VIEWPOINT: ABSTRACT MINIMALISM IN TAOS, NEW MEXICO
The Taos Abstract Artist Collective posed a question, “how do Taos artists define minimalism in 2023?” The thirteen Taos-based artists selected for this juried exhibition have set their own unique parameters in minimalist abstraction in response to the backdrop of our maximalist society. The diverse work featured demonstrates an expansive viewpoint across artistic disciplines and focuses on material choice and connection to place.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT:
Minimalism is not a lot of everything, but it can be a lot of one thing. You can get there fast or slow. It is a removal of excess, everything located within the work itself. The material is itself.
The works in this exhibition respond to the question of minimalism through an exploration of material and an awareness of place. The artists are engaging with:
baling twine
pollen
wind
fog
stone
clay
tall-tumble-mustard plant
thunderstorms
film
wood ink
sun paper
plaster
cardboard
snow
sound steel
and the digital space.
A print is taken from light through snow, a sound piece is compiled from wind and movements of fog, drifting pollen is captured on canvas, celestial patterns are reflected in plant matter, and a garment is formed from twine. The varied practices represented in this exhibition, and the dialogue between the artist and their material, speak to the abstract ways we process our environment.
Curator Hilary Nelson, MFA
Hilary Nelson received her MFA from the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History. She has had recent solo and group exhibitions at The Class of 1925 Gallery at The University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI), Public Space One (Iowa City, IA), Collar Works (Troy, NY), Underground Flower & Rhizome Parking Garage (online), GHOST (online), and The Every Woman Biennial (Los Angeles, CA).
In 2019 she was a resident at Yaddo and a resident and recipient of an artist grant at The Vermont Studio Center. Also in 2019, Nelson was given access to the collections at The Museum of International Folk Art (Santa Fe, NM) for extended research. From 2018-2021 she was Gallery Director and Curator for The Times Club Gallery in Prairie Lights Bookstore (Iowa City, IA).
In 2022 Nelson was an artist in residence at La Wayaka Current Desert 23º (Atacama Desert, Chile), and in 2023 she will be an artist in residence at Buinho Residency (Messejana, Portugal). Also in 2023 she will have a solo show at Public Space One (Iowa City, IA) and be included in a group show at SOIL (Seattle, WA). Nelson is an Assistant Professor at Maharishi International University.
Hilary Nelson
And you make it happen
2017, Sawdust paste, spray foam, glue sticks, and PVC pipe, 60” x 24” x 12”
3653
2020, tall-tumble-mustard plant (sisymbrium altissimum), 72” x 72” x 6”
c marquez
Josh Tafoya
Ranchero la Bruja
2022, Baling twine, 7’ x 50” x 6’, Seen here on Fen Root
Josh Tafoya
Bruja 2022, Baling twine, 20” x 150”, Seen here on Leah Rose
Desiree Allen
Sky Fold
2023, Acrylic on stretched canvas with recycled cardboard, 10” x 8” x 1.5”
Pod
Sarah Rosie Rosenthal
2019, Yule Marble, 24” x 14” x 14”
Matthew Thomas
017
WHITE
2023, Reclaimed paperboard, acrylic paint, on wood panel, 24” x 24” x .5”
2023, Lumen print of light buried beneath snowfall for eight days on photographic paper, 11” x 8.5”
Montanna Binder
Snow Series - #5
1998-2022, Mixed media: slate, stainless steel, metallic paint, 36” x 36” x 2”
Paula Verona Emergence
2022, tall-tumble-mustard plant (sisymbrium altissimum), 40” x 40” x 4”
c marquez 1457
Nancy Kirk
Breath
2022, Painted wood assemblage, 8” x 11” x 24”
Jackie Kolbenschlag
Swell I, II, III
2022, Photographs on backlit film, 18” x 27” x 3”
Salma Vir-Banks The Medicine Person Needs Medicine 2023, Digital painting, 30” x 40”
Sarah Rosie Rosenthal
Stack
2022, Yule Marble, basalt, sandstone, 9” x 10.5” x 14.5”
Dora Dillistone
Blowing in the Wind
2022, Piñon pollen driven by wind on canvas, 20” x 20” x 1.5”
Dora Dillistone
Heartbeat 2022, Ink on DuraClear, 28” x 24” x 1”
Anna Bush Crews
Bounce
2022, Raku fired (top), unglazed cone 6 fired obsidian clay (bottom), 22.5” x 5.5” x 5”
a gentle passing, 2020, sound installation, duration 2:45 min carpe ventum, 2020, sound installation, duration 1:56 min robot carnival, 2022, sound installation, duration 2:13 min
Taylor Janell Field
please scan QR codes to listen
ARTIST STATEMENTS
Desiree Allen
Experimenting with different mediums led to a technique in which I combine sculpture with painting on canvas. I utilize nontraditional materials like recycled cardboard to create 3 dimensional paintings that are strange and unique but somehow familiar, because they are often inspired by nature.
I’m especially inspired by the very tiny and the very large, because things appear strangely similar at these scales. The patterns of things like atoms, water crystals, mold, and mycelium, resemble the patterns of landscapes, ocean currents, and galaxies. Nature is saying something and I’m trying to translate just a small fraction of that grand message, however unspeakable it may be.
Montanna Binder
In the Sangre de Cristo montañas of Taos, I buried photographic paper beneath snowfall for eight days, crushed between layers of snow and ice, to capture a memory of light in its most minimal form.
I have yet to get the light of snow out of my mind since I was a child, when it was my safest of places. I would lay on my back tucked warmly in layers of clothes for hours at a time, wondering if anyone would come looking for me, staring up into a blank white sky. I would quiet my breath to the sound of the snow, becoming as still as possible, eyes wide open to the light above. No other thoughts would enter my mind, except this moment, now, with just me and the softness of this bright white light.
Can I capture this memory I feel through light? What does it look like today, as I and the world have grown older? Each photograph, placed uniquely amongst the others, reveals its own transformation that occurred while buried beneath such light.
Anna Bush Crews
The top part of the sculpture is Raku fired and the lower part is cone 6 fired obsidian clay, not glazed. It is in two parts, and they came together in a way many things happen in my work, not predetermined but of the moment. The two parts were made with many months in between, waiting to find their place together and surprise me.
Ceramic sculpture became part of my art practice when I returned to live in Taos, after a 50 year gap, though some visiting of family in Taos during those years. My early years in Taos included collecting pot shards between Ranchos and Taos, all thrown back into the landscape when my parents left Taos for a time.
Objects that have led to my sculptural work were part of earning a living in the UK, buying in auctions and selling things in markets, learning and relating to another culture, having objects pass through my hands that told of the past and the material culture of Britain.
The landscape of Taos drew me back “home”, and much of my ceramic sculpture relates to the landscape and its process of change, like the processes of working with clay. The idea that all is illusion and in transition and surprise at what can come up through
various means ties my ceramic sculpture to my photographic work. One part is added to another until it works together, becoming a new entity. “There is nothing in things as they are that requires or explains their persistence as themselves in the next moment” Marilyn Robinson, NYRB online interview about Dec 25, 2022 article.
Dora Dillistone
I am reluctant to categorize or compartmentalize the work that I am currently making. However it is usually derived from an original concept that requires a variety of unusual materials to manifest the idea. It crosses over between Post-Minimalism and Post-Conceptualism. Non-traditional materials such as dirt, pollen and wind generate images that are spontaneous and ephemera as well as totally unique and cannot be repeated. The journey from idea to image is the actual art and the remains are captured to memorialize the process. The end work refers to the elements and to the fragility of the land we live in. The philosophy behind the work is based in Asian theories of process.
Taylor Janell Field
These pieces are inspired by fog, sunshine, wind, and thunderstorms. I am inspired by the intangibles in the world about us; systems that shift and affect us for brief bits of time. I call these pieces sounds more than songs, they are simple articulations of movements in space.
Nancy Kirk
Ancestors speak
Through veils of gibberish
In the waking world, Falling on deaf ears. Clarity of breath
Is the way.
Jackie Kolbenschlag
With the layers gone, what are you left with?
What fulfills your core and only your core?
Is it identifiable or a feeling or emotion?
Stripping away the layers. Exposing the core. Free of excess decoration. Taking away of everything that is not needed. What IS needed? To live and expand your pure essence. Freedom from the idea of things. Minimalism in creative expression brings thought, emotion for me. It is not literal and may not be interpreted at all. This can be wildly different for each viewer. For me, Swell brings about a feeling, a meditation and stillness.
c marquez
Living barely on grid in northern New Mexico, my 3D biotic, grid installations are informed by cellular, landform and celestial patterns. Using raw, natural, site-relevant materials, i employ processes of deterioration, weathering, and intricate handwork to develop the work over time, but the works are inherently impermanent, attached with only tension and gravity. (no glue, wire, etc.) They are an integration of my experience and surroundings into the work, and the work into the environment, as lightly and sensually as possible. The only intentional residues of my work are beauty and emotion.
Construction materials are derived from one plant, specific to the land on which i live: tall-tumble-mustard. Material tones are made by weathering, charring and burnishing the tall tumble mustard plant parts. The pigments used in my sketchbook are plant material, coffee remnants and wood-stove charcoal. In both my sculptural and sketchbook practices, i chronicle visual and sensual expressions of my engagement with physical, intellectual and emotional surroundings. This work is grounded in continuous research and supported by detailed documentation of my process. The intention of this work is to honor vulnerability, impermanence and cycles of life on our planet.
Sarah Rosie Rosenthal
The practice is a whirlpool
An infinitely wide mouth of inspiration funnels to a point
The sculpture is the crystalline crust of minerals deposited and left to dry
Josh Tafoya
A textile artist born and raised in Taos, NM, Tafoya works within the concepts of his heritage and furthering traditional craft. His work focuses on the concepts of art and the body. Using his knowledge of textiles, constriction, and illustration to translate concepts of culture, heritage, and the ideas of modern tribalism.
In 2020 he resettled back to New Mexico which led him to reflect on his home, and its rich textile history. Coming from a Ranching grandfather and a Weaving grandmother, brought him full circle bringing his knowledge in Fashion into traditional Spanish loom weaving. Exploring old and new techniques into his weaving’s and garment, each taking ideas from the other influencing the process. Keeping old traditions alive, and furthering a continuing conversation of New Mexican heritage and craft.
Matthew Thomas
I am an interdisciplinary artist balancing parallel practices in art, curation, community organizing, social practice, as well as architecture & urban design. I explore natural and manufactured systems and patterns of the built socio/cultural environment.
Paula Verona
I have always been drawn to the truth and simplicity in the hard edges and geometry of the Minimalist period. Their use of a range of industrial materials, simple forms and shapes, precise lines, limited palette and often use of commercial materials greatly appealed to me.
My work has always been in keeping with this minimalist aesthetic. I make use of geometry and architectonic forms, often incorporating found objects in the work.
The piece that was selected for the Viewpoint show is from an earlier period. I enjoyed combining found objects with industrial materials to create interesting compositions. I reworked this piece from a piece I made in the late 90’s. I used slate reclaimed from old roofing tiles, combining these “found objects” with stainless steel, masonry nails and metallic paint, creating a piece in homage to Frank Stella’s pinstripe paintings.
Salma Vir-Banks
As an interdisciplinary and intermodal artist, there are various avenues and modalities through which I can express my core desires as a creator. My work is always a celebration of synthesis as well as rebirth and redemption. As a Black American, my work aims to reclaim what is sacred for Black American culture – one of the most appropriated and exported cultures of our time. And as a 2nd generation East Indian, I am constantly faced with the remnants of colonialism and all the ways we (as South Asians) cling to and reject its omnipresence.
My visual two-dimensional work often takes the form of surreal and expressionist archetypal portraiture, where vibrant colors, street art, mythology, South Asian motifs, and Black American iconography form gracious and vivacious intersections. My most recent work explores the art/creative process as ritual for BIPOC healing and regeneration. These works are deeply informed by my own ongoing recovery from substance abuse, disordered eating, and trauma - both personal and intergenerational. In addition to visual and conceptual art I also create and design jewelry, dance, and tattoo as forms of creative language. All my creative avenues intersect to encourage personal and intergenerational change. For me, creation and healing are never separate.
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