras. Entrées we love include the green miso sea bass, served with black truffle scallions; and the classic peppery Elk tenderloin. comments: Tasting menus are available. iL piAtto A Atto 95 W. Marcy St. 984-1091. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Bustling. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Arugula and tomato salad; grilled hanger steak with three cheeses, pancetta and onions; lemon and rosemary grilled chicken; and the delicious pork chop stuffed with mozzarella, pine nuts, prosciutto, potato gratin, and rosemary wine jus. comments: Prix fixe seven nights a week. JAmBo cAfe 2010 Cerrillios Rd. 473-1269. Lunch/Dinner Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: African and Caribbean inspired. Atmosphere: Basic cafe style. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : We love the tasty Jerk chicken sandwich. Try the curried chicken salad wrap; or the marvelous phillo stuffed with spinach, black olives, feta cheese, roasted red peppers and chickpeas served over organic greens. comments: Obo was the executive chef at the Zia Diner. Josh’s BArBecUe 3486 Zafarano Dr., Suite A. 474-6466. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: Barbecue. Atmosphere: Casual, hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Delicious wood-
smoked meats, cooked low and very slow are king here. recommendAtions A Ations : We love the tender red-chile, honey-glazed ribs, the tender brisket, the barbecue chicken wings, the smoked chicken tacquitos, and the spicy queso. comments: Seasonal BBq sauces. Josh’s was written up in America’s Best BBQs. kohnAmi restAU est r nt rA 313 S. Guadalupe St. 984-2002. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine/Sake. Smoke-free. Patio. Visa & Mastercard. $$ cUisine: Japanese. Atmosphere: Casual. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Miso soup; soft shell crab; dragon roll; chicken katsu; noodle dishes; and Bento box specials. comments: The sushi is always perfect. Try the Ruiaku Sake. It is clear, smooth, and very dry—like drinking from a magic spring in a bamboo forest. comments: New noodle menu. Friendly waitstaff. LAmy stA tAtion Ation cAfé Lamy Train Station, Lamy. 466-1904. Lunch/Dinner/Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$ cUisine: American. Atmosphere: 1950s dining car. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : For lunch, try the Green Chile Stew with chicken, pintos, and potatoes with a flour tortilla or the delicious Pulled Pork on a Brioche Bun with BBq sauce. Dinners we love are the Grilled New York Steak with roasted potatoes and veggies and the Pulled Pork Cubano with ham, Swiss cheese, pickle and Dijon mustard. Our brunch favorite is the Lamy Station—French Toast or a MultiGrain Waffle with blueberries a fried egg, bacon or sausage, served with Vermont maple syrup and butter. comments: Local organic produce when available. Desserts are homemade. LAn’s vietnAmese cUisine 2430 Cerrillos Rd. 986-1636. Lunch/Dinner Major credit cards. $$$ cUisine: Vietnamese. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Start with the Pho Tai Hoi, a vegetarian soup loaded with veggies, fresh herbs, and spices. For your entree, we suggest the Noung—BBq beef, chicken, or shrimp with lemongrass, lime leaf, shallots, garlic, cucumber, pickled onion, lettuce, and fresh herbs on vermicelli noodl.es LA pLAzUeLA on the pLAzA 100 E. San Francisco St. 989-3300. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full Bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ cUisine: New Mexican and Continental. Atmosphere: A gorgeous enclosed courtyard with skylights and hand-painted windows exudes Old World charm. hoUse speciALties AL ALties : Start with the Classic Tortilla Soup or the Heirloom Tomato Salad with baked New Mexico goat cheese—both are absolutely delicious. For your entrée try the Braised Lamb Shank, served with a spring gremolata, roasted piñon couscous, and fresh vegetables. comments: Seasonal menus created by Chef Lane Warner. continued on page 29
| novemBer 2010
THE
MAGAZINE
| 27
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Chef Guido Linguini says, “Bring the family for oh-so-deliciouso Weekly Pasta-Bowl Specials on Sunday and Monday. No fighting at the dinner table”! Dine In Only. $10 adults/$6 kids under 12. 466-8668 ~ CopaDeOro.net OPEN EVERY DAY ~ Hours: 11 am – 2 pm and 5 – 8 pm IN THE HEATED COURTYARD AT THE AGORA IN ELDORADO
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DINING GUIDE
San Francisco Street Bar & Grill 50 E. San Francisco St. 982-2044. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: As American as apple pie. A tmosphere : Casual with art on the walls. H ouse specialties : At lunch, do try the San Francisco Street hamburger on a sourdough bun or the grilled yellowfin tuna nicoise salad with baby red potatoes. At dinner, we like the tender and flavorful twelveounce New York Strip steak, or the Idaho Ruby Red Trout served with grilled pineapple salsa. C omments : Visit their sister restaurant at DeVargas Center.
Behind this door are Santa Fe’s best Tacos.
Felipe’s Tacos
1711-A Llano Street (just off St. Michael’s Drive) Luminaria Restaurant and Patio
Inn and Spa at Loretto 211 Old Santa Fe Trail. 984-7915. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Sunday Brunch Smoke-free. Valet parking. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: American meets the Great Southwest. Atmosphere: Elegant and romantic. Recommendations: Start with the award-winning tortilla soup or the Maine lobster cakes. If you love fish, order the perfectly prepared coriander crusted kampache or the Santa Fean paella—it is loaded with delicious shrimp, salmon, clams, mussels, roasted peppers, and onions. Comments: Organic produce when available.
Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen 555 W. Cordova Rd. 983-7929. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: Rough wooden floors and hand-carved chairs set the historical tone. House specialties: Freshly made tortillas, green chile stew, and pork spareribs. Comments: Perfect margaritas. Mangiamo Pronto!
228 Old Santa Fe Trail. 989-1904. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Visa & Mastercard. $$
Cuisine: Italian Atmosphere: This local institution—some say a local habit— is housed in an adobe hacienda. H ouse specialties : Great pizzas—we suggest the Pesto pizza, with roasted chicken, basil pesto, red bell peppers, caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese or the Fritzo pizza, with spicy sausage, capiccola ham, roasted peppers, and provolone cheese. C omments : For desset, choose from the pasteries, cookies, pies, cakes, and gelato. Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen 555 W. Cordova Rd. 983-7929. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: Rough wooden floors and hand-carved chairs set the historical tone. House specialties: Freshly made tortillas, green chile stew, and pork spareribs. Comments: Perfect margaritas. Max’s 403½ Guadalupe St. 984-9104. Dinner Beer/Wine. Non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ C uisine : Cuting-edge Contemporary. A tmosphere : Intimate and charming. H ouse specialties : Start with the Heirloom Tomato Salad. For your main, we suggest the Grass Fed Beef Sous Vide, or the Organic Chicken Breast Panzanella. For dessert, you must get the white chocolate globe. Comments: Specializing in “sous vide”
| november 2010
cooking. Chef Mark Connell works his magic creating innovative cuisine. Mu Du Noodles 1494 Cerrillos Rd. 983-1411. Dinner/Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Noodle house Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties: Salmon dumplings with oyster sauce, and Malaysian Laksa. Museum Hill Cafe Museum Hill, off Camino Lejo. 984-8900. Breakfast/Dinner Beer/Wine to come. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American, Mediterranean and Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties: The Thai Beef Salad is right on the mark. Try the Smoked Duck Flautas—they’re amazing. Comments: Menu changes depending on what is fresh in the market. All organic ingredients used when available. Nostrani Ristorante 304 Johnson St. 983-3800. Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Regional dishes from Northern Italy. Atmosphere: A renovated adobe with a great bar. House specialties: For your main, try the Stuffed Gnocchetti with Prosciutto and Chicken, or the Diver Scallops. Comments: A garden where they grow produce. European wine list. Frommer’s rates Nostrani in the “Top 500 Restaurants in the World.” O’Keeffe Café 217 Johnson St. 946-1065. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Contemporary Southwest with a French flair. Atmosphere: The walls are dressed with photos of O’Keeffe. House specialties: Try the Northern New Mexico organic poquitero rack of lamb with black olive tapenade. Comments: Nice wine selection. Pizza Centro Santa Fe Design Center. 988-8825. Agora Center at Eldorado. 466-3161. Lunch/Dinner Wednesday-Sunday Cash or check. No credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Real New York–style pizza. Atmosphere: Casual. Counter service and a few tables. House specialties: A variety of pizzas with names that reflect The Big Apple, a.k.a. New York City. Recommendations: The Central Park thincrust pizza is a knockout. Plaza Café Southside 3466 Zafarano Dr. 424-0755. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner 7 days Full bar. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$
C uisine : American and New Mexican. A tmosphere : Bright and light, colorful, and friendly. H ouse specialties : For your breakfast go for the Huevos Rancheros or the Blue Corn Piñon Pancakes. The Brisket Taquito appetizer rules. Railyard Restaurant & Saloon 530 S. Guadalupe St. 989-3300. Lunch Monday-Saturday/Dinner Bar menu daily Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual. H ouse specialties: The appetizer we love is the crispy calamari with dipping sause or the Charcuterie Plate—cured meats, served with house-pickled seasonal veggies. For your entrée, order the 12- ounce Ribyeye Steak or the Sesame and Panko Crusted Tuna with a seaweed salad—it really satifies. Good burgers and sandwiches. Comments: Generous pour at the bar. Real Food Nation Old Las Vegas Hwy/285. 466-3886. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $ Cuisine: Farm to table with an onsite organic garden. Atmosphere: Cheery, light, and downright healthy. House specialties: A salad sampler might include the red quinoa, roasted beets (both vegan), and potato with dill. The roast veggie panini is perfect. Muffins and croissants are baked in house. Wonderful soups and desserts are divine. Recommendations: Inspired breakfast menu. Restaurant Martín 526 Galisteo St. 820-0919. Lunch/Dinner/Brunch Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Contemporary American fare. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties : For your main course try the grilled Berkshire pork chop with shoestring tobacco onions and peach barbecue jus, or the mustard-crusted Ahi tuna. Comments: Chef-owned. Rio Chama Steakhouse 414 Old Santa Fe Trail. 955-0765. Lunch/Dinner/Bar Menu Full bar. Smoke-free dining rooms. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: All-American classic steakhouse. Atmosphere: Gorgeous Pueblo-style adobe with vigas and plank floors. House specialities: USDA prime steaks and prime rib. Haystack fries and cornbread with honey butter. Recommendations: For dessert, we strongly suggest that you choose the chocolate pot. Ristra 548 Agua Fria St. 982-8608. Dinner/Bar Menu Full bar. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Southwestern with French flair. A tmosphere : Elegant bar with a nice bar menu, sophisticated and comfortable dining rooms. H ouse specialties : Mediterranean mussels in chipotle and mint broth is superb, as is the ahi tuna tartare. All of the seafood is wonderful. C omments : The soups are always fantastic. Ristra won the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.
Santacafé 231 Washington Ave. 984-1788. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Contemporary Southwestern. Atmosphere: Minimal, subdued, and elegant. House specialties: For starters, the calamari with lime dipping sauce never disappoints. Our favorite entrées include the perfectly cooked grilled rack of lamb and the pan-seared salmon with olive oil crushed new potatoes and creamed sorrel. Comments: Pastry chef Cindy Sheptow’s Key Lime Semifreddo and Chocolate Mousse with Blood Orange Grand Marnier Sauce are perfect. Appetizers at the bar at cocktail hour rule. Santa Fe Bar & Grill 187 Paseo de Peralta. 982.3033. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American and New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties : Start with the delicious cornmeal-crusted calamari. For your main course, we love the Santa Fe Rotisserie chicken, the Rosemary and Garlic Baby Back Ribs, and the Prawns à la Puebla. C omments : Carlos Rivas is doing a yeoman’s job in the kitchen. Saveur 204 Montezuma St. 989-4200. Breakfast/Lunch Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Visa/Mastercard. $$ Cuisine: French meets American. Atmosphere: Casual. Buffet-style service for salad bar and soups. H ouse specialties : Daily chef specials (try the maple-glazed pork tenderloin), gourmet and build-yourown sandwiches, the best soups, and an excellent salad bar (try Dee’s salad dressing). C omments : Simply wonderful breakfasts, organic coffees, and super desserts. Second Street Brewery 1814 Second St. 982-3030. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free inside. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Simple pub grub and brewery. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties: The beers are outstanding, especially when paired with beer-steamed mussels, the beer-battered calamari, burgers, fish and chips, or the truly delicious grilled bratwurst. Second Street Brewery at the Railyard 1607 Paseo de Peralta. 989-3278. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free inside. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Simple pub grub and brewery. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties: The beers are truely outstanding, especially when paired with beer-steamed mussels or the beerbattered calamari, burgers, fish and chips, or the truly great grilled bratwurst. The Shed 113½ E. Palace Ave. 982-9030. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: This local institution—some say a local habit—is housed in an adobe hacienda. House specialties: Try the stacked red or green chile cheese enchiladas with blue corn tortillas. Comments: Great chile here. Try their sister restaurant, La Choza.
Shohko Café 321 Johnson St. 982-9708. Lunch/Dinner Sake/Beer. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Authentic Japanese Cuisine. Atmosphere: Sushi bar, table dining. House specialties: Softshell crab tempura; sushi, and Bento boxes. at E l G ancho Old Las Vegas Hwy. 988-3333. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoke-free dining room. Major credit cards $$$ Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: Family restaurant with full bar and lounge. House specialties: Aged steaks; lobster. We suggest you try the pepper steak with Dijon cream sauce. Comments: One thing for sure, they know steak at the Steaksmith.
S teaksmith
The Teahouse 821 Canyon Rd. 992-0972. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner 7 days Beer/Wine. Fireplace. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Farm-to-fork. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: We love the Salmon Benedict with poached eggs; quiche; gourmet cheese sandwich; and the amazing Teahouse Mix salad, a wonderful selection of soups, and the Teahouse Oatmeal—“the best oatmeal in the world.” Tia Sophia’s 210 W. San Francisco St. 983-9880. Breakfast/Lunch No alcohol. Smoking/non-smoking. Major credit cards. $ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: This restaurant is absolutely a Santa Fe tradition. H ouse specialties : Green chile stew and the huge breakfast burrito stuffed with great goodies: bacon, potatoes, chile, and cheese. Tia Sophia’s is without a doubt, the “real deal.” Tree House Pastry Shop and Cafe 1600 Lena St. 474-5543. Breakfast/Lunch Tuesday-Sunday Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Only organic ingredients used. Atmosphere: Light, bright, and cozy. House specialties: You cannot go wrong ordering the fresh Farmer’s Market salad, the soup and sandwich, or the quiche. Tune-Up Café 1115 Hickox St. 983-7060. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Major credit cards. $$ C uisine : American, Salvadorean, Mexican, Cuban, and New Mexican. A tmosphere : Down home, baby, down home. H ouse specialties : Our breakfast favorites are the scrumptious Buttermilk Pancakes with banana and blueberry and the knockyour-socks-off Tune-Up Breakfast— chile relleno with tomato salsa, two eggs al gusto, refried beans, and a corn tortilla. Lunch is easy—The Yucatan Fish Tacos are always perfect and the El Salvadoran Pupusas are a favorite of many locals. An array of killer burgers and sandwiches are available. C omments : Guy Fieri of the TV show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” visited the Tune-Up recently. Vinaigrette 709 Don Cubero Alley. 820-9205. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Smoke-free. Major credit cards. $$ C uisine : The real deal here: farmto-table-to fork. A tmosphere : Light, bright and cheerful. H ouse specialties : All of the salads are knockouts—fresh as can be. We absolutely love the Nutty Pear-fessor and the Chop Chop salads. C omments : Only organic produce used. Zia Diner 326 S. Guadalupe St. 988-7008. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Smoking/non-smoking. PatIo. Major credit cards. $$ C uisine : as American. A tmosphere : Down home. H ouse specialties : meat loaf, chicken-fried chicken, Possibly the best fish and chips in town. C omments : Friendly waitstaff. The hot fudge sundaes are always perfect and plenty of dessert goodies for take-out.
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LuKE GRay Deep SKin and StroKEWorld Paintings Strokeworld 0708, 2010, Varnished acrylic on canvas, 38" x 36"
november 15-December 11, 2010 openinG reception: Friday, November 19, 5:00–8:00 pm
| Artist TalKS:
Saturday, November 20, 1:00–3:00 pm
DimitRi KozyRev Lost Landscapes loSt edge #22, 2008, Acrylic and oils on canvas, 48" x 60"
David richard Contemporary 130 Lincoln Avenue, Suite D, Santa Fe, NM 87501 | p (505) 983-9555 | f (505) 983-1284 www.DavidRichardContemporary.com | info@DavidRichardContemporary.com
ART OPENINGS
NOVEMBER
ART OPENINGS
ThurSday, NOvEmbEr 4 LAUnchproJects, 355 E. Palace Ave., Santa
Fe. 670-9857. Total Disinformation Awareness: installation, sculpture, painting, and works on paper. 6-7 pm.
Bright rAin gALLery, 206 1/2 San Felipe NW, Alb. 505-843-9176. Monique Janssen-Belitz: mixed-media landscapes. 6-9 pm. chArLotte JAckson A fine Art, 554 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 989-8688. Charles Arnoldi: An Exhibition of Works from 1998-2001 1998-2001. 5-7 pm.
Friday, NOvEmbEr 5 105 Art gALLery, 105 4th St. SW, Alb. 505281-5990. Pushing the Limits: The “-age” Show: collage, assemblage, and montage. Body Electric: photographs by Barry McCormick. 5-8 pm.
Tucket. Upstairs gallery: works by Janet Hoezel. 5-8 pm. mAtri A X fine Art, 3812 Central Ave. SE, Suite 100-B, Alb. 505-268-8952. Space Between: paintings by Frank McCulloch. Sculpture by Sara D’Alessandro. 5-8 pm.
mAnitoU gALLeries, 123 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 986-0440. Kim Wiggins and Glass Artists: oil paintings and glass art. 5-7:30 pm.
pAste AsteL society of new meX e ico, Expo New Mexico, 300 San Pedro NE, Alb. 19th Annual National Pastel Painting Exhibition and Small Works Show Show: juried show of paintings 48” square or less. 5-8 pm.
mAriposA gALLery, Nob Hill, 3500 Central Ave. SE, Alb. 505-268-6828. R U OK?: pastels by Greg
peterson-cody gALLery, 130 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 820-0010. Free Rein: works by Heather
Foster. 5-7:30 pm. weyrich gALLery ery/t /the rAre vision Art gALerie, 2935-D Louisiana Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-883-7410. Transitions: porcelain work by students of the Transitions Arita porcelain process. 5-8:30 pm.
SaT urday, NOvEmbEr 6 Sa the LAnd/gALLery, 419 Granite Ave. NW, Alb. 505-242-1501. Ray Graham Collects 19632010: land-based art. 6-9 pm. 2010
SuNday, NOvEmbEr 7 Su UnitA nit riAn UniversAList congregAtion A Ation , 107 W. Barcelona Rd., Santa Fe. 988-1655. Places We Know Know: abstract landscapes by Kathamann. 12-2 pm.
Friday, N NOvEmbEr 12 eLi Levin stUdio, 821 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 986-8071. Glyphs: paintings and works on paper by Nicolas Gadbois. 5-7:30 pm. fisher press, 307 Camino Alire, Santa Fe. 9849919. Two-Person Show: work by Francesca Yorke and Taylor Mott. 5-7 pm.
SaT urday, NOvEmbEr 13 Sa encAUstic Art institUte, 18 County Rd. 55A, Cerrillos. 424-6487. Small Packages: small works. 1-6 pm.
Friday, N NOvEmbEr 19 dAvid A richArd contemporAry, 130 Lincoln Ave., Suite D, Santa Fe. 983-9555. Luke Gray: deep skin and strokeworld paintings. Lost Landscapes: paintings by Dimitri Kozyrev. 5-8 Landscapes pm. Artist talk: Sat., Nov. 20, 1-3 pm. new meXico mUseUm of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 476-5072. Bureau of Contemporary Art Art: works representing a fictitious entity created to emphasize contemporary art’s place in the museum’s permanent collection. 5:30-7:30 pm. r osweLL m UseUm And A rt c enter, 100 W. 11th St., Roswell. 575-624-6744. City of Rocks: photographs by Harold Lee Jones. 5-7 pm. t rAnscendence
design
contemporAry
A rt, first 2-story building at 1521 Upper Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 984-0108. Red and Green: holiday group show. Prima Materia: Green Susan Charlot Jay Jay: mixed-media shrines and paintings. 5-7 pm. New work by Katherine Lee— Lee—Animal Violence and Topless Women Eating Jam—at Eight Modern, 231 Delgado Street, Santa Fe. Show runs through December 4.
| novemBer 2010
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WHO SAID THIS? “The cover of a magazine is not a benediction, it is a marketing tool.”
1. Graydon Carter 2. Richard Stolley 3. Barney Rossett 4. Joan Buck
HERE’S THE GREAT DEAL! $500 B&W full-page ads ($800 for color) in the Dec/Jan double issue for artists without gallery representation in New Mexico. Reservations by Monday, Nov. 15. 505-424-7641
OUT & ABOUT
Photos: Mr. Clix, Dana Waldon, Suzanne Sbarge, Lisa Law, Wyatt Meade, Linda Carfagno, and Jennifer Esperazana
ART OPENINGS
SaT urday, NOvEmbEr 20 Sa LA tiendA iend eXhiBit spA pAce Ace, 7 Caliente Rd., Suite A-6, Santa Fe. 930-4821. Quartet: paintings by four artists. 5-8 pm.
29th AnnUAL diXon stUdio toUr, Dixon. Sat., Nov. 6 and Sun., Nov. 7, 9 am-5 pm. Info: dixonarts.org 29th AnnUAL pLAcit LAcitA citAs hoLidA idAy idA Ay sALe. Nov. 2021, 10 am-5 pm. Info: placitasholidaysale.com
Friday, N NOvEmbEr 26 hAhn ross gALLery, 409 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 984-8434. Art for Animals: works by six artists. Benefit to raise funds for Española Valley Humane Society. 5-7 pm. windsor Betts Art BrokerA rokerAge Age hoUse, 136 Grant Ave., Santa Fe. 820-1234. Master of the Abstract: paintings by Michael Wright. 5-7 pm. Abstract zAne Bennett contemporA ontempor ry Art, 435 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 982-8111. Group Show: variety of media including ceramics, glass, Show photography, paintings, and sculpture. 5-7 pm.
SpECial iNTErEST Sp
516 A Arts r , 516 Central Ave. SW, Alb. 505rts 242-1445. Street Arts: a celebration of hip-hop culture and free expression. Through Sat., Nov. 20. History of Style: gallery talk with Dave Hickey. Wed., Nov. 10, 7 pm. Info/schedules: 516arts.org 516 Arts, National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th St. SW, Alb. 505-246-2261. El Otro Lado: The Other Side Side: collaborative, interdisciplinary art project led by artist Chrissie Orr and writer Michelle Otero. Sat., Nov. 13, 7 pm. BUffAL ff o thUnder resort, 20 Buffalo Thunder ffAL Trail, Santa Fe. 800-905-3315. Comedy Night at Buffalo Thunder Thunder: Bill Engvall. Sat., Nov. 13, 8 pm. Brad Garrett. Sat., Nov. 27, 8 pm. Tickets: tickets.com 105 Art Gallery, 105 4th Street, Albuquerque. Pushing the Limits: The “-age” Show: collage, assemblage, and montage. R Reception: Friday, November 5, 5-8 pm. Image: Barry McCormick
Lodge at Santa Fe. Info: santafestudiotour.com center for contemporA ontempor ry Arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe. 982-1338. More Than Mary Cassatt: lecture series on women artists. Thurs., Cassatt Nov. 18, 10-11:30 am. Info: ccasantafe.org chiAroscUro gALLery, 702½ Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 992-0711. Solo Exhibitions: Susan Sales and Michele Mikesell. Through Sat., Nov. 20. Holiday Group Show Show. Fri., Nov. 26-Fri., Dec. 31. corrAL orr es society of Artists, Corrales. 3rd Annual 2010 Holiday Art Festival Festival: arts and crafts by more than forty artisans. Fri., Nov. 26 and Sat., Nov. 27, 10 am-5 pm. Sun., Nov. 28, 10 am-4 pm. Info: corralesartists.org downtown sUBscription, 376 Garcia St., Santa Fe. 983-3085. The Breath of Burma: photographs by Robert Bassra. Through Tues., Nov. 30. eight modern, 231 Delgado St., Santa Fe. 9950231. Animal Violence and Topless Women Eating Jam: new work by Katherine Lee. Through Sat., Dec. 4. eLdorA dor do commUnity schooL, 2 Ave. Torreon dorA at Ave. Vista Grande, Santa Fe. 670-6649. 9th Annual Eldorado Arts and Crafts Show. Sat., Nov. 13 and Sun., Nov. 14, 10 am-5 pm. Info: eldoradoarts.org
Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival at El Museo Cultural—1615-B Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. Friday to Sunday, November 12 to 14. Image: Cynthia Cook
geBert contemporA ontempor ry, 550 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 983-5444. Solo Show: etchings by Sarah Amos. Through Sun., Nov. 28. hArwood mUseUm of Art, UNM, 238 Ledoux St., Taos. 575-758-9826. Calaveras Suite: prints by John Nichols. Through Sun., Feb. 20, 2011. heArd mUseUm, 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ. 9th Annual Spanish Market: work by Hispanic artists from Arizona and New Mexico. Sat., Nov. 13 and Sun., Nov. 14, 10 am-5 pm. Info: heard. org/SpanishMarket iA AiA cAmpUs, 83 Avan Nu Po Rd., Santa Fe. 424-2335. IAIA Open House: highlights of the facilities and screenings of Native films. Fri., Nov. 5, 3-6 pm. inn And spA p At A Loretto, 211 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe. 988-5531. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face: power point presentation by Judy Chicago on her new book. Sun., Nov. 14, 12-1:30 pm. JA Ames keLLy LL LLy contemporA ontempor ry, 1601 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 989-1601. Susan York: graphite sculpture and drawings. Through Sat., Dec. 11.
eL mUseo cULt UL UrAL r , 1615-B Paseo de Peralta, rAL Santa Fe. 992-0591. Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival: artists use a minimum of 75% recycled materials to create their work. Fri., Nov. 12-Sun., Nov. 14.
LAnnAn foUndA ndAtion ndA Ation, Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe. 988-1234. Readings and Conversations Series: John McPhee with Peter Hessler. Wed., Nov. 10, 7 pm.
fALL sAntA nt fe stUdio toUr, Santa Fe. Sat., Nov. ntA 13, 10 am-5 pm and Sun., Nov. 14, 11 am-4 pm. Preview party: Fri., Nov. 12, 5-7:30 pm at the
LA tiendA iend eXhiBit spA pAce Ace, 7 Caliente Rd., Suite A-6, Santa Fe. 930-4821. Views of the Sacred: group show. Through Sat., Nov. 13.
continued on page 36
34 | the magazine
| novemBer 2010
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ART OPENINGS
LindA ind dUrhAm contemporA ontempor ry Art, 1807 Second St. #107, Santa Fe. 466-6600. In Nature: sculpture, paintings, and photographs by David Kimball. Gambit: An Opening Move: animation machines by Yozo Suzuki. Through Sat., Nov. 13. LiqUid id Light gLAss LA , 926 Baca St. #3, Santa Fe. 820-2222. Glass Paperweight Experience Class: paperweight-making workshop. Sat., Nov. 6, 10:30 am. Info: liquidlightglass.com
Tipton Hall, Santa Fe. 424-5050. “Elemental: Earth Air Fire Water—Art as Environment”: lecture by photographer Victoria Sambunaris. Thurs., Nov. 11, 6 pm.
Santa Fe. 984-6117. “Communicating Science Through Art and Technology”: lecture by José Francisco Salgado, astronomer and visual artist on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 3:15 pm. Free.
sAntA nt fe cLAy LA , 1615 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 984-1122. Fertile Ground: group show of ceramic work. Through Sat., Dec. 4.
the 2010 swA sw iA winter indiAn mArket rket on Sat, Nov. 27. 9 am-5 pm and Sun., Nov. 28, 10 am-4 pm. Robert Mirabal Concert Concert: Sun., Nov. 28, 1 pm at the Santa Fe Convention Center: 201 W. Marcy St. Info: swaia.org
Los rAnchos Art stUdio toUr, Los Ranchos. 505-899-2046. Sat., Nov. 6 and Sun., Nov. 7. Info: losranchosarttour.com
sAntA nt fe convention center, 201 W. Marcy St., Santa Fe. 954-5858. Santa Fe Art Auction: Classic Western art auction. Presented by Gerald Peters Gallery. Sat., Nov. 13, 1:30-5:30 pm. Info: santafeartauction.com
mAtri A X Arts, 429 Sandoval St., Santa Fe. 5012290. Avant Garde: paintings by James Koskinas and H. Margret. Through Sat., Nov. 13.
sAntA nt fe mAin LiBrA r ry, 145 Washington Ave., rA Santa Fe. 577-2820. New Mexico Church Paintings: oil paintings by Raquel Underwood. To Tues., Nov. 30.
mUseUm of contemporA ontempor ry nAtive A Arts, 108 Cathedral Pl., Santa Fe. 983-8900. Artist Talk: video artist Torry Mendoza. Sat., Nov. 13, 2-3 pm.
sAntA nt fe river, Santa Fe. 795-8096 or 424-5050. Flash Flood for a Living River River: Santa Fe Art Institute and 3,000 community members will carry and flip blue-painted recycled cardboard to compose a flash flood in the dry bed of the Santa Fe River, which has been designated America’s most endangered river. Sat., Nov. 20. Call for info.
mUseUm of indiAn Arts And cULt UL Ure, 710 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe. 476-5105. Huichol Art and Culture: lecture with Dr. C. Jill Grady and Dr. Peter Culture T. Furst. Sat., Nov. 7. “Huichol Weaving: The Zingg Collection”: lecture by Dr. Stacy B. Schaefer. Sun., Nov. 14. nAtion A AL hispA isp nic cULt UL UrAL r rAL center, 1701 4th St., Alb. 505-246-2261. In the Footsteps of Abraham: film screening. Wed., Nov. 3-Wed, Nov. 10. Info: adl.org/celebratefestival new groUnds print workshop & gALLery, 3812 Central Ave. SE, Suite 100-B, Alb. 505-268-8952. Annual Holiday Sale Sale: sale of works ranging from $25$125. Fri., Nov. 26-Fri., Jan. 7.
shoUt-oUt: A festivAL estiv of rhyme, various locations, Alb. 505-242-1445. Spoken word festival. Thurs., Nov. 4-Sun., Nov. 7. Info: 516arts.org st. John’s coLLege, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe. 984-6117. The Mahabharata on Film: seminar on Peter Brook’s film of the Mahabharata. Fri. Nov. 5, 5:30-7:30 pm. Sat., Nov. 6 and Sun., Nov. 7, 1-3 pm. Info: stjohnscollege.edu st. John’s coLLege, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center,
muSiC m chAtter A Atter , various locations, Alb. 2010-2011 Season: musical collaborations with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, UNM Children’s Chorus, and Santa Fe Opera Young Voices Program. Info: chatterchamber.org generA enerAtor Ator, 723 Silver Ave. SW, Alb. Lee Montgomery: Radio Net Remix (Albuquerque Loop) Loop): musical piece, based on a historic radio composition, by Max Neuhaus. Sat., Nov. 6 and Tues., Nov. 16, 5-7 pm. nAtion A AL hispA isp nic cULt UL UrAL r rAL center, 1701 4th St., Alb. 505-724-4771. Lucia Pulido: Latin American singer. Sat., Nov. 6, 8 pm. Info: nhccnm.org oUtpost performAnce spA pAce Ace, 210 Yale SE, Alb. 505-268-0044. Outpost Fall 2010 Season: musical performances through Dec. 2010. Info: outpostspace.org siLver L Lver stA t rLight ight LoUnge, Rainbow Vision Santa Fe, 500 Rodeo Rd., Santa Fe. 428-7781. Encore: Liza with a “Z” “Z”: music by Julie Trujillo, David Geist, and Andrew Primm. Fri., Nov. 12, 8:30 pm and Sat., Nov. 13, 8 pm.
pErFOrmiNg arT pE r S rT
2010 Santa Fe Art Auction—the Auction Southwest’s largest collection of Western art at the Santa Fe Convention Center—201 West Marcy Street. Friday and Saturday, November 12 and 13. Info: santafeartauction.com
Aspen sAntA nt fe BALLet, Lensic Performing Arts ntA Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe. 9881234. Jigu! Thunder Drums of China: company of drummers, percussionists, and musicians. Tues., Nov. 2, 7:30 pm. popeJ ope oy hALL LoBBy BB , UNM, Alb. 505-925-5858. BBy Brundibár: children’s opera by Czech composer Brundibár Hans Krása. Sat., Nov. 6, 2 pm.
Call FOr arT r iSTS rT hey, mozA oz rt! new meXico’s chiLd composer proJ ro ect invites New Mexico children age 12 and under to submit an original melody for the 2011 project. Deadline: Thurs., March 31, 2011. Info: heymozartnm.org mAsterworks A of new meXico ico 2011: 13th AnnUAL premier show of fine Art. Open to NM artists. Four divisions: miniatures, pastel, oil, and acrylic. Info: masterworksnm.org December/January is a double issue. All listings are due by Tuesday, November 16. Please email listings to themagazineSF@gmail.com.
new meXico potters And cLAy LAy Artists AssociAtion A , Santa Fe Women’s Club, 1616 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe. 14th Contemporary Clay Fair: work by thirty clay artists. Sat., Nov. 20 and Sun., Nov. 21, 10 am-5 pm. Info: contemporaryclayfair.com photo-eye gALLery, 376-A Garcia St., Santa Fe. Cranach Series Series: exhibition and portfolio release by Carla van de Puttelaar. Through Sat., Dec. 11.
pop gALLery sAntA nt fe, 133 W. Water St., Santa Fe. 820-0788. POP Gallery On LoVe 2010: works that comment on love. Fri., Nov. 19-Fri., Dec. 31. Closing reception: Fri., Dec. 31, 6-8 pm. preston contemporA ontempor ry Art center, 1755 Avenida de Mercado, Mesilla. 575-523-8713. Artist Dialogue: Sara Lee D’Alessandro discusses her Dialogue work. Sat., Nov. 20, 1-2 pm. richArd rd Levy gALLery, 514 Central Ave. SW, Alb. 505-766-9888. Two Person Show: Saara Ekström and Stuart Frost. Through Fri., Dec. 17. Gallery closed Thurs., Nov. 25-Thurs., Dec. 9. sAntA nt fe Art institUte, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., City of Rocks: Natural Monoliths—photographs Monoliths by Harold Lee Jones at the Roswell Museum and Art Center, 100 West 11th Street, Roswell. Reception: Friday, November 19, 5-7 pm.
36 | the magazine
| novemBer 2010
RO U N DSTON E STUDIO
GALLERY
2nd St Studios SANTA FE NM 505.919.9354 Photography of Norman F.Carver Jr. normancarver.com Architecture of Mitch Witkowski roundstonedesign.com Artifacts of the Ancient World
PREVIEWS
Lee Montgomery: Radio Net Remix (Albuquerque Loop) November 6 and 16 GENERATOR, 723 Silver Avenue SW, Albuquerque. 505-463-3995 Saturday, November 6 and Tuesday, November16. Both 5 to 7 pm. Back in 1977, when technology-as-art was but a hazy notion, the artist Max Neuhaus created a work he called Radio Net, in which listeners called their local NPR stations and whistled or made other noises on the line. National Public Radio was a new concept as well, and Neuhaus used the young medium to blur the lines between art and event, and viewer and participant, creating what he defined as “a sound-transformation box that was literally fifteen hundred miles wide by three thousand miles long.” (Of note is the fact that back then, it was considered a characteristic of art that it had dimensions—three of them.) Now, live at GENERATOR for two performances, Lee Montgomery will use, rather than telephones, internet-based steaming servers to create sounds via radio waves that will be sent into public wi-fi nodes. Waves generated, looped, and relayed over and over again will serve to re-mix, as it were, Neuhaus’s original piece. For now, Montgomery is keeping it local, more or less, inviting various Burque residents to participate throughout the community in what Montgomery has established as Neighborhood Public Radio. Lee Montgomery, Radio Net Remix (Albuquerque Loop), photographed at PLAND Residency in Taos, NM, 2010 Photograph by L.A. Louver
Seminar on the Mahabharata November 5 to November 7 St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe. 505-984-6117 Friday: 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Saturday & Sunday: 1:00 to 3:00 pm. Cost: $180 “No story is found on earth that does not rest on this epic—nobody endures without living off its food,” says the Mahabharata of itself. The Mahabharata is a sacred epic Sanskrit poem—a tale of war and royalty, of humanity and divinity, of heroes and villains, of the struggle between two rival families—and a cornerstone of the Hindu spiritual tradition. In the 1970s, British theater and film director Peter Brook and author Jean-Claude Carrière collaborated to create a theatrical performance of the Mahabharata, which became a three-hour film. David Carl will facilitate a weekend community seminar on the Mahabharata, based on Brook’s film. This seminar promises to both enlighten and inspire.
STREET TEXT: Art from the Coasts and the Populist Phenomenon October 2 to December 11 516 ARTS, 516 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque. 505-242-1445 Closing talk by Dave Hickey: Wednesday, November 10, 7 pm. Do you like your art collaborative, multi-media, and representative of the voice of the people? Well, get hip to STREET TEXT, a project that began in early October and shows no signs of letting up until it all gets talked out—fittingly, with Dave Hickey edging in the last word(s) when he speaks at 516 ARTS on the history of style. Coming from him, that subject could cover just about anything, but it’s bound to directly and remarkably reference what “the kids” are doing these days: you know, graffiti art, sound mixing, poetry, and the like. In particular, this two-month-long and city-wide exhibition proposes to look, deeply and exuberantly, at the Left and Right Coasts for inspiration, guidance, and sheer cheekiness. Still to come and/or happening: Collective Memory, a D-ride bus installation presented by Working Classroom; SHOUT-OUT: A Festival of Rhythm and Rhyme at the Church of Beethoven on Sunday, November 7, at 11:30 am, featuring Saywut?!; and Article 19, based on our universal right to freedom of expression, opening at New Studio A.D. on Friday, November 5, from 5 to 7 pm. Finally, there’s the big exhibition itself: STREET TEXT, at 516 ARTS, through December 11. The two-part show includes The Populist Phenomenon downstairs, an exploration into how street art changes when it enters into the art world, and conversely how the art world is transformed when it opens itself up to the street; while upstairs, Art From the Coasts investigates the international influences of Hip Hop on art and culture.
Scene from the Mahabharata
Gajin Fujita, Sky High, gold leaf, acrylic, spray paint, and Mean Streak markers on panel, 16” x 48”, 2007. Courtesy L.A. Louver
38 | THE magazine
| november 2010
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N AT I O N A L S P O T L I G H T
Vase et Fleurs
by
Hector Hyppolite
The impact of January’s earthquake in Haiti is overwhelming, whether measured by the number of deaths (estimates are as high as 250,000), by the more than two million people left homeless, or even by the amount of debris (33 million cubic yards of rubble still remain in Port-au-Prince). No aspect of Haitian life escaped the devastation, including the country’s art. Many museums and galleries were ruined in the earthquake. Affirmation Arts’ show Saving Grace: A Celebration of Haitian Art is both timely and worthy, showcasing the rich and colorful cultural heritage of a country whose recovery efforts are still painfully far from completion. The exhibition features over fifty works by Haitian artists, including several paintings that were rescued after the earthquake. The exhibition—which features over fifty paintings, sculptures, and works on paper— has never been seen outside of Haiti. It is on display through November 24 at Affirmation Arts, 523 West 37th Street, New York City. D
| november 2010
THE
MAGAZINE
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F eature
About Street Art: T he I nvariant Need of Human Expression by
Francesca Searer
Henry Chalfant, Min One Painting in New Lots Avenue Trainyard, Brooklyn, photograph, 30” x 20”, 1981 continued on page 44
| november 2010
THE
MAGAZINE
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Standing at 17th
and Broadway in New
York
City,
heading north from Union Square, I was struck by a sudden image. It hit my imagination the way Kathe Kollwitz’s do, the way her line quality seduces me and makes me hungry for ink. An Icelandic horse's head stared at me from atop a tensed man-body and flooded me with feeling, transporting me far away from my droid-like work routine. (I later found out the artist was a sixteen-year-old going by the name of Gaia. Having wearied of the art-school myths and the carbon copy aesthetic trends (that inevitably come with a hefty helping of prefab rationalization), this honest street image struck me like a bolt from the blue, a fulfillment of my sincere artistic yearnings. That was years ago. Since then, Street Art heroes with otherworldly
names like Banksy, Blu, JR, Blek le Rat, Invader, Shepard Fairey, and SWOON have taken me over mind and body, instilling in me an undeniable craving for art. Their raw, gutsy work calms my fears about the art market’s seeming insularity, restores my confidence about the role art plays in our society, and fortifies my belief in image making. It tracks our social geography using motifs, symbols, and systems of mark making that hearken back to mankind’s earliest attempts at visual communication, drawing fearlessly upon anything and everything: cave paintings, hieroglyphs, medieval knights’ banners, Roman sculpture, baroque stylizations, Impressionism, Nouveau Reálisme, Dada, Symbolism, Minimalism, Pop, and contemporary art. Wherever these artists go, unsuspecting surfaces find themselves transformed and given new meaning through the lightning-fast application of vibrant colors and symbols. Each move, jig, calculation and function of the piece is thought out beforehand so that when the time comes to execute, it can be done in mere minutes. These artists don’t stand on ceremony, and advances in markmaking technology play a key part in the production of such work; as such, they unapologetically avail themselves of quick printing processes, aerosol paint, stencils, stickers, anything that works. Street Art is synonymous with experimentation, and its inherent dissidence asks us to question our materials, the “truth” of art history, and the role art plays in society and human interaction. Slinkachu, a London-based artist, tests our observational skills by editing train model miniatures into scenes of everyday life, then putting the resulting tableaux back on the street. If we’re paying attention, these tiny acts of prostitution, murder, pleasure, natural disaster, and reenactment of social norms can be encountered in the nooks and crannies of the larger urbanscape; if we’re caught up in our everyday routine, they go unnoticed. Sculptor Mark Jenkins tests our emotional barometers with his eerie, tape-wrapped human forms which may make us start with surprise, scratch our heads, or even dial 911. Printmaker SWOON uses common wheat paste and traditional Chinese, Indian, and Mexican paper-cutting techniques to introduce us to characters of her own making, people like ourselves doing everyday things—talking, shopping, or sharing a tender moment. Both American artist Shepard Fairey, through his Obama campaign imagery, and Dutch artist Hugo Kaagman, through his mind-blowingly graphic constructs, aggressively investigate the connections (both the known and the unexpected) between material, process, and meaning. Street Art has been called an “honest art form,” and the foundation of its honesty, as well as its strength, is its non-traditional process and presentation. Found on walls, on sidewalks, on skateboards, on the tails of airplanes, on magazine covers, and on T-shirts, it’s accessible in a way fine art often isn’t, and speaks to our intellect, our instincts, and our deepest-held emotions. Given a chance, it can talk to us, comfort us, show us new things, maybe even restore our faith in art. D Street Art: A Celebration of Hip Hop Culture & Free Expression is an expansive arts collaboration in Albuquerque, organized by 516 ARTS. It centers around the two-part exhibition Street Text: Art From the Coasts & The Populist Phenomenon, which examines Street Art and its evolution into an international cultural movement. Details: www.516arts.org.
Chip Thomas, Wheatpaste mural at Frances Tinnin Park, Downtown Albuquerque
F E AT U R E
Thomas Christopher Haag, It Seems We Have a Couple Things in Common ((Let’s Let’s All Hypnotize Each Other Other), reclaimed latex paint & mixed media on panel, 66” x 90”, 2010
Chip Thomas, wheatpaste mural at Santa Fe Pacific Trust, Albuquereque.
Chris Stain, In Beauty May I Walk, Walk, latex paint on gallery wall, size variable, 2010 Adapted from photos with permission of Chip Thomas.
Ernest Doty, Great White Buffalo, mixed media, spray paint, 72” x 96”, 2010
| novemBer 2010
THE
MAGAZINE
| 45
t
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
S u S an Y ork : n ew G raphite S culpture t
,f
.
Ake thAt A ermAt A We don’t have to turn to the At terse equation of Pierre de Fermat, scribbled in the margin of an ancient Greek mathematical tract, to make the case for the complexity of simple abstraction. Euclid’s plane geometry will do for that. Or the plane geometry of art’s primary forms. The current show of graphite sculpture and drawings by Susan York is a reprise of the visual conceit behind her drawings in a joint show with Wes Mills at James Kelly Contemporary last year. What’s different here is the actual presence of the sculptural counterparts to York’s graphite drawings of these objects: smooth, carbon-black, solid-graphite rectilinear slabs, blocks, and beams weighing from 300 to 500 pounds each. What’s new in the visual conceit itself is an extension of its earlier Minimalist tack in the placement of the graphite forms. A typical deployment in earlier installations (e.g. the Graphite Rooms in Chicago in 2004, the Lannan installation in 2008) had the rectilinear solids set on the gallery floor like sculpture bases, with the smaller slabs mounted on the wall, and the tall rectilinear beams (six feet and higher) either attached flush with the wall like pilasters or suspended from the ceiling—in both instances ending just inches above the gallery floor. The visual conceit is built upon the resulting “grounded versus floating” ambivalence—in the word’s root sense of denoting a divergence of forces, conveyed here by the location, inches off the ground, of the graphite solids. The virtual suspension of weighty relief slabs and wall pilasters—and the actual suspension of a central half-ton beam from the ceiling—appear to defy a common adherence to gravity that should otherwise be reinforced by the ponderous density of the graphite.
and
d rawinGS
What is new, then, in the visual conceit here is a subtle yet transparent inversion of that formal, illusive stratagem. In Untitled (Bisecting wedge), a long 500-pound block of solid graphite some nine feet from the floor projects from both sides of a free-standing wall that divides the gallery space into two areas. The effect is of a massive slab that appears to pierce a wall—we assume it is actually two halves attached to the opposite sides. But the Bisecting wedge title is a complicit misnomer, misdirecting the viewer to read the piece as cut in half and mounted on opposite sides of the gallery wall, when in fact a hydraulic lift was used to raise the single quarter-ton slab to a point where it is “wedged” in the wall built around it, and projects into both spaces. In its own way, Bisecting wedge supports the same notion of space occupied in the exhibit by earlier work. Both 72” x 10” x 10” Corner Columns (2008) belie the designation of these beams as “columns” by being, in effect, flat-sided pilasters— rectangular piers, engaged to a wall, treated architecturally as columns—at the same time as they perversely affirm that identity by their virtual suspension off the gallery floor, thus disclosing the purely visual function of pilasters that only mimic the structural support role of the columns. The Bisecting wedge piece only appears to mimic penetration of both sides of the gallery wall dividing the two spaces—thus unifying them— when it is in fact traversing it. And, by formal association with Bisecting wedge, the solid graphite piece high up on a wall in the adjacent space—attached by bolts and extending fifteen inches from the wall like some rogue protruding ceiling joist—impishly insinuates its opposite projection into Charlotte Jackson’s gallery
J ameS k ellY c ontemporarY 1601 p aSeo de p eralta , S anta F e on the other side of the wall. Both earlier and current graphite sculptures succeed, by diverse stratagems, in asserting the sense of an immediate, literal space which they inhabit. Diverse yet devious stratagems: A strict constructionist view of the legacy of Minimalist art might find York’s solid graphite objects to be antithetic to Minimalist principles. York’s graphite modules operate apart from any grid. Their willful placement, ending inches from the floor or wedged high up on a gallery wall, are unabashedly illusive and expressive. While somehow they achieve the kind of literal, “installation” space sought by the likes of Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Carl Andre, it can be argued that York’s self-effacing, solid graphite medium abets the illusive ambivalence of the objects and thus suborns the installation’s literal space in the service of some allusive content. That should banish York’s approach to the piu grassa post-Minimalist aesthetic of Lucy Lippard’s Eccentric Abstraction. So be it. The argument over Minimalist authenticity is moot here—perhaps anywhere. What Donald Judd sought in his box-like forms of stainless steel or aluminum arranged in grid-inferring rows is what every new movement affirms as the aim of art making: to produce work that is engaging, or “interesting,” as he called it in his 1965 “Specific Objects” essay. By “interesting” he meant “aggressive and powerful,” while the self-effacing, hard-edged structures of reluctant Minimalist conscript Agnes Martin sought instead to lighten weight and dismantle power. Minimalist or not, York’s graphite sculpture and drawings, quiet and compelling, are in good company.
—richArd toBin
Susan York, Untitled (Bisecting wedge), solid graphite, 2010
| novemBer 2010
the magazine | 47
t
Gendron JenSen: Stone lithoGraphY
there
the harwood muSeum oF art 238 ledoux Street, taoS The imaginative transformation of what the artist calls natural relics, achieved with such concentration and skill, results in what might properly be described not as conceptual art, but as philosophical art. —Robert Silberman, 2010 —R
is An At AtA tAvistic Avistic qUALity that pushes its way to the surface of
Gendron Jensen’s images of bones. It’s as if Jensen were teasing out aspects of our primal relationship to the relics of life and death—the things that remain when all the flesh is gone from predator and prey alike. The bones, though, can remain for eons, and in Jensen’s painstaking renderings they become clues to a new topographical wilderness that symbolizes landforms and animal life, with features of both. Each drawing on stone is a landscape, but it’s also a portrait of an artist’s state of mind. Very few individuals in this new century have the patience to draw with Jensen’s unwavering attention to fine details, and as a result, these images are a throwback to the highpoints of the naturalist’s art before photography made recording visual data so much easier and more immediate. Yet, Jensen’s drawings aren’t just a cut-and-dried archive of skeletal structures. In the most interesting of the lithographs, the artist embroiders on the truth by creating textures and forms that actually don’t exist in nature. Jensen pushes the boundaries of form in his black-and-white tonal values, for example, in order to give more nuance and depth to a bone or a shell than the naked eye could apprehend. These are an artist’s drawings, after all, and therefore a product of artifice. Jensen takes liberties with structure, and not only gives us heightened textures but invented hybrid relics as well. In Minongers, the artist combined a bull moose skull and a wolf skull into an image that slides into the realm of the abstract. There is no creature that these bones could slip into or out of—the form is a pure fabrication. In the work berceau, an image that represents a bone from a black sturgeon, the actual bone is displayed in a glass case, and it is a beautiful and intricate shape both as image and actual object. But Jensen’s graphic presentation has made the drawing of the bone seem hyperreal and far more dense than its bleached and delicate counterpart in the vitrine. This is where the artist’s graphic skills take precedence over the evidence of the real thing. Isolated from the life of the fish that once existed, Jensen’s drawing is like a floating signifier that all art aspires to be: a residue of pure imagination that is no longer dependent on the world of flesh and bone.
—diAne ArmitA rmitAge Age
Gendron Jensen, Untitled (elk skull and female grey wolf skull), lithograph, 40” x 281/ 8 ”, 2006
t
peter millett: woman
at the
well
chiaroScuro 702½ canYon Y Yon road, Santa Fe
this eXhiBition of recent work by sculptor Peter Millett features fifteen welded steel and wood shapes that play with volume, cut-and-build assembly, and planes welded to plane with a tidy and spartan Constructivist design ethic. Referred to as “disembodied architecture” by one happy critic, these lovely, unimposing objects have the effect of turning the space they occupy into a stack of pure property, and in that sense convey the now-vanished exuberance of capitalism in its reduced form, that of the business logo or corporate garden ornament. In this regard, the sculptures Millett has on offer are familiar, not unlike what we encounter in our ordinary dealings with the world. His aspirations are simple and comforting, his concerns convincing in the sense that all of his sculptures convey a rightness of all relevant relations at work in each piece, depending for its effects of “presence” on the staging, the conspicuous manipulation, of its relation to its audience. So, what we are dealing with here is a success story, where signature geometric shapes and simple approaches remind us, through assiduousness, how little is left to the artist to work with, but how, in spite of it all, the show must go on. Every child in the history of the planet plays with blocks, and whether this point is worth making over and over again seems to Millett moot. All of his shapes come from a basic four-by-four cut in forty-five degree angles to create interlocking shapes of trapezoid and triangle, square and polyhedron, a kind of nanotech eruption of perfectly tooled forms that one gazes upon with decorum. Still, like a child at play with his building blocks, deeper engagement trumps the style. Millett’s work is industrial in heft and, when he works in wood, fanciful in form. In Red Woman, for example, three logs lock together in a decorative and materialistic embrace, highlighting discreet erotic curves with a taut zigzag cut. The steel works—while reminiscent of ancient artifacts or even sacramental objects—nevertheless repeatedly fall into the lingam-yoni category. Yoni1 is a welded bronze pool of interlocking triangles that expresses an interesting exchange between solidity and translucency, and yet it delivers propositions, not sensations. Full of utilitarian whimsy, Millett’s sculptures play with volume and light and changeable planes, and each work is finished in soft, rusty hues. However, even though we experience Millett’s perfect confidence and brisk sense of design, none of this is markedly different from or technically better than something you might trip over at the headquarters of Verizon. Meditative in mood, figurative in title but geometric and mathematical in form, Millett’s work grapples with the pharaonic and feminine in a way that suggests greater things ahead.
—Anthony hAssett
Peter Millett, Hole Bowl 1, painted cedar, 16” x 14” x 16”, 2010
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
m deSire
F or
“my
maGic: patrick naGatani 1978–2008
work is A never-ending
search for magic,” Patrick Nagatani says. This retrospective proves that the artist has found the magic he seeks—again and again, in ever-changing forms—throughout thirty years of his remarkable career. Nagatani’s wizardry is apparent in his creation of new worlds that are fantastic but almost plausible, one step removed from the “real” one. Big Macs and cigarette packs hang suspended in a Manhattan subway car, sent airborne by the detonation of the Bomb—yet the visible filaments these cultural artifacts hang from signal that some puppeteer is pulling the strings. We viewers are jolted into an out-of-body perspective until our own truths are suspended. On opening night of this retrospective, the newly renovated museum pulled in nearly one thousand visitors—evidence of Nagatani’s considerable following. Also launching was the beautifully produced twohundred-sixty-page book Desire for Magic, edited by curator Michele Penhall, with essays by Penhall and six other writers. With one hundred and one images from seven bodies of work, this exhibition lets Nagataniphiles examine the actual prints of images we had until now seen only in books: the true pigments, the scale and surface, the exacting detail, the elements of fact and fiction.
1 univerSitY The show begins with the Nagatani/Tracey Polaroid Collaborations, in which Nagatani and painter Andrée Tracey explore society’s fear of nuclear annihilation, capturing the precise moment of apocalypse. Nuclear Enchantment investigates New Mexico’s marriage to the nuclear industry. The Ryoichi/Nagatani Excavations spin the yarn of Nagatani and the Japanese explorer Ryoichi, who unearth luxury cars in sacred sites. Chromatherapy updates the ancient technique of treating illness with colored light. The show’s most recent works are the Tape-estries, which are paintings, often of Buddhist bodhisattvas, made with perfectly cut and layered brushstrokes of masking tape. The exhibition also highlights two lesser-known bodies of work. In the Japanese American Concentration Camps series, Nagatani searches for the concrete details of his parents’ and grandparents’ experiences of incarceration in these camps. The Novellas are multimedia collaged vignettes addressing subjects like sex, relationships, and body image. Although the novellas are intriguing and cryptic, i would have liked more wall space dedicated to the pure brilliance of the Collaborations, of which only four appear, versus the twenty-odd Novellas. A retrospective allows viewers to trace themes throughout an artist’s entire oeuvre. Here, the
oF
unm art muSeum new mexico, albuquerque
most obvious theme is documentary versus fiction. The Collaborations’ mini-apocalypses are fiction, but their truth still cuts to the bone today. Nuclear Enchantment is a hybrid of documentary (shot at hotspots like the Trinity Site) and manipulation through suspended props, assemblage, and radioactive colors. The Excavations attempt to prove a fictional story through the fabrication of supporting details. Chromatherapy is a mockumentary about the health industry, while the Camps are straight documentary—a departure, but one that fits its somber subject matter. There’s also a thread of memoir about Nagatani’s Japanese-American identity. In his early works, he makes fun of Japanese tourists zealously taking Polaroid snapshots—but the scattering Polaroids depict mushroom clouds, referencing the tragic legacy of Hiroshima (Nagatani was born just thirteen days after the bombing). He searches for echoes of his family history in the concentration camps and explores his ancestral language through his alter ego, Ryoichi. The artist himself appears in a startling, courageous Chromatherapy portrait of his changed body following his bout with cancer. And Nagatani, who was raised Catholic, says that through the materials, process, and subject matter of the Tape-estries, he has come to embrace Zen Buddhism. Another theme is the role of the photographer and the photograph. Though he snaps the shutter, Nagatani often appears inside the photo, sometimes twice, watching himself be photographed. He surveys the scene of an H-Bomb accident, the shadow of his camera on his back, staring at a photograph within another photograph. Both the photographer and viewer are witnesses to a real-life government conspiracy. For Nagatani, each photograph is not just the clicking of the shutter, but the climax of a narrative arc. His work has the sculptural quality of installation, employing cutouts, painted props, and meticulously constructed miniatures as elements in elaborate dioramas. The Tape-estries are singular, dimensional handmade objects. Color plays an important role: In the early works, brilliant color symbolizes radioactive toxicity and evokes foreboding, whereas in Chromatherapy, diffused color serves as a literal agent of healing, referencing photography’s ability to heal. Only one element doesn’t seem to fit. Nuclear Enchantment began as a collaboration with the writer Joel Weishaus, and this show exhibits Weishaus’s prose poems. However, it’s apparent why this is only the second time the poems have made the curatorial cut. Unlike the photographs, they’re not fully realized works of art, and their idiom—a collision of obscure multisyllabic words requiring pages of explanatory paratext in the book—actually distracts from the photographs. Nagatani’s prints say far more in a spare and immediately accessible visual language. But that’s a minor complaint about an important show that photography lovers shouldn’t miss. Nagatani is an artist who reinvents himself with each new body of work, bringing fresh innovation to each new quest for magic.
—kristin BArendsen Patrick Nagatani, El Nadador/Nacimiento, Ilfocolor Deluxe print, 28” x 36”, 1993
| novemBer 2010
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and
diamondS
n his deepLy L refLeX Ly e ive and insightful catalogue eX essay for the Butler Institute of American Art’s 2002 retrospective, essay Ronald R onald Davis: Forty Years of Abstraction, artist Ronnie Landfield writes, w rites, “There is a strong Duchampian aspect to Davis’s work... [[which] which] relates to the only charm Duchamp has for me: his sense of humor.” Ideological quibbling aside, the essayist’s identification of a Duchampian strain in Davis’s paintings offers a productive filter through which to approach the continuing development of an art informed by rich but often willfully confounding visual and theoretical complexities. Jokes played pivotal roles in Duchamp’s extension of art’s ability to disrupt institutional conventions, expose power relations, embody displacement, and question its own definitions. Neither irresponsible nor gratuitous, his humor (lively in itself) effected a subversive social signification––a capacity that lies half hidden in every jest and at the heart of Ronald Davis’s own artistic practice. Much more than the sum of tricks of perception and visual punch lines that Davis shares with the penetrating oddness of the Op Art he at once references and reshapes, the key effects of the artist’s subtly nuanced abstract illusionism both embody and extend beyond the comic amusements resident in his powers of deception. All comedies exploit frustrated expectations––taboos tattered, errors exposited, stereotypes either fallen or fortified––and close the gaps between appearances and reality to galvanize the shock of recognition. As a state of exception, which violates determined norms of prescribed behavior, the joke holds forceful affinities and connections with both trompe l’oeil effects and abstract surfaces––two poles whose collisions inform and individuate Davis’s art. Every punch line identifies a deficit in perceptual acuity, revealing a position in which expectations yield to exceptional particulars. For its part, Davis’s illusionism operates via shifts in tonal values, capitalizing on art-historically scripted perspectival assumptions, to disguise flat expanses into bends, folds, slits, and swellings. In effect, he offers a shadow theater devoid of shadows. Crucially, that which remains after we have deconstructed the mechanics of these playful distortions is no less funhouseinflected: a field of indefinite limits, namely, the abstract. Like humor, abstract painting refuses the boundaries of standard behavior. Whereas representation enforces a fixed, often monocular, point of view from which we may engage the concepts it organizes, abstraction proves a realm of radicalized disorientation––an expression of form (which is an expression of ethics) corresponding to a social reality scrambled into chaos. Foregrounding our mobility and ontological uncertainties before the literal materiality of predominantly flat surfaces, the abstract ensconces us in liminality and fracture. At once a pictorial surface and tangible object, each of Davis’s paintings denies the possibility of projecting ourselves in the placeless places contained in its immaterial depths. Here, laughter shades into sorrow as we begin to perceive our inexorable autonomy from the province of an image that admits our vision only to perplex it. That an exhibition rife with sanguine colors and such simple shapes as its titular Squares and Diamonds could project such pathos is especially disarming. Beyond the works’ indeterminate position in the spectrum between illusion and abstraction, this quality owes largely to Davis’s embrace of chromatic dissonances of exceptional intensity. Suitably representative
| novemBer 2010
of the artist’s predisposition to contrasts of complements, in Red Bevel Square, yellow abuts green, and a scalene shard of blue wedges against an orange negative of itself. The exception to the rule: In Red and Violet Bent Corner Square, the artist demonstrates nuances as precise as his exploration of glaring tensions. Constructed entirely of red’s analogous color group, a skein of carmine appears to peel back––exposing a violet corner seeming to recede towards the wall––while a swatch of eggplant masquerades as the same red gathered upon itself in a dogeared fold. In Davis’s art, compelling misconceptions can be triggered with an astounding economy of means. But it is not his color alone that contributes emotional discomfort. Renowned for his exploration of the latent artistic possibilities of unorthodox materials, Davis’s use of acrylic on expanded PVC triggers the sadness of plastic’s shopworn ubiquity. In his 1957 essay “Plastic,” Roland Barthes laments that the material retains “a floculent appearance, something opaque, creamy and curdled, something powerless ever to achieve the triumphant smoothness of nature.” Clearly, choice of ground effects a decisive impact on the attributes of the colors that overlie it; as Barthes proposes, “of yellow, red and green, [plastic] keeps only the aggressive quality, and uses them as mere names, being able to display only the concepts of colors.” This derealization of chromatic experience is a chief contributor to
charlotte JackSon Fine art 554 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe the surreal distantiation that manifests one of the most unnerving and unusual optical characteristics of Davis’s art. In other hands, squares and diamonds often suggest a tired repetition of Modernist tropes. Even Malevich’s Black Square, which once iconized Modernism’s break with traditions of representation, registers today as little more than a dim memorial to utopian yearnings. Transcending the well-trodden history of minimalist formats, Davis may make self-aware nods to the past in such pieces as Black Diamond, but as the work’s title suggests, he also turns such references on their side. The painting’s seemingly innocuous pastel palette (fuchsia, redwood, light coral, and lavender) implies depth of field, mimics the effects of directional lighting, and warps the sense of symmetry supplied by its support. Upending blackness as a universal experience, Davis employs color to underscore the particularity of each and every encounter with the non-color. Here, his extreme defamiliarization of one of the twentieth century’s most emblematic and iconoclastic artistic gestures proves that “the zero point of painting” can be repurposed to further, and perhaps wilder, aims. Davis’s re-motivation of Modernist tropes towards representational ends may strike one as laughably absurd, but it proves Landfield right. Duchamp would be proud.
—ALeeX X ross
Ronald Davis, Black Diamond, acrylic on expanded PVC, 335/ 8 ” x 335/ 8 ” x 3”, 2010.
the magazine | 51
g
patrick mcFarlin: obituarieS & (mini) maSterpieceS Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter cannot draw. But one who draws well can always paint. —Arshile Gorky
gorky’s words illuminate Patrick McFarlin’s current
and gestural lines, so it is unexpected to see him tame them with a straight edge. Yet this treatment adds a structure to frame and enhance the features of a face. For example, the portrait of Mario Merz, a central figure in the Arte Povera movement, is a masterful construction of straight and curvilinear lines. The diagonal poché of the background meets the hexagonal contour of the face where hard-edged lines delineate the angularity from forehead to chin. Angles abound, defining the eyebrows and facial creases. Merz’s hair sweeps around his face in nested gestures that appear to be drawn with ship’s curves. A tiny tiny, dark rectangle below the left eye and a triangle below the right add planes to the face. The architectural quality of this portrait is in keeping with the character of Merz’s oeuvre of dome-shaped “igloo” structures, as well as works inspired by Fibonacci numbers and geometry. Patterns abound in the portrait of Bruce Conner. A field of amoeba-like contours, filled with horizontal lines, seems to float across the background. These irregular shapes, along with a tight scattering of dots on Conner’s sportcoat, create an optical effect very similar to the intermittent black frames in his 1966 visionary dance film Breakaway. Fred Sandback’s “obituary box” seems to be made of the strings and wires he used in his work. And Ibram Lassau’s image is surrounded by a lattice of lines reminiscent of his sculpture. McFarlin has written words on the outside of Larry Rivers’ “obituary box” and connected them to features of the face: JAZZY LOCKS, WICKED BROWS, BI-SEXUAL MOUTH, HOOKED NOSE and BIG BRAIN BOX. All letters are in caps— another nod to architectural drawing. McFarlin draws Rivers leaning forward, gazing out over his shoulder, a witty reminder of the iconography of Hollywood heartthrobs James Dean and Humphrey Bogart.
Like Rivers, Francis Bacon is portrayed with a background that has not been drawn with poché lines. Bacon’s box is filled with loosely scribbled, multi-directional gestures of varied tones and weights. Upward wisps of the artist’s hair forcefully break through the top of his box, suggesting a tortured yet irreverent free spirit. Bacon’s eyes penetrate with curiosity, fear, and sensual defiance. If the eyes are the windows of the soul, McFarlin opens the shutters, pulls the curtains, and lifts the shades in each portrait. Many of the drawings are paired with mini masterpieces. The artist writes, “Eventually an old idea connected itself to the drawings—the idea of representing existing iconic paintings. Taking a composition and condensing it. Distilling it. Reworking it. Covering it, the way a musician plays and interprets a score. Like singing that old well-written tune.” No doubt about it, McFarlin has potently captured the techniques, color sensibilities, and moods of works by Bacon, Rivers, Joan Mitchell, Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, Richard Pousette-Dart, Roy Lichtenstein, Theodoros Stamos, and Alan Kaprow. But because the images are compressed, I miss the raw power, fluency, and scale of the originals. Don’t get me wrong. I admire McFarlin’s versatility and unsurpassed ability to portray these paintings, and I know that they are symbolic tributes. But I can’t help longing for the ecstatic feeling that comes from the intimacy of entering a larger work—being inside the loose three-dimensional urgency and visceral discomfort of a Bacon, or surrounded by the tactile gestures, expressive textures, and edibility of paint that Diebenkorn and de Kooning evoke. I feel that the mini masterpieces of Mitchell, Motherwell, Pousette-Dart, and Stamos fare far better, perhaps because the subject matter is less obvious or recognizable. Here, McFarlin’s power with paint finds the expressive musicality and strong voice of these great works.
—sUsAnnA cArLisLe
Patrick McFarlin, Robert Motherwell 1915-1991,, 14” x 11”, graphite on paper, 2010
exhibition, Obituaries and (mini) Masterpieces, Masterpieces at Launch Projects. McFarlin’s drawings of deceased artists and miniature paintings representative of their works are tours de force of sensitivity, intuition, and skill, revealing his gifts as a draftsman and painter. Every summer, Art in America’s annual guide to galleries, museums, and artists includes an obituary page. A one-and-ahalf-inch-square photograph of a prominent person in the art world who died during the year is displayed with a one-sentence blurb about his or her accomplishments. The page is filled with the twenty “chosen ones,” lined up in a five by four grid. As McFarlin was reflecting on these minimized, “lite tributes,” a door to a new body of work swung open. “These ghosts came into my studio—why not give them some kind of respect?” McFarlin’s portraits embody what Thomas Eakins called “an uncompromising search for the unique human being.” Thirty-six drawings—the majority on 14” x 11” Bristol Board—display McFarlin’s ingenuity and versatility with graphite. Every portrait is uniquely rendered, yet there is an architectural sensibility to many, giving them a graphic context. Most are contained in a rectangular format—an “obituary box” a la Art in America. Backgrounds, as well as clothing, are often drawn with poché—many straight lines, parallel to one another— acknowledging a Beaux Arts technique used to modulate form and space. McFarlin is known for his liberated, fluid, multi-textural,
launch proJ ro ectS ect 355 eaSt palace avenue, Santa Fe
Patrick McFarlin, Interpretation of Motherwell's Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34, 1953-54, 14” x 11”, oil on paper, 2010
Patrick McFarlin, Interpretation of Motherwell's, Open No. 80, 1969, 14” x 11”, oil on paper, 2010 P
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
t
pereGrine honiG: loSer It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.
t
he fieLd of metA met phors for Peregrine Honig’s exhibition Loser, coming immediately as it does on the heels of her participation in the reality TV show Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, is so ripe for the plucking that it fairly defies focus. Yet focus she did, this hardworking and deeply intelligent artist, and the exhibition is just about as close to perfect as any I’ve seen in a long while. It’s all those pesky layers of meaning that make it seem so messy, so stomachchurning even, like her drawings of men and women, or boys and girls, caught in mid-barf, which make up one fourth of the show. Not coincidentally, the Puker series was begun while Honig was still on Work of Art, and reflects—among other things—the fact that making art is not the effortlessly glamorous purview of the talented few that so many presume it to be. Looking at the drawings, eight smallish images with everything but the kitchen sink transformed via collage into vomit, is nearly enough to induce vigorous peristaltic waves in the viewer. Despite the seemingly fanciful nature of Honig’s draftsmanship, it nevertheless rings uncannily true—true enough for my innards, anyway. Still, in a defining characteristic of her work, no matter how “disgusting” (her word) the subject matter, there is an element of innocence to the pukers; after all, sometimes you just have to heave. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock since last spring, Honig came in second on Work of Art—and she bears nary a jot of resentment about missing out on first place. Not winning allowed the artist the freedom to step back from the televised experience of producing work quickly—“hand to brain,” as she put it—and under constant surveillance; she returned, with a heightened wisdom, to her usual working methods, which incorporate documentation and devotion. In a Zen koan-like moment, Honig won the real prize the moment she was crowned a “loser” in front of millions of television viewers: a warp in time and space, rarely granted us mortals, in which to reinvent herself with the clarity of divine vision. There is a strong sense that Honig has been, almost sacrificially, consumed and regurgitated—but like Nebuchadnezzar’s three young men in the furnace, not a hair on her head was singed. Fire as a transformative element is a theme here: One of the more striking elements of the exhibition consisted of a half-dozen natural beeswax frames, cast from a thrift-store find. All volutes and arabesques, the faux-rococo frames are small for art, but just the right size for a photograph, or perhaps a looking glass. Yet their interior spaces are empty, revealing nothing but a candle wick at the bottom of each frame, suggesting the danger and seduction of flame. Could we purify our reflected selves upon a pyre, leaving behind a smudge of ash? If the frame is a mirror of sorts, we are the reflected emptiness that activates the space. Adding to the sweet smell of beeswax in the gallery are the bayberry castings of Marwal chalkware busts of young boys, a series titled Beautiful Boys. Left bare (normally they are garishly painted as Polynesian children—as creepily mundane as Hummel figurines), the heads are ambiguously asexual, like dolls’. The wax’s fragility and the purity of the boys’ expressions belie their power as exotic and erotic objects; who collects these things, anyway? And what part of their psyches are they subverting? These boys are as
dwiGht hackett proJ ro ectS ect 2879 all tradeS road, Santa Fe innocent, frankly, as a molested altar boy—blameless, they nonetheless stand as dark trophies of our collective and individual transgressions. If, as Honig quotes critic and fellow reality-TV star Jerry Salz, “Art is the ability to imbue material with thought,” Honig mines her meanings all the way to the core of the earth. The wax frames play with seduction; these figures insist upon it, twisting us into pedophiles of the worst sort—the kind who legislate others’ morality while maiming their victims with impunity, all while professing their own virtue. The tension between disgust and innocence, Honig’s real subject, is implacable here. Less successful was the last quarter of the exhibition, a series of drawings about the phenomenon of “anchor babies.” As hygienic as air-brushed pornography, young women with
tan lines and pink nipples give birth minus blood, shit, or even the pain of labor. Their would-be terrorist babies are born without lanugo or any other evidence of their humanity; through them we are denied our own. The blankness of these creatures—the infants and their mommies—tells us something about the near impossibility of looking below the surface of inane stereotyping. Perhaps the sheer absurdity of the notion of offspring being raised to explode their own worlds cannot translate as anything but weird fantasy; that absurdity eliminates a great deal of the disgust/surprise element so essential to Honig’s work. Especially when the drawings are not really of women giving birth, but of porn stars with—Surprise!—something between their legs.
—k kAthryn Athryn m dAvis A
Peregrine Honig, First Flame, natural beeswax, 20¼” x 14¼” x 2½”, 2010.
| novemBer 2010
Photo: EG Schempf
the magazine | 53
rik allen
p
blue rain GallerY 130 lincoln avenue, Santa Fe
“Here am I floating ‘round my tin can, Far above the world Planet Earth is blue And there’s nothing I can do —David Bowie, “Space Oddity”
p
e
,
eopLe of Arth you have been invaded, courtesy of the Blue Rain Gallery, by the high-flying, sci-fi wonder-works of glass sculptor Rik Allen. You are hereby commanded to stand in awe and astonishment and have your jocular membrane probed, prodded, and poked into a state of utter bemusement. Failure to comply with this directive will undoubtedly result in your continuing to take art and existence far too seriously. In a galaxy far, far away from Santa Fe (commonly known as the Washington State nebula) sculptor Rik Allen launches his careful spacecraft and cosmically comic constructions of blown glass and cast metal. The predominant forms are cigarshaped rocket ships and bulbous flying saucer–type vessels well equipped with fins and tailpipes via early-twentiethcentury cartoon depictions. More Futurama than futurist, all would comfortably house Bugs Bunny’s little Martian nemesis, and the style might best be described with the paradoxical moniker “retro-futuristic.” The craft of each craft is meticulous but not exactly modernist-minimalist clean. Allen blows the forms in molten glass and fuses silver leaf onto their surfaces. Almost all contain brilliant bubble windshields and/or semitransparent domed observatories. Elaborate appendages in the form of fuselages and spindly retractable legs are cast in various metals and joined to the glass capsules. The cracks and crevices seem tarnished with the residue of many light years of interstellar sojourns. Now they have come to rest, suggesting insectoid entities and alien robots, implying the idea of the body itself as intergalactic mobile home for the imaginative space wanderer. Perhaps even more profound in this regard are the observation station–type modules, which consist of larger force fields of thick uninterrupted glass often housing a single tiny humanoid seating unit, or chair. The use of a decidedly Seussian scale recalls local artist Thomas Ashcraft, of Heliotown renown, and makes the overall works more monumental in contrast to the miniscule places to sit. Ocularious Otonaut is equipped with a complex telescopic apparatus that is ultimately aimed at examining the art-oriented act of looking itself. Allen’s work relies greatly upon a sense of interiority, and here the very seat of the inner imaginative self is wrought as a three-dimensional, metaphorical model. The idea of our blue planet as space station, whizzing around the sun, is as inevitable as it is apt. Indeed, Allen’s major metaphor is that we are all cosmic travelers dreaming our way across constellations, zipping this way and that, sometimes in flight and sometimes stationary, carefully watching as the universe unfolds around us. One wonders why more of these pieces aren’t actually suspended. In fact, Allen comes across as an already accomplished artist at the beginning of a fascinating journey with a universe of alternate aesthetic worlds still begging for exploration. His ability to skillfully combine a variety of materials and techniques into inspired wholes explodes like a supernova of possibilities.
Through Allen’s masterful toymaking you, too, are given the opportunity to become the imagineer of your own destiny and to trace your own infinite path and place across time and space. How exactly will you pilot your pod? Will you overwhelm yourself with the time warp of nostalgia for the futures you’ve never had? Or will you arrive again and again at a past that comes to dominate your every orbit? Upon what world do you focus your ocular attentions? What places will you leave unexplored
and what is the shape of the space of your final frontier? Will our blue world get greener or will we let the giant and destructive robots run amok? People of Earth, prepare to be abducted by Rik Allen’s whimsical and highly unique glassworks. They amuse and amaze and then gently ask big questions. Who are you? Where do you come from? Where are you going? And how long will you stay?
—Jon cArver
Rik Allen, Ocularious Otonaut, blown glass, silver, mixed metals 36” x 14” x 14”, 2010
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
t
a rti S t p er SpectiveS the
originAL origin
G erald p eterS G allerY 1011 p aSeo de p eralta , S anta F e
s AntA nt ntA f e t rAiL
was a legendary route for trading goods, including arts and crafts, gold, silver, and turquoise. The view from the trail, although beautiful, was limited by the hills and canyons that surrounded the traveler. However, you could get an entirely different perspective if you climbed to the peak of nearby mountains, where you could not only see what was coming but also get a remarkable perspective for miles and miles that was filled with intrigue, excitement, and awe-inspiring beauty. The lesson learned is that perspective is everything. The exhibition titled Artist Perspectives follows a local tradition of examining viewpoints and the manipulation of various materials from different personal perspectives. In what was likely the biggest and most exciting opening of the year, a packed house consisting of local artists and collectors and an amazing group of prominent artists from Los Angeles and New York City descended upon Santa Fe to generate an unusual energy, not often seen here. Donald Sultan was on hand to sign his latest book, which weighs about ten pounds and is as impressive as his grand-scale abstract deductions of flowers and fruit. Curated by Peter Marcelle, this group exhibition gathered together a variety of perspectives from the artist’s point of view, celebrating inventiveness combined with a recognizable individual style. A good cross section of local talent shared the walls with art-history heroes like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander Calder, Wayne Thiebaud, and Damien Hirst. Among those artists who live in the Santa Fe area were Christopher Benson, whose painting of a kitchen, Tiverton Interior, has a magical quality, and may have taken a cue from the Diebenkorn that was hanging nearby. Raphaelle Goethals’ Dust Stories might have been “kicked up” from a local corral, but also made a remarkable background for the Robert Graham installation of marvelous small-scale figures for which the late artist was famous. Darren Vigil Gray’s hauntingly beautiful portrait, Ancient One, was a small gem, along with Karen Kitchel’s masterful close-up studies of flowing grass. Carol Mothner’s photorealist portrait of a young girl, Attitude, Elizabeth, Age 16, was stunning, as was Michael Scott’s I Want to Be a Cowgirl, which added some classy humor with an image of a flying dog that would make Salvador Dalí jealous. Paul Pascarella’s massive three-paneled work, Winter Solstice, tipped its hat to Pollock and Cleve Gray, and David Solomon’s organic forms on aluminum rounded out the great showing of these talented Santa Fe artists. Celebrated sculptor Deborah Butterfield led the stable of artists with a magnificent sculpture of a resting horse created from recycled yellow metal
fragments. Nature was the inspiration for a number of paintings such as Doris Downes’s purple, flowering plants, that seemed to have sprouted from an alien seedpod. Dan Rizzie’s deco-flavored fragments. composition of abstracted plant forms provided a handsome partner to Kryn Olson’s Generations, a combination of a two-dimensional Calder hanging shape as a base to support large colorful leaves. Christopher Armstrong’s Carousel offered a meditative seascape with a vanishing line that honors the natural beauty of the sea. Two hyperrealist works by Marc Sijan, Security Guard and Brief Peek, were appreciated as triumphant illusions. Andy Warhol was represented with a classic portrait, an iconic soup can, and Andy Warhol’s Living Room, New York House 1987, an altered photographic interior
of Warhol’s uptown brownstone—including the Pop artist posthumously seated in a chair—by David Gamble. Michele Francis offered a triptych that felt like it was lifted from an urban scene that is both flat and spacious at the same time. Eric Ernst’s Look Into the Air spun with a circular motion, portraying a futuristic stained glass window into the future. Those Hours After Church, by Edward Holland, combined collage elements with paint, producing a charming yet simple composition that substituted as a visual short story. Other artists represented in the exhibition include Carol Anthony, Erik Babcock, Gregory Botts, Michael Glier, Dennis Leri, Gwynn Murrill, Albert Paley, David Slater, and David Solomon.
—B rUce h eLAnder
Christopher Benson, Tiverton Interior, oil on canvas, 74” x 60”, 2010
| novemBer 2010
the magazine | 55
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f
david Solomon 703 camino
de la
JaY etkin GallerY Familia, Santa Fe
for neArLy L A decAde, David Solomon has been assimilating Ly
the fresh air, extraordinary light, and magical visual spirit of Santa Fe. He has meticulously mixed these inspirational components together, producing remarkably simple and well-balanced works which seem to celebrate his unique style and sensibility for organic shapes that are locked together within rhythmic and often colorful compositions. Solomon has sharpened his vision and made a name for himself around town by organizing exhibitions—under the name BANG! and featuring local contemporary artists—that have wide appeal. His own shows have also been well received. Working daily in his studio near SITE Santa Fe, the artist continues to explore a predilection for positioning “dancing” forms in space. His work explores the boundaries of abstract minimal shapes that seem to interact with each other like old friends. In most cases, the objects depicted take a cue from biomorphic floating shapes which might be discovered deep within the ocean. Solomon nets these drifting, irregular outlines from memory, where he later displays and manipulates his “catch” on the surface of his canvases. The simple ingenuity of Miró, Matisse, and even Motherwell is evident here. Splendid works like Untitled (11 ¼” x 9¼”) reflect his natural skill for depicting non-narrative shapes that have a distinct relationship to each other. In other works, such as Untitled (30” x 22”), the artist produces an almost calligraphic ink painting on paper that is reminiscent of a spinning top whose equilibrium manages to stay in place although it is tilted like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This is a show that brings out the best of an artist who has ingeniously gathered together the best portions of his visual inventory, often from memory, to create works that speak softly while holding a big stick.
—BrUce heLAnder
f
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
connectionS and Scuba & Sean for
545 camino
de la
Santa Fe claY Familia, Santa Fe
’
those of yoU who hAven A Aven t been to the ten-thousand-square-foot warehouse that is Santa Fe Clay, well, you’re missing out on one of the more exciting and successful projects in an increasingly formulaic and complacent city. In October, the gallery featured a show by three functional ceramic artists and three illustrators. Two of the illustrators, Sandra Wang and Crockett Bodelson, work under the moniker of Scuba, and their imaginative little paintings, while vast in scope, are neither deep in feeling nor authoritative in intensity, but kids seem to like them. While I was looking at their work a small group of 12-year-olds appeared, each of whom was thrilled by the random subject matter and exuberant colors. Harmless, decent, and derivative, this work is reminiscent of the exotic souvenir paintings one finds in distant resort markets, where the locals produce whimsical and affordable kitsch. The other illustrator on display is Sean Di Ianni, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, who produces creatively drawn oddities of disconnected images, each of which is curiously intense but visually inert. This is simulated savagery at its best, what Baudrillard would have referred to as a “vertigo of interpretation.” Having said all that, the work of these illustrators is both affordable and portable, and the public seemed to respond quite favorably. Dubious popular art comes and goes, but ceramic kitchenware is eternal. Of the three functional potters on display, the work of Ingrid Bathe vaguely recalls the quality of wabi—that sensation of beauty and imperfection. Simple, lined forms with muted glazed finishes of blue or an afterimage of blue work together in a minimal and serviceable aesthetic. Also on display here is the elegant and sensual pottery of Deborah Schwartzkopf, whose mid-range firing temperatures produce a surface quality and color tone that reminds one of a much friendlier world, far from the calamities of history. Hiroe Hanazono completes the trifecta, a magician of condiment dishes and spoons, bud vase sets that rise and fall in waves, and other fanciful creations like tumblers and Zori platters that would be right at home at Asiate overlooking Central Park. In the back room of Santa Fe Clay is a wall of shelving that holds hundreds of sculpted objects from previous exhibitions. Browsing through them, I was reminded of the quest for the “Unaccountable Object”—that thread in anti-Modernist art that has long challenged the tradition of the purely aesthetic account. The Unaccountable Object is “something” about which one can think of little or nothing to say, though its presence usually fascinates the viewer. Duchamp’s readymades, with their added puns, involved surprising recombinations and repositionings of everyday objects and materials, mundane products that confounded the cognitive faculty and turned the traditional medium of art on its head. Oddly, though, it is in the realm of ceramics, still quaintly removed from high art and relegated to the category of craft, that these inscrutable objects are being produced. As opposed to the fine art tendency to threaten or shock, the ceramicist is more apt to surprise the viewer with a minimum of scandal and hype. A quick visit to Santa Fe Clay is a reminder that some of the best art in Santa Fe isn’t hanging on walls in the splashy super-galleries. It’s the stuff relegated to “craft” found at galleries like Touching Stone, Tai Gallery, Blue Rain, and Santa Fe Clay, where the work isn’t just the stuff of art history, but of things reinvented. —Anthony hAssett
David Solomon, Untitled, ink and gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2010
| novemBer 2010
Hiroe Hanazono, Wave Chopstick Rest/Bud Vase, 1” x 3” x 1” each, 2010
the magazine | 57
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www.splitestate.com p h o t o G r a p h e d i n s a n ta f e , o C t o B e r
| novemBer 2010
2010, B y J e n n i f e r e s p e r a n z a THE
MAGAZINE
| 59
MARK Z. MIGDALSKI, D.D.S. GENERAL AND COSMETIC DENTISTRY “DEDICATED TO PREVENTION, SERVICE & EXCELLENCE”
g in ud a l h y nc , i Muk ver s t e . er ho se) OW e xp Ad o N e p th r. by oing og the is e d d l n w m d i to at ard e , no roo n m h e t nw ce OW al g e, be e Toll dow pla e N on v ( a s rs h t I h kar ay n t pe na E asa alw m i my ill t I a for an Sv ay w tha ad d w he No to e tim
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A R C H I T E C T U R A L D E TA I L S
Yucca/Rock/Petroglyph at Alamo Mountain photograph by Joan | november 2010
Zalenski THE magazine | 61
WRITINGS
history of another courtesy By
andrea l. watson
the finest kivas are always built by women -pedro romero
little knock at my door 3 goddesses at the fall of the year at the turn of the day 3 lunch pails 3 trowels triple flame coming and going enter lupe eugenia marú always the alabaster overalls arms runelled with lime + wash now dark heads together conjuring shape of kiva as mayan prayer: narrow like xilonen young corn mother or womb of tonantsin fertile + wide chantico guardian of the old ways 6 hands measuring 3 mouths’ laughter firebox surround luminous chamber where smolder will live and for the arch my hands with theirs exactly as I wish firelight fashioned from white diamonds of finish then tales with solder tinder with smoke the world endless as our lives through long winter of myths: little knock at my door 3 goddess gifts at return of the year at fall of holy day handplastered tamales bundled sage painted lizard to 3x bless my hearth.
62 | the magazine
| novemBer 2010
Michele Mikesell
Susan Sales
Fatima, 2010, Oil on board, 48 x 24 inches
An Exquisite Croc, 2010, Mixed media on canvas, 58 x 24 inches
October 22 November 20
Mix & Match:
Holiday Group Show
November 26 - December 31
Tim Jag
Colornova-Red Atomic, 2010, acrylic on panel, 48 x 60 inches
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