THE magazine - February - March 2013 Issue

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Santa Fe’s Monthly

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of and for the Arts • February/March 2013


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5 10

35 letters universe of

photographer Willis F. Lee

w, 1972. Photo by Barbara Gluck 14 flashback Santa Fe Armory Sho a Thomas 16 art forum: Major Player, by Irin Marion Wasserman 17 studio visits: Nina Elder and colate 19 food for thought: Congo Cho Champagne Rosé Brut Première 21 one bottle: The Bruno Paillard Cuvée, by Joshua Baer 23 dining 27 art

guide:

Midtown Bistro and Il Piatto

openings

28 out &

about

z at SITE Santa Fe and Annie Leibovit 32 previews: Linda Mary Montano at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

the Patti Hallock: The West is Here at r m of Contemporary Art, Denve

national spotlight:

Museu 37

Far From Waterloo: Stuart Arends Amore, by Diane Armitage

feature:

and La Stanza del

at the New Mexico Museum of Art; 41 critical reflections: Alcove 12.7 at the Museum of Contemporary 50/50 Lecture with Charlene Teters l at James Kelly Contemporary; Native American Arts; Art of Renewa ald Judd and Marfa at the Donald Beginning to End at Santa Fe Clay; Don Your Perfect Offering at the Center Judd Foundation (Marfa, TX); Forget Charlotte Jackson Fine Art; Emilia for Contemporary Arts; Max Cole at Siobhan McBride at Eight Modern Faro at Destiny Allison Fine Art; and tograph by Jennifer Esperanza 51 green planet: Eric George, pho h Moon with Power Lines, photograp 53 architectural details: Full by Guy Cross bson. Image: Alexandra Eldridge 64 writings: “Girl” by Elizabeth Jaco

In Pilgrimage, Annie Leibovitz remembers a time when she and her longtime companion, literary icon Susan Sontag, planned a project they called “The Beauty Book,” which they hoped would be “an excuse to travel around to places we cared about and wanted to see.” Sontag died in 2004, but Pilgrimage (Random House, $60) was created in the spirit of the book Leibovitz dreamed of making with Sontag. For a period of two years, Leibovitz set aside the commercial photography she is celebrated for and traveled across America and England, seeking out the homes and belongings of those who inspired her. Capturing classic Americana like the soil in Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello garden or a television set that Elvis shot a hole through, Leibovitz’s photographs manage to lend intimacy to the historical, making the preserved vital again. Once more, Georgia O’Keeffe’s skulls are rendered as great, shadowy landscapes, and Sigmund Freud’s couch, draped in Persian rugs, invites the viewer to recline, remember, and confess. History lies thickly on these photographs—it is, indeed, the “beauty book” they hoped to create.


Readings & conversations

brings to Santa Fe a wide range of writers from the literary world of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to read from and discuss their work.

russell Banks with stona Fitch Wednesday 27 march at 7pm LenSic PerForming ArtS center

david mills Dreamweaver: The Works of Langston Hughes Wednesday 27 FeBruary at 7 pm LenSic PerForming ArtS center Justice That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are wise. Her bandage hides two festering sores That once perhaps were eyes. —Langston Hughes celebrate Harlem renaissance writer Langston Hughes— affectionately known as Shakespeare in Harlem—in this one-person dramatic rendition of Hughes’ poems and short stories. Actor and writer David mills’ performance takes the audience on an odyssey spanning five decades—from the 1920s through the 1960s — of Hughes’ writings, where mills portrays Hughes’ notable characters, such as madam Alberta K. Johnson and Jessie B. Simple. mills has worked professionally in the dramatic and literary communities for more than a decade. For three years, he lived in Langston Hughes’ landmark home where he was inspired to create his tribute.

“. . . Banks remains our premier chronicler of the doomed and forgotten American male, the desperate and the weak, men whose afflictions and antagonists may change over the years but whose fundamental struggle never does.” —Helen Schulman, The New York Times russell Banks has written more than 10 novels including Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter, as well as the story collection The Angel on the Roof. His The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction were adapted into celebrated feature films. Banks’ latest novel, Lost Memory of Skin, tells the story of “the Kid,” who at 22, after doing time for a liaison with an underage girl, is forbidden to live where children might gather. michael ondaatje calls Banks “the uncompromising moral voice of our time.”

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letters

magazine VOLUME XX, NUMBER VII

WINNER 1994 Best Consumer Tabloid SELECTED 1997 Top-5 Best Consumer Tabloids SELECTED 2005 & 2006 Top-5 Best Consumer Tabloids P u b l i s h e r / C r e at i v e D i r e c t o r Guy Cross P u b l i s h e r / F o o d Ed i t o r Judith Cross Art Director Chris Myers C o p y Ed i t o r Edgar Scully ProofReaderS James Rodewald Kenji Barrett s ta f f p h o t o g r a p h e r s Dana Waldon Anne Staveley Lydia Gonzales Preview / Calendar editor Elizabeth Harball WEBMEISTER Jason Rodriguez facebook Chief Laura Shields Contributors

Diane Armitage, Joshua Baer, Alex Betts, Davis Brimberg, Jon Carver, Kathryn M Davis, Alexandra Eldridge, Jennifer Esperanza, Hannah Hoel, Elizabeth Jacobson, Marina La Palma, Iris McLister, David Solomon, Richard Tobin, Alice van Buren, and Susan Wider C o VER

Sunflower VII, pigment print 40” x 32”, 1996 Photograph by Willis F. Lee

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THE magazine: 505-424-7641 Lindy Madley: 505-577-4471 Distribution

Jimmy Montoya: 470-0258 (mobile) THE magazine is a periodical that is published 10x a year by THE magazine Inc., 320-A Aztec Street,, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Corporate address: 44 Bishop Lamy Road Lamy, NM 87540. Phone: (505)-424-7641. Email address: themagazinesf@gmail.com. Web address: themagazineonline. com. All materials copyright 2013 by THE magazine. All rights reserved by THE magazine. Reproduction of contents is prohibited without written permission from THE magazine. THE magazine is not responsible for the loss of any unsolicited materials. THE magazine is not responsible or liable for any misspellings, incorrect information in its captions, calendar, or other listings. Opinions expressed 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 represent the views of their authors. Letters to the editor are welcome. Letters may be edited for style and libel. All letters are subject to condensation. THE magazine accepts advertisements from advertisers believed to be of good reputation, but cannot guarantee the authenticity of objects and/or services advertised. 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. february/march

2013

TO THE EDITOR: I am a poet and painter living in Truchas, age eighty-six years old. When I first heard the news about Newtown, I broke down in tears, I couldn’t help it. Then came the guarded reaction of politicos and the ravings of the NRA’s head Nazi, suggesting an America with armed guards in every school in the country. I felt a helplessness that I couldn’t abide, so I took up my brushes and began to paint a series of ravens weeping [see image above], as if even nature itself felt an enormous revulsion at the cupidity of mankind. That the wording of the Second Amendment, allowing citizens to carry arms (those guns of the time that had to be breech-loaded), can be construed as the right to own automatic weapons that can mow down dozens of human beings in less than a minute is beyond belief. People who defend the ownership of such brutal and unnecessary weapons are wallowing in a perverted sense of what the Founding Fathers intended, and what real freedom is about. Let’s call for a national signature drive, collect millions of signatures, and present them to our representatives in government, demanding that we OUTLAW all automatic weapons, and CONFISCATE all the ones in existence. To do anything less is to condone murder on a mass scale. —Alvaro Cardone-Hine, Truchas, NM, via email TO THE EDITOR: While an accolade to the newly departed director of the University of New Mexico Art Museum seemed inappropriate to print in the context of my review of The Transformative Surface in THE magazine’s December/ January issue, I do hope you will find it possible to publish these words, as the accomplishments of Ms. E. Luanne MacKinnon at the UNM Art Museum have been truly stellar. The art-world audience of Northern New Mexico has been treated to several outstanding exhibitions during MacKinnon’s tenure—shows that were not only hugely attractive and substantive, but which also brought acclaim to the Museum as never before. Suffice to recall the exhibitions devoted to Man Ray and African Art, the sculpture of Brit superstar, Richard Deacon, and the marvelous Eva Hesse painting show. The latter—entirely conceived by MacKinnon—travelled from Los Angeles to New York, and brought important recognition not only of MacKinnon’s scholarship, but of the Museum as well. It is sad to realize her stay at the Museum has been cut short by ill health, but she has decidedly left her mark—and a hard act to follow. —Jan E. Adlmann, Santa Fe, via email

TO THE EDITOR: I want to thank THE magazine for including The Dream is Over in your Best Books of 2012 issue. THE magazine is a great publication with a discerning readership with an interest in the arts. While The Dream is Over certainly appeals to those who want to know more about John Lennon and Yoko Ono and many rock and roll stars of that time, it also deals with Yoko Ono’s early years as a pioneer in conceptual art and as one of the founders of the Fluxus movement. It also shows how much John Lennon’s post-Beatles work was influenced by the art world. I tried to portray John and Yoko as the real people I knew who I worked and lived with. —Dan Richter, via email TO THE EDITOR: Susan Wider wrote a succinct and enjoyable piece on my exhibition Born under what star? at the Red Dot Gallery in October 2012. Wider covered the extremely diverse subject matter, media, and intent of the fifty-year span with clarity and knowledge gleaned from her interview with me and her own perceptive eye. Thank you THE magazine for your continued coverage of the Santa Fe arts as well as noteworthy exhibitions elsewhere. —Linda Vi Vona, Santa Fe, via email TO THE EDITOR: Your “Flashback” page in the December issue was total deja vu. I remember the Tommy Maccione sign on I-25 so well. And of course I remember Tommy—what a wonderful character. Not only a one-of-a-kind artist, but also a man who loved and fed many animals in Santa Fe. Tommy was surely a Santa Fe treasure. I hope THE continues to publish more “Flashback” pages, maybe as a regular addition to your magazine. Do keep up the fine work you do for the art community throughout New Mexico. —Kyle Thorton, via email TO THE EDITOR: I loved the Food for Thought page in the December issue about the toothpick. The unidentifed writer who wrote in the “voice” of the toothpick is one smart cookie. Reading it was a hoot. Not only was the article chock-full of information, it was also so funny that reading it I found myself laughing out loud. I just loved it. Another wonderful article from THE. —Antonia Brake, Portland, OR, via email This issue is dedicated to the life of Richard Donfro. Letters: Email to themagazinesf@gmail.com Mail: 320 Aztec St., Suite A - Santa Fe NM 87501

THE magazine | 5


OPENING RECEPTION FEBRUA RY 8, 5 – 7 PM

| UNIVERSIT Y OF

NE W MEXICO ART MUSEUM

| AL BUQUERQUE

IN THE WAKE OF JUÁREZ

THE DR AWINGS of ALICE LEORA BRIGGS

MARTIN STUPICH REMNANTS

of the

FIRST WORLD

Bound Seeking Together Pleasure in Books

UNIVERSIT Y OF NE W MEXICO ART MUSEUM | AL BUQUERQUE www.unm.edu/~artmuse 505.277.4001 Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10 – 4 Closed Sunday & Monday Alice Leora Briggs, Gun + Smoke, 2007, sgraffito on wood panel, courtesy of the Avants/Oullette Collection. | Martin Stupich, Limestone blocks at quarry, Nevada,1988. Pigment inkjet print. Courtesy of the Artist. | Henri Matisse, Le Florilège des Amours de Ronsard (detail), 1948. Lithograph. Purchased with funds from the Friends of Art.


RONALD DAVIS

Ronald Davis, Holed Cube, 2012, Pixel Dust on Aluminum, Faux frame, 24 x 24 inches

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MONROE GALLERY of photography

SID AVERY

The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot

Today’s Levitation 5/23/2011 ©Natsumi Hayashi

natsumi hayashi

today’s levitation

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G E O R G I A O’ K E E F F E M U S E U M P R E S E N T S

Door in Adobe Wall at Georgia O’Keeffe’s Home, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 2011© Annie Leibovitz

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ: PILGRIMAGE

A TALK WITH ANNIE LEIBOVITZ T U E S DAY, F E B R UA R Y 12, 2 013 AT 6 PM

L ENSIC P E RF OR MIN G AR T S C E N T ER

RESE R V E T ICK E T S: 505.988.1234 OR T ICK E T S S AN TA F E.ORG

ANNIE L EIBOVITZ: PILGRIM AGE E X H I B I T I O N O P E N S F R I D AY, F E B R U A R Y 15, 2 013

217 Johnson Street | Santa Fe | 505.946.1000 www.okeeffemuseum.org Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Bernie Stadiem Endowment Fund provided support for the exhibition. The C.F. Foundation of Atlanta supports the museum’s traveling exhibition program,Treasures to Go. For the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, exhibition and related programming were made possible in part by a generous grant from The Burnett Foundation. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum also wishes to thank the following sponsors: Century Bank, Inn of the Anasazi, Mary & Charles Kehoe, Los Alamos National Bank, New Mexico Gas, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Santa Fe Weaving Gallery. The Museum recognizes preferred hotels: Bishop’s Lodge; Inn and Spa at Loretto, Santa Fe; Inn on the Alameda; La Fonda on the Plaza; Eldorado Hotel & Spa.


Maranta, from Suite 5, copperplate photogravure, plate: 15¾” x 11¾”, paper: 28” x 22”, 1990

Since Willis F. Lee’s photographic career began, in 1971, his work has been included in over one hundred exhibitions, and is in the collections of many museums and individual collectors. Lee is known for his copperplate photogravure and largescale photography. Of his floral work, James Enyeart wrote: “Lee’s prints join a rich tradition in the arts, which has for centuries explored the vitality and sensuousness of floral objects. From elegant, stylized carvings of lotus blossoms in ancient Egypt and Persia, to twentieth-century artists like Edward Steichen, Imogen Cunningham, and Georgia O’Keeffe, floral subjects form a continuum of aesthetic expression. Like those before him, Willis Lee has allowed his chosen medium to make its special imprint on that tradition.”

Reverie #2, pigment on Baryta paper, 23” x 19”, edition 15, 2012

ON PHOTOGRAPHY

everyone to experience the same feeling, fascination,

We are constantly being visually bombarded through advertising,

wonder, and beauty that I did. This is what I still try to

the Web, television, films, and social media. The innocence

manifest through my work—seeing for the first time—

and intimacy of photography has been diluted due to the

being as naive as a child.

democratization of image making and the unlimited selection of electronic options to render an image into subjectivity with

TRUTH

the press of a button on an iPhone. “Hyper memories” leave

Although all cameras lie, depending on the degree of the

little to the imagination. I believe that the public is becoming

user’s intent, there is still nothing stranger, or more beautiful,

synthesized to the virtual, which, because of the volume of

or more wondrous than the truth. In the visual arts, truth and

information, causes one to glance instead of looking closely.

beauty have prevailed for thousands of years. I like to produce

We have come to expect the hyper-real, visual perfection

images of truth to the best of my ability, documenting the

in the print medium—the drawback being that if everything

beauty in form and light in its ambient setting. I like to bend

is perfect then nothing is special. With today’s technology

the truth to create an atmosphere or convey an emotion, but

anyone can take a picture, but there are fewer photographers

when the shutter is released and the film is exposed it is still a

that make a photograph than a decade ago. That said, I see a lot

true documentation of the object in the moment.

of new work that is produced traditionally and digitally that is visually compelling. I am always inspired by and in awe of other

METHODS

photographers’ work.

Although I have embraced all the technological advances in image making during the last fifteen years, I am still a film-

BEAUTY

based photographer and use traditional film cameras in

As a kid growing up in the 1950s I fell in love with motion

formats up to eight by ten inches. I only produce a limited

pictures and was especially attracted to films by John

number of pieces using digital capture, one of which is on

Houston, Howard Hawks, and John Ford. I watched

the cover of this issue of THE magazine. The image is from

these films on a little black-and-white TV screen in a large

an experimental series I did in the mid-1990s using a four-

cabinet with all the knobs and controls on the TV. I didn’t

by-five digital back in my Sinar studio camera. I revisited

know it then but I was drawn to these films by the stark

these pieces recently and found them to be exceptional in

lighting and deep textured shadows, the otherworldliness

color fidelity and smoothness. Most of my work is printed

that represented the film noir period. I felt this imagery

as silver prints or copperplate photogravure. Gravure

to be both beautiful and mysterious. I began to notice

etchings are my true love and I have a small reserve of

the same influence in the play of light and texture in all

extinct traditional materials to produce a few more bodies

things organic. I wanted to get closer to it all and wanted

of work.


U N I V E R S E O F W i l l is F. Lee

MENTORS I seriously started looking at photographs in 1972. My interest was technical and I was studying works by Minor White, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams. By the mid-1970s I had discovered Pictorialism and Modernism. I was greatly influenced by Steichen’s The Garden of the Gods and Stieglitz’s gravure— The Steerage—from the same period. Jaroslav Rossler’s Light Abstraction is still as fascinating to me as it was forty years ago. I regard these pieces as wonderful works on paper and have referenced them many times over the years. Two contemporary printmakers I admire are Ed Ruscha and Robert Rauschenberg. Both artists have produced intaglio prints with the same tonal characteristics of the early photographers that I admire.

CURRENT PROJECTS I am working on three new projects at this time. Reverie—a project of dreamy images, as the title implies. The prints are made from 4 x 5 inch negatives that have been inverted and printed as pigment on 19 x 23 inch Baryta paper. Diablo Canyon—a series of thirteen silver prints that explore the form and nuances of light and form in the varnished rock of the canyon. And Tierra, which explores the relationship and interdependence of the diminutive and the infinite. www.willisflee.com february/march

2013

photograph by

Dana Waldon magazine |11 |5 THE THE magazine


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february/march

2013

THE magazine | 15


ART FORUM

THE magazine asked a clinical psychologist and three people who love art to share their take on this linocut titled Major Player by Irina Thomas. They were shown only the image—they were not told the title, medium, or name of the artist.

Gambling can be a metaphor for life, love, lust, or possession.

on the sideline. No one knows what cards they will hold, but

Move over Paul, Nina’s at the table. Holding the upper hand

We see two men vying for a young, sexy, flirtatious woman’s

can only play the game with the cards they have, and that ‘s why

of love, she’s making things unstable. You may be big and

attention. The larger man is not playing cards and he is

I’d rather play the game as Lady Luck than as the guy with the

self-possessed, smoking your cigar. The good ol‘ boys are

positioned between a lustful man and the woman he wants

cigar. Game over. Anyone can be smart. Me? I’d rather be lucky!

with you but won’t get you very far. What was positive is

to possess. He postures defensively as if saying to the second

—Alex Betts, Windsor Betts Art Brokerage, Santa Fe

negative, the image is reversed. Though the game may seem

man, “Back off. The girl’s mine.” Smugly, he smokes a phallic

the same to you, it plays out unrehearsed. The guy who’s

cigar that is positioned in his hand like an aimed pistol.

The simple print technique in this piece is more than

sitting to your right thinks he has the upper hand. He looks

The doe-eyed woman’s cards are covered with red hearts,

appropriate to allow the essence that most of us already

slyly from a greedy heart but doesn’t understand. Nina tilts

the work’s only moments of color. Her cards suggest that love

know to be true to shine through. By looking at the cards the

her head toward him, each vertebra aligned. Spine lissome

is not black and white. I imagine she married the older man

woman carries, we know that she does not have a chance of

as a waterfall, she projects an empty mind. How to break

for his money and power; she did not gamble on romantic

taking the pot from these larger-than-life made men. But she

it to you, Paul? The fact that you won’t win. The bottom

love at all—she has sold herself. The woman is the work’s

does hold the power, and no matter how much those men

dealer dealt the better hand to his next of kin. Self-possessed

central figure and she enjoys receiving the attention of men.

may have won, stolen, and traded for their suits, they are

and wondering, she looks you in the eye. Nina grips your

She basks in her power to control them.

nothing more than putty—totally unaware of those beautiful

cheating heart and makes you wonder why. Remember

—Davis Brimberg, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, Santa Fe

fingers molding them. Winner takes all here and she has the

Mirabella, your waitress friend in France? Who is she, this

hearts. I’m sure to sit at the table one must make sacrifices

Nina, who makes you want to dance? You’re startled as the

Life is a game—losers, winners, and sideliners. This

and perhaps be a part of something that one may not have

room caves in—you’re spinning in the dark. She who never

sophisticated linocut depicts the players in a high-stakes game

chosen. If you are at the table, you may as well try to win

gambled came in on just a lark. Dressed like a sophisticate

of love where only lady luck is holding the hearts and the

by whatever means available. After all, we live in a violent

from the pages of the Times, it turns out she’s from Philly

other card players are unaware that she is about to “shoot

paradigm, and we all have choices. You may be able to get out

where she collects old library fines. You suck in your big belly,

the moon” and capture all of the hearts. One player plays the

while the getting out is good, but you will never be the same.

pull yourself up in your seat. Your hired man next to you is

game as a premature winner, the other player gives up too

The best you can hope for after the game is over is that your

heading for defeat. Nina shows her final hand, blushes—it’s

easily without trusting himself, while the guy with the cigar is all

clothes still fit and that you still look good.

all hearts. Paul says, then and there, “’Til death do us part.”

show and doesn’t want to risk his pride, and merely postures

—David Solomon, Artist, Santa Fe

—Ann van Buren, Writer, New York, Svia email

16 | THE magazine

february/march

2013


STUDIO VISITS

Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote, “Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.” Two artists respond to this statement. Well yes and no—there is a chasm and there is the surprise element when intention and vision manifest. Many times beauty and truth have a way of intervening with one’s agenda. With age and grace, hopefully we trust the chasm and relinquish control.

—Marion Wasserman In 2012, Wasserman’s video work was included in a juried exhibition the New Mexico Showcase at 516 Arts in Albuquerque. She also was part of the Currents International New Media Festival; the Center for Contemporary Art’s 8x8 show; and Santa Fe Art Institute’s Push Pin exhibition. Her work has also been shown at Axle Contemporary, and she created a video for Dancing Earth’s Walking Edge of Water performance. In 2013, Wasserman—together with creative collaborator Louis Leray—will be applying to the Currents New Media Festival and submitting a proposal for a video/light installation for a Public Art Project in New Mexico.

Creativity is no anodyne, yet to focus on the pain of creation is a romantic obsession that denies the concurrent poetics and pragmatism that propel most contemporary artists. The moment inspiration becomes destined for a tangible reality, it begins to erode under systems of taste, economies, politics, and its own physicality in the temporal, degrading world. Instead of the stereotyped tortured ego-driven artist, actual creators possess generosity and humility to allow their perfect inner visions to become imperfect things, existing in an imperfect world. Expiration is both the opposite—and the result—of inspiration.

—Nina Elder Elder will be having solo shows in 2013 at InPost Art Space, Albuquerque and at Oats Park Arts Center, Fallon, NV. As well, she will be showing work at The Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe. During 2012, her work was on view at Taos Contemporary, The Center for Visual Arts, Denver, and The New Mexico Showcase, 516 Arts, Albuquerque. ninaelder.com and itspland.org

Photographs by Anne Staveley february/march

2013

THE magazine 17


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505.603.4643 info@artfeast.com ARTsmart office 102 E. Water Street Santa Fe, NM 87501 Edible Art Tour tickets are also available at participating galleries and through Tickets Santa Fe, Lensic Box Office, 505.988.1234, ticketssantafe.com


food for thought

Congo Chocolate The Democratic Republic of Congo is the second largest country in Africa, and contains enough arable land to fill the state of Texas. However, since the country gained independence from Belgium, in 1960, the country has rarely seen peace—to this day, the country struggles with rampant conflict, disease, famine, and sexual violence. Since 1998, more than three million people have died because of the unrest. As a result, a mere two percent of the country is currently being farmed. Many of those scant crops are vulnerable to pillaging by militias. But there is one high-yield, valuable crop that is less vulnerable to destruction, because it is worthless before it is processed: cacao—the main ingredient in chocolate. This year, the Eastern Congo Initiative, founded by Hollywood celebrity Ben Affleck, has teamed up with Seattle-based Theo Chocolate to produce organic, fair-trade chocolate bars made exclusively from cacao produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Eastern Congo Initiative and Theo Chocolate are working to train two thousand farmers to grow over three hundred tons of cacao to be used in two new varieties of dark chocolate bars. So next time you’re experiencing chocolate cravings, look out for Theo’s Congo chocolate bars—small efforts like these have the potential to make a big difference. For more information, check out theochocolate.com and easterncongo.org. february/march

2013

THE magazine | 19


happy hour special - 50% off our famous classic appetizers calamari, dumplings, spring rolls wines-by-the-glass, “well” cocktails and our house margaritas - $5.00 full bar with free wi-fi monday thru friday from 4:30 – 6:30 pm

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231 washington avenue - reservations 505 984 1788

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one bottle

One Bottle:

T he B runo P aillard C hampagne R osé B rut P remière C uvée by Joshua

Baer

“Some people have had changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood,

ambitions. For the last twenty years, artisanal Champagne has been touted

suicidal thoughts or actions while using Chantix. If you have side effects that

as everything from the wave of the future to a cure for Gallic boredom.

bother you or don’t go away, tell your doctor. You may have trouble sleeping,

The difference between Bruno Paillard and most of his peers is that Paillard

vivid, unusual, or strange dreams while taking Chantix.” (From chantix.com.)

exceeded his own expectations. Somehow, with nearly flawless style, he

“Do not take Cialis if you use recreational drugs called ‘poppers’ like amyl nitrite and butyl nitrite. The most common side effects with Cialis are:

produced a Rosé Champagne that asks as many questions as it answers. One of the best places to buy the Bruno Paillard Champagne Rosé Brut

headache, indigestion, back pain, muscle aches, flushing, and stuffy or runny

Première Cuvée is J. J. Buckley Fine Wines, in Oakland, California (jjbuckley.

nose. Call your healthcare provider if you get any side effect that bothers you

com). Roland Hankerson, J. J. Buckley’s fine-wine specialist, appreciates the

or one that does not go away. Uncommon but serious side effects include an

difference between selling wine and selling Champagne. In the same way that

erection that won’t go away. If you get an erection lasting more than four hours,

you and I put bottles in our cellars to protect them from harm, Hankerson puts

seek immediate medical help to avoid long-term injury. Stop sexual activity and

his Champagne clients in a special category to protect us from thirst. Bottles are

get medical help right away if you get symptoms such as chest pain, dizziness,

$75. Magnums are $150, though Hankerson has the occasional flash sale when

or nausea during sex.” (From cialis.com.)

you can buy magnums at a discount.

“A variety of abnormal thinking and behavior changes have been reported

Rosé Champagne has been known to create euphoric moments, both

to occur in association with the use of sedative/hypnotics. Some of these

among Rosé Champagne-naïve and Rosé Champagne-experienced persons.

changes may be characterized by decreased inhibition (e.g. aggressiveness

These moments can extend into memories. Do not drink Rosé Champagne

and extroversion that seemed out of character). Visual and auditory

if you think that Mitch McConnell is “just doing his job.” If you experience

hallucinations have been reported as well as behavioral changes such as

weightlessness, the sensation of time stopping in its tracks, or the

bizarre behavior, agitation, and depersonalization. Complex behaviors

compulsion to prepare and eat foods, make phone calls, and have sex,

such as ‘sleep-driving’ (i.e., driving while not fully awake after ingestion

contact your healthcare provider but do not be surprised if he or she

of a sedative-hypnotic, with amnesia for the event) have been reported with sedative-hypnotics, including Ambien CR. These events can occur in sedative-hypnotic-naïve as well as in sedative-hypnoticexperienced persons. Due to the risk to the patient and the community, discontinuation of Ambien CR should be strongly considered for patients who report a ‘sleep-driving’ episode. Other complex behaviors (e.g., preparing and eating food, making phone calls, or having sex) have been reported in

asks for an invitation to dinner. Rosé Champagne should not be used as a panacea, as a substitute for bath gel, or as an answer to trick questions. Among women, a reported side effect is the desire to spend the night in an orchard, with glimpses of constellations through the branches and leaves. Among men, there are no lasting side effects, other than the urge to accompany the women who want to spend the night in an orchard. Rosé Champagne contains alcohol. While alcohol

patients who are not fully awake after taking a sedative-

can and will blur the line between loss of inhibition and

hypnotic. As with ‘sleep-driving’, patients usually do not

evaporation of personal space, this is not necessarily

remember these events.” (From ambiencr.com.) Which brings us to the Bruno Paillard Champagne Rosé Brut Première Cuvée.

a detriment, especially when the walls of self-absorption come tumbling down. Like other alcoholic beverages, including but not limited to the red Burgundies of

In the glass, the Bruno Paillard Champagne

Bonnes-Mares, the white Burgundies of Corton-

Rosé Brut is a crystal-clear copper. The bouquet is

Charlemagne and Puligny-Montrachet, the red

elegant, immediate, and wild. On the palate, there are

Bordeaux of Pomerol and St. Emilion, the red Rhones

suggestions of animism, polytheism, and therapeutic

of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and the red Bandols

commitments. The free-associative nature of the

of Domaine Tempier and Domaine Gros ’Noré,

attack suggests that Bruno Paillard, his wife, Marie, their

ingestion of Rosé Champagne can induce pathos,

vineyard manager, Jerome Courgey, and their architect,

otherwise known as the deep-seated longing

Jacques Blehaut, are in long-term therapy, possibly with

for enchantment. You may experience dreams

the same analyst. With each taste, you keep waiting for

of another life, a life that may or may not belong

a lapse in the charm. The lapse never comes. One of

to a person who may or may not be you. Is that

this Champagne’s attributes is its consistency. Another

person alive, or a visitor from a future that does

is its restraint. The finish manages to be generous

not include your identity? If such questions persist,

without becoming lavish, brilliant without becoming

contact your soul right away. If your soul does not

clever, honest without becoming blunt.

respond, don’t give in to despair. These things take

In 1981, at the age of twenty-seven, Bruno

time. Your answer is on its way.

Paillard sold his Jaguar to raise the money to buy a vineyard and re-invent Champagne. His belief in the art of Champagne fueled and tempered his ambitions. During the 1980s and 1990s, there were dozens of French men and women who shared Bruno Paillard’s february/march

2013

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 ©2013 by onebottle.com. For back issues, go to onebottle.com. Send comments or questions to jb@onebottle.com.

THE magazine | 21



dining guide

Grilled French Cut Pork Chop

Midtown Bistro 901 West San Mateo, Suite A Reservations: 505-820-3121

$ KEY

INEXPENSIVE

$

MODERATE

up to $14

$$

$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 OUT OFTEN

Photo: Guy Cross

...a guide to the very best restaurants in santa fe, albuquerque, taos, and surrounding areas... 315 Restaurant & Wine Bar 315 Old Santa Fe Trail. 986-9190. Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: French. Atmosphere: An inn in the French countryside. House specialties: Steak Frites, Seared Pork Tenderloin, and the Black Mussels are perfect. Comments: A beautiful new bar with generous martinis, a teriffic wine list, and a “can’t miss” bar menu. Winner of Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence. 317 Aztec 317 Aztec St. 820-0150 Breakfast/ Lunch. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Café and Juice Bar. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Breakfast: Eggs Benedict and the Hummus Bagel, are winners. Lunch: we love all of the salads and the Chilean Beef Emanadas. Comments: Wonderful juice bar and perfect smoothies. Andiamo! 322 Garfield St. 995-9595. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Start with the Steamed Mussels or the Roasted Beet Salad. For your main, choose the delicious Chicken Marsala or the Pork Tenderloin. Comments: Good wines, great pizzas. Anasazi Restaurant Inn of the Anasazi 113 Washington Ave. 988-3236 . Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Valet parking. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Contemporary American cuisine. Atmosphere: A classy room. House specialties: Blue Corn crustedSalmon with citrus jalapeno sauce, and the Beef Tenderloin. Comments: Attentive service. Bobcat Bite 418 Old Las Vegas Hwy. 983-5319. Lunch/Dinner No alcohol. Patio. Cash. $$ Cuisine: As American as good old apple pie. Atmosphere: A low-slung building with eight seats at the counter and four tables. House specialties: The inch-and-a-half thick green chile cheeseburger is sensational. The secret? A decades-old, well-seasoned cast-iron grill. Go. Body Café 333 Cordova Rd. 986-0362. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Organic. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: In the morning, try the breakfast smoothie or the Green Chile Burrito. We love february/march

2013

the Avocado and Cheese Wrap. Comments: Soups and salads are marvelous, as is the superhealthy Carrot Juice Alchemy.

specialties: The smoked brisket and ribs are fantastic. Super buffalo burgers. Comments: Huge selection of beers— from Bud to the fancy stuff.

Cafe Cafe Italian Grill 500 Sandoval St. 466-1391. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: For lunch, the classic Caesar salad, the tasty specialty pizzas, or the grilled eggplant sandwich. For dinner, go for the perfectly grilled Swordfish Salmorglio.

Coyote Café 132 W. Water St. 983-1615. Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Southwestern with French and Asian influences. Atmosphere Bustling. House specialties: For your main course, go for the grilled Maine Lobster Tails or the grilled 24-ounce “Cowboy Cut” steak. Comments: Great bar and good wines.

Café Fina 624 Old Las Vegas Hiway. 466-3886. Breakfast/Lunch. Patio Cash/major credit cards. $ Cuisine: Contemporary comfort food. Atmosphere: Casual and bright. House specialties: Ricotta pancakes with fresh berries and maple syrup; chicken enchiladas; a perfect green-chile cheese burger. Comments: Organic and housemade products are delicious.

Downtown Subscription 376 Garcia St. 983-3085. Breakfast/Lunch No alcohol. Patio. Cash/ Major credit cards. $ 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. Tons of magazine to peruse. House specialties: Espresso, cappuccino, and latte.

Café Pasqual’s 121 Don Gaspar Ave. 983-9340. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Multi-ethnic. Atmosphere: The café is adorned with lots of Mexican streamers and Indian maiden posters. House specialties: Hotcakes got a nod from Gourmet magazine. Huevos motuleños—a Yucatán breakfast—is one you’ll never forget. For lunch, try the Grilled Chicken Sandwich.

El Faról 808 Canyon Rd. 983-9912. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Spanish. Atmosphere: Wood plank floors, thick adobe walls, and a postage-stamp-size dance floor for cheek-to-cheek dancing. House specialties: Tapas. Comments: Murals by Alfred Morang.

Chopstix 238 N. Guadalupe St.  982-4353. Lunch/Dinner. Take-out. Patio. Major credit cards. $ Atmosphere: Casual. Cuisine: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. House specialties: Lemon Chicken, Korean barbequed beef, Kung Pau Chicken, and Broccoli and Beef. Comments: Combination plates available. Friendly owners. Counter Culture 930 Baca St. 995-1105. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Cash. $$ Cuisine: All-American. Atmosphere: Informal. House specialties: Burritos Frittata, Sandwiches, Salads, and Grilled Salmon. Comments: Good selection of beers and wine. Cowgirl Hall of Fame 319 S. Guadalupe St. 982-2565. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Good old American. fare. Atmosphere: Patio shaded by big cottonwoods. Great bar. House

El Mesón 213 Washington Ave. 983-6756. Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Spanish. Atmosphere: Spain could be just around the corner. Music nightly. House specialties: Tapas reign supreme, with classics like Manchego Cheese marinated in extra virgin olive oil. Go, you will love it. El Parasol

833 Cerrillos Rd
Santa Fe, 995-8015 30 Cities of Gold Rd.,
Pojoaque. 455-7185 603 Santa Cruz Rd., 
Española. 753-8852 298 Dinosaur Trail,
Santa Fe. 995-8226 1903 Central Ave., Los Alamos. 661-0303 Breakfast/Lunch/Diinner

Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Tacos, burritos, burgers. frito pies, and combination plates. Comments: The staff at THE magazine agrees that they serve the best Carne Adovada Burrito (no beans) that we have ever had. Geronimo 724 Canyon Rd. 982-1500. Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$

French/Asian fusion. Cuisine: Atmosphere: Elegant and stylish. House specialties: 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. Il Piatto 95 W. Marcy St. 984-1091. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Atmosphere: Italian. Bustling. House specialties: Our faves: the Arugula and Tomato Salad; the Lemon Rosemary Chicken; and the Pork Chop stuffed with mozzarella, pine nuts, and prosciutto. Comments: New on the menu: a perfect New York Strip Strip Steak at a way better price than the Bull Ring—and guess what— you don’t have to buy the potato. Jambo Cafe 2010 Cerrillios Rd. 473-1269. Lunch/Dinner Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: African and Caribbean inspired. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Jerk Chicken Sandwich and the Phillo stuffed with spinach, black olives, feta cheese, roasted red peppers, over organic greens. Comments: Chef Obo wins awards for his fabulous soups. Kohnami Restaurant 313 S. Guadalupe St. 984-2002. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine/Sake. Patio. Visa & Mastercard. $$ Cuisine: Japanese. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Miso soup; Soft Shell Crab; Dragon Roll; Chicken Katsu; noodle dishes; and Bento Box specials. Comments: The sushi is always perfect. Try the Ruiaku Sake. It is clear, smooth, and dry. Comments: New noodle menu. La Plancha de Eldorado 7 Caliente Road at La Tienda. 466-2060 Highway 285 / Vista Grande Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Salvadoran Grill. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: The Loroco Omelet, Pan-fried Plantains, and Salvadorian tamales. Comments: Sunday brunch. Lan’s Vietnamese Cuisine 2430 Cerrillos Rd. 986-1636. Lunch/Dinner Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Vietnamese. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: The Pho Tai Hoi: vegetarian soup loaded with veggies. Comments: Friendly waitstaff and reasonable prices. La Plazuela on the Plaza 100 E. San Francisco St. 989-3300.

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full Bar. Major credit cards. $$$ New Mexican and Cuisine: Continental. Atmosphere: Enclosed courtyard. House specialties: Start with the Classic Tortilla Soup or the Heirloom Tomato Salad. For your entrée, try the Braised Lamb Shank with a spring gremolata, couscous, and vegetables. Comments: Seasonal menus. L egal T ender 151 Old Lamy Trail. 466-1650 Lunch/Dinner Beer/wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Burgers, Pulled Pork, Lamy Cubano Sandwich, Braised Short Ribs, and the Wedge Salad. Comments: Huevos Rancheros, Belgian Waffles and a Special Drink Menu at Sunday Brunch. Kid friendly. M aria ’ s N ew M exican K itchen 555 W. Cordova Rd. 983-7929. Lunch/Dinner (Thursday-Sunday) Beer/wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American/New Mexican. Atmosphere: Rough wooden floors and hand-carved chairs set the historical tone. House specialties: Freshly made Tortillas and Green Chile Stew. Comments: Perfect margaritas. Midtown Bistro 910 W. San Mateo, Suite A. 820-3121. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine pending. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American fare with a Southwestern twist. Atmosphere: Large open room—casual and quietly elegant. House specialties: For lunch, start with either the Baby Arugula Salad or the Chicken or Pork Taquitos with Guacamole and Sour Cream. Entrées we suggest are the Grilled Atlantic Salmon with Green Lentils, Sautéed Swiss Chard, and Sweet Carrot Butter, and Edmund’s Burger with Bacon, Mozzarella, Green Chile, and Red Chile Fries. Dinner fave is the Grilled French Cut Pork Chop with Sweet Potato Puree, Bok Choy, and HabaneroPineapple Syrup. Comments: Nice desserts and a savvy wait staff. Mu Du Noodles 1494 Cerrillos Rd. 983-1411. Dinner/Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Pan-Asian. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Green Thai Curry, Comments: Mu Du is committed to organic products. New York Deli Guadalupe & Catron St. 982-8900. Breakfast/Lunch continued on page 25

THE magazine | 23


terra at Encantado

a taste of the New Southwest

T R ADIT IO N AL JAPAN E S E RA M E N H O U S E

shibumi R AMEN Inspired by Northern New Mexico and infused with local, organically sourced ingredients and the flavor of the Southwest, the menu blends a sense of balance, place and comfort to create a new twist on Contemporary American Cuisine.

877.262.4666 • fourseasons.com/santafe• 198 state road 592, santa fe

I Z A K AYA

YA K I T O R I

Dinner: 5:30 –10 pm Monday – Saturday 26 Chapelle Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.428.0077 ■ shibumiramen.com Fragrance Free

Parking Available


dining guide

Photo: Douglas Merriam

Il Piatto

95 West Marcy Street, Santa Fe • 984-1091

Cuisine: New York deli. Atmosphere: Large open space. House specialties: Soups, Salads, Bagels, Pancakes, and Gourmet Burgers. Comments: Deli platters to go. Plaza Café Southside 3466 Zafarano Dr. 424-0755. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner 7 days Full bar. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: American and New Mexican. Atmosphere: Bright and light. House specialties: For your breakfast go for the Huevos Rancheros or the Blue Corn Piñon Pancakes. Comments: Excellent Green Chile. Rio Chama Steakhouse 414 Old Santa Fe Trail. 955-0765. Brunch/Lunch/Dinner/Bar Menu. Full bar. Smoke-free dining rooms. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: All-American Atmosphere: Easygoing. House specialities: Steaks, Prime Ribs and Burgers. Haystack fries rule Recommendations: Nice wine list and a good pour at the bar. Ristra 548 Agua Fria St. 982-8608. Dinner/Bar Menu Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Southwestern with a French flair. Atmosphere: Contemporary. House specialties: Mediterranean Mussels in chipotle and mint broth is superb, as is the Ahi Tuna Tartare. Comments: Nice wine list. Rose’s Cafe 57 University W. Blvd SE, #130, Alb. 505-433-5772 Breakfast/Lunch. Patio. Major credit cards. $ Cuisine: A taste of the Yucatán with a Southwest twist. House specialties: For breakfast we love the Huevos Muteleños: corn tortillas w/ refried black beans, eggs any style topped with Rose’s famous Muteleños sauce, cotya cheese, and fresh avocado. Lunch fave is the Yucatán Pork Tacos. Comments: Kid’s menu and superfriendly folks. San Q 31 Burro Alley. 992-0304 Lunch/Dinner Sake/Wine Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Japanese Sushi and Tapas. Atmosphere: Large room with a Sushi bar. House specialties: Sushi, Vegetable Gyoza, Softshell Crab, Sashimi and Sushi Platters, and a variety of wonderful, yes, Japanese Tapas. Comments: A very savvy sushi chef makes San Q the choice for those who appreciate fine Japanese food. San Francisco Street Bar & Grill 50 E. San Francisco St. 982-2044. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: All-American. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: San

february/march

2013

Francisco Street Burger, the Grilled Yellowfin Tuna Nicoise Salad, or the New York Strip. Comments: Their sister restaurant located in the DeVargas Center. Comments: Reasonable prices. Santacafé 231 Washington Ave. 984-1788. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Southwest Contemporary. Atmosphere: Minimal, subdued, and elegant. House specialties: The world- famous calamari never disappoints. Favorite entrées include the perfectly cooked grilled rack of lamb and the pan-seared salmon with olive oil crushed new potatoes and creamed sorrel. Comments: The daily pasta specials are generous and flavorful. Appetizers during cocktail hour rule. Santa Fe Bar & Grill 187 Paseo de Peralta. 982-3033. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American and New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties: Cornmealcrusted Calamari, Rotisserie Chicken, or the Rosemary Baby Back Ribs. Comments: Easy on the wallet. Saveur 204 Montezuma St. 989-4200. Breakfast/Lunch Beer/Wine. Patio. Visa/Mastercard. $$ Cuisine: French meets American. Atmosphere: Casual. Buffet-style service for salad bar and soups. House specialties: Daily chef specials, gourmet and build-your-own sandwiches, wonderful soups, and an excellent salad bar. Comments: Organic coffees and super desserts. Do not pass on the Baby-Back Ribs.

Japanese beers, and champagne. Comments: Zen-like. Shohko Café 321 Johnson St. 982-9708. Lunch/Dinner Sake/Beer. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Authentic Japanese Cuisine. Atmosphere: Sushi bar, table dining. House specialties: Softshell Crab Tempura, Sushi, and Bento Boxes. Comments: Friendly waitstaff, Station 430 S. Guadalupe. 988-2470 Breakfast/Lunch Patio Major credit cards. $ Cuisine: Light fare and fine coffee and tea. Atmosphere: Friendly and casual. House specialties: For your breakfast choose the Ham and Cheese Croissant a Fresh Fruit Cup. Lunch fave is the Prosciutto, Mozzarella, To mato sandwich Comments: Special espresso drinks. at El Gancho Old Las Vegas Hwy. 988-3333. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards $$$ Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: Family restaurant House specialties: Aged steaks, lobster. Try the Pepper Steak with Dijon cream sauce. Comments: They know steak here.

Steaksmith

Second Street Brewery 1814 Second St. 982-3030. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Simple pub grub and brewery. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties: The beers are outstanding when paired with Beer-steamed Mussels, Calamari, Burgers, and Fish & Chips. Comments: Sister restaurant in the Railyard District.

Sweetwater 1512 Pacheco St. 795-7383 Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner. Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Innovative natural foods. Atmosphere: Large open room with counter and table service. House specialties: In the morning, we love the Mediterranean Breakfast—Quinoa with Dates, Apricots, and Honey—and the Baked Eggs with Crème Fraiche and Herbs. Lunch favorites are the Indonesian Vegetable Curry on Rice; the Fabulous Figs Flatbread: Black Mission Figs, Prosciutto, Ricotta, Cherry Tomatoes, and Rosemary, served with a Harvest Salad. Comments: For your dinner, try the Prix Fixe Small Plate: soup, salad, and an entrée for only $19. Wines and Craft beers on tap. Also offering the original Mountain Mead.

Shibumi 26 Chapelle St. 428-0077. Dinner Fragrance-free Cash only. $$. Parking available Beer/wine/sake Cuisine: Japanese noodle house. Atmosphere: Tranquil and elegant. Table and counter service. House specialties: Start with the Gyoza—a spicy pork pot sticker—or the Otsumami Zensai or select from four hearty soups. Shibumi offers sake by the glass or bottle, as well as

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, the quiche, the Gourmet Cheese Sandwich, and the Teaouse Mix salad. Comments. Very friendly waitstaff. A huge variety of teas from around the world available for purchase to take home.

Terra at Four Seasons Encantado 198 State Rd. 592, Tesuque. 988-9955. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: American with Southwest influences. Atmosphere: Elegant House specialties: For breakfast, we love the Blue Corn Bueberry Pancakes and the Santa Fe Style Chilaquiles. For dinner, start with the sublime Beet and Goat Cheese Salad. Follow with the Pan Seared Scallops with Foie Gras or the delicious Double Cut Pork Chop. All of the desserts are wonderful. Comments: Chef Andrew Cooper partners with local farmers to bring fresh seasonal ingredients to the table. A fine wine list and top-notch service. The Artesian Restaurant at Ojo Caliente Resort & Spa 50 Los Baños Drive.  505-583-2233 Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Wine and Beer Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Local flavors. Atmosphere: Casual, calm, and friendly. House specialties: At lunch we love the Ojo Fish Tacos and the organic Artesian Salad with Prickly Pear Vinaigrette. For dinner, start with the Grilled Artichoke with Roasted Garlic and Lemon Aioli. The Trout with a Toasted Piñon Glaze for your entrée is a winner. Comments: Nice wine bar and specialty drinks. The Compound 653 Canyon Rd.  982-4353. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$ Cuisine: Contemporary. Atmosphere: 150-year-old adobe with white linen on the tables. House specialties: Jumbo Crab and Lobster Salad. The Chicken Schnitzel is always flawless. All of the desserts are sublime. Comments: Chef/owner Mark Kiffin, won the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef of the Southwest” award. The Palace Restaurant & Saloon 142 W. Palace Avenue 428-0690 Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio Major credit cards $$$ Cuisine: Modern Italian Atmosphere: Victorian style merges with the Spanish Colonial aesthetic. House Specialties: For lunch: the Prime Rib French Dip. Dinner: For your dinner, go for the Scottish Salmon en Papillote poached in white wine, or the Steak au Poivre. Comments: BBQ Oyters on Saturday. The Pink Adobe 406 Old Santa Fe Trail. 983-7712. Lunch/ Dinner Full Bar Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: All American, Creole, and New Mexican. Atmosphere: Friendly and casual. House specialties: For lunch we love the Gypsy Stew or the Pink Adobe Club. For dinner, Steak Dunigan or the Fried Shrimp Louisianne. Comments: Cocktail hour in the Dragon Room is a Santa Fe tradition. The Shed 113½ E. Palace Ave. 982-9030. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: A local institution located just off the Plaza. House specialties: Order the red or green chile cheese enchiladas. Comments Many folks say the best in Santa Fe. The Ranch House 2571 Cristos Road. 424-8900 Lunch/Dinner Full bar Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: BBQ and Grill. Atmosphere: Family and very kid-friendly. House specialties: Josh’s Red Chile Baby Back Ribs, Smoked Brisket, Pulled Pork, and New Mexican Enchilada Plates. Comments: Nice bar and really great ribs.

Tia Sophia’s 210 W. San Francisco St. 983-9880. Breakfast/Lunch Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Traditional New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Green Chile Stew, and the traditional Breakfast Burrito stuffed with bacon, potatoes, chile, and cheese. Comments: The real deal. tomme: a restaurant

229 Galisteo St. 820-2253 Dinner Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Innovative Contemporary. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties: Start with the Pork Belly. Entrée: Choose the Peppered Elk Tenderloin, or the Southern Fried Chicken. Comments: Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. Tune-Up Café 1115 Hickox St. 983-7060. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: All World: American, Cuban, Salvadoran, Mexican, and, yes, New Mexican. Atmosphere: Down home. House specialties: Breakfast faves are the scrumptious Buttermilk Pancakes and the TuneUp Breakfast. Comments: Super Fish Tacos and the El Salvadoran Pupusas are excellent. Comments: Now serving beer and wine.Yay! Vinaigrette 709 Don Cubero Alley. 820-9205. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: Light, bright and cheerful. House specialties: The organic salads are amazing. We love the Nutty Pear-fessor Salad, the famous Chop Chop Salad, and the grilled vegetables. Comments: When in Albuquerque, visit their their sister restaurant at 1828 Central Ave., SW in Albaquerque. Vivre 304 Johnson St. 983-3800 Dinner. Beer/Wine. Fragrance-free. Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: French. Atmosphere: Intimate. House specialties: Start with the sublime Fennel Soup with Pernod and Mussels or the Frisée Salad with Bacon Lardons and Warm Goat Cheese. For your main, we suggest the perfectly cooked Whole Roasted Trout with Sautéed Green Beans, the Roasted Chicken with Thyme Jus and Potatoes, the Steak Au Poivre Vert with Shallots, Cognac, and French Fries, or the Braised Pork Belly with Turnip Pavé and Red Wine Reduction. Dessert: We love the Fresh Grapefruit served with Honey Vanilla Syrup. Comments: An extensive wine list. Chef Nelli Maltezos is serving what we call “inspired French cuisine.” Zacatecas 3423 Central Ave., Alb. 255-8226. Lunch/Dinner Tequila/Mezcal/Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: Mexican, not New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. House specialties: Try the Chicken Tinga Taco with Chicken and Chorizo or the Slow Cooked Pork Ribs with Tamarind Recado-Chipotle Sauce. Over sixtyfive brands of Tequila are offered. Comments: resonable prices. Zia Diner 326 S. Guadalupe St. 988-7008. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$ Cuisine: All-American diner food. Atmosphere: Down home baby, House specialties: The Chile Rellenos and Eggs is our breakfast choice. At lunch, get the Southwestern Chicken Salad the Meat Loaf or the crispy Fish and Chips. Comments: The bar is place to be at cocktail hour.

THE magazine | 25


Railyard Art District

JUDY CHICAGO | Woven and Stitched JUNE WAYNE | The Tapestries: Forces of Nature and Beyond

Judy Chicago, Do a Good Turn, 2000, Reverse applique, quilting, and embroidery on fabric, 52” x 52” (Photo by Donald Woodman)

February 15 - March 23, 2013 Opening Reception: Friday, February 22, 5:00 - 7:00 PM

Lectures and discussions: June Wayne’s tapestries and Judy chicago’s textiLes Saturday, February 23, 2013, 2:00 - 3:30 PM at David Richard Gallery Featuring: Elissa Auther (Associate Professor of Contemporary Art, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs) Janet Koplos (Writer, Contributing Editor for Art In America) Judy Chicago (Artist, Educator, Feminist) David Eichholtz (David Richard Gallery)

DavidrichardGallery.com 544 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 | p (505) 983-9555 | f (505) 983-1284 | info@DavidRichardGallery.com


openings

F E B R U A R Y march artopenings FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1

Art Salon at Inspire, 423 Fourth St. SW, Alb. 505-450-9901. Anticipating Arcadia: paintings by Tobias Katz. 7-9 pm. Framing Concepts Gallery, 5809 Juan Tabo Blvd., Alb. 505-294-3246. Plein Air Pilgrims: group show of pastel and oil paintings. 5-8 pm. Mariposa Gallery, 3500 Central Ave. SE, Alb. 505-268-6828. Made in Japan: photographs by Cate Goedert. More than One: mixed-media work by Maria Moya. 5-8 pm. Monroe Gallery, 112 Don Gaspar Ave.,

Santa Fe. 992-0800. The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot: photographs by Sid Avery. 5-7 pm. Palette Contemporary Art and Craft, 7400 Montgomery Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-8557777. Cupid’s Heart Shaped Arrow: group show. 5-8 pm. ViVO Contemporary, 725 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 982-1329. Giving Voice to Image: group show, collaboration between poets and artists. 5-7 pm. Weyrich Gallery, 2935-D Louisiana Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-883-7410. Feng Shui Plus: tapestries by Donna Loraine Contractor. 5-7 pm.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2

516 Arts, 516 Central Ave. SW., Alb. 505242-1445. GILA: opening and fundraising event with photographer Michael Berman. 5-8 pm. Act 1 Gallery, 218 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. 575-758-7831. Twilight: group show. 3:30-5:30 pm. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8

Eggman and Walrus, 30 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 660-0048. Pinup-ology: pinup photography and multimedia works by Carolina Tafoya and Ungelbah Dávila. 6-11 pm. Santa Fe Clay, 545 Camino de la Familia, Santa Fe. 984-1122. Works by Peter Christian Johnson and Todd Volz. 5-7 pm. University of New Mexico Art Museum, 1 University Blvd NE, Alb. 505-277-4001. In the Wake of Juarez: drawings by Leora Briggs. Remnants of the First World: photographs by Martin Stupich. Bound Together—­­­Seeking Pleasure in Books: group show. 5-7 pm. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Hundredth Monkey Gallery at Mud Mountain Studio, 324 Broadway, Truth or Consequences. 575-894-6467. A Modern Nomad’s Eye-­ —Translations Through Film and Line: photographs by Jeannie Ortiz and drawings by Kyle Cunningham. 6-9 pm. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15

Alexandra Stevens Gallery of Fine Art, 820 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 988-1311. Celebrating 2013—Annual February Show: work by Walker Moore and G.E. Griffith. 5:30-7 pm. photo-eye

Gallery, 376-A Garcia St., Santa Fe. 988-5159. The Nude—Classical, Contemporary, Cultural: group show. 5-7 pm.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17

Las Placitas Presbyterian Church, 6 miles E. of I-25 on NM 165, Placitas. 505-867-8080. Placitas Artists Series: group show. 2-5:30 pm. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22

David Richard Gallery, 544 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 983-9555. The Tapestries—Forces of Nature and Beyond: work by June Wayne. Woven and Stitched: work by Judy Chicago. 5-7 pm. SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 989-1199. State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970: group show. On view at Zane Bennett Contemporary—435 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe—an exhibition of David Nakabayashi’s paintings entitled Presentiment. Reception: Friday, February 22, from 5 to 7 pm. february/march

2013

Always Creative: performance art and artifacts by Linda Mary Montano. Time, People, Money, Crickets: work by Mungo Thomson. 5-7 pm. VERVE G allery of P hotography , 219 E. Marcy St., Santa Fe. 982-5009. Group Show: works by Henry Horenstein, Linda Ingraham, and Brigitte Carnochan, 5-7 pm. Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, 435 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 982-8111. Presentiment: paintings by David Nakabayashi. 5-7 pm. FRIDAY, MARCH 8

Millicent Rogers Museum, 1504 Millicent Rogers Rd., Taos. 575-758-2462. Taos Pueblo Artist Winter Showcase: 5:30-7:30 pm. Tamarind Gallery, 2500 Central Ave. SE, Alb. 505-277-3901. Good in the Kitchen: retrospective group show. 5-7 pm. SATURDAY, MARCH 9

516 Arts, 516 Central Ave. SW., Alb. 505242-1445. Flatlanders and Surface Dwellers: multi-media group show. 6-8 pm. Greg Moon Art, 109-A Kit Carson Road, Taos. 575-770-4463. High Art / Low Brow: invitational group show. 4-7 pm. Richard Levy Gallery, 516 Central Ave., SW. Alb. 505-766-9888. Today’s Levitation: photos by Natsumi Hayashi. 6-8 pm. FRIDAY, MARCH 15

Marigold Arts, 424 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 9824142. Hand-woven rugs by Sandy Voss. 5-7 pm. SPECIAL INTEREST

333 Montezuma Arts, 333 Montezuma Ave., Santa Fe. 988-9564. Aegean Reverie: work by Robert M. “Bob” Ellis. Through Fri., March 15. 333montezumaarts.com Albuquerque ArtsCrawl, various locations in Alb. 505-244-0362. First Friday/Third Friday: citywide and neighborhood gallery openings. Fri., Feb. 1, 5-8:30 pm; Fri., Feb. 15, 5-8:30 pm. artscrawlabq.org BODY of Santa Fe, 333 W. Cordova Rd., Santa Fe. 986-0362. Dinner and concert with Kenyan Maasai visionary Salaton Ole Ntutu. Sat., Feb. 23, 5:30 pm. bodyofsantafe.com Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, Alb. 505-344-8139. Poetry reading by Miriam Sagan and Sari Krosinsky. Thurs., Feb. 28, 7-8 pm. bkwrks.com continued on page 30

THE magazine | 27


HERE’S THE DEAL

For artists without gallery representation in New Mexico. Full-page B&W ads for $600. Color $900. Reserve space for the April issue by Tuesday, March 12. 505-424-7641 themagazinesf@gmail.com


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openings

C enter for C ontemporary A rts , 1050 Old Pecos Tr., Santa Fe. 983-1338. Making Light of It—366 Days of the Apocalypse: paintings by Michelle Blade. Through Sun., Feb. 17. ccasantafe.org C harlotte J ackson F ine A rt , 554 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 989-8688. Pixel Dust Renderings 2012: works by Ronald Davis. Through Mon., Feb. 25. charlottejackson.com C hiaroscuro C ontemporary A rt , 702 1/2 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 992-0711. Winter Group Show. Sat., Feb. 2 to Sat., March 2. chiaroscurosantafe.com D avid R ichard G allery , 544 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 983-9555. Lectures and discussions on June Wayne’s tapestries and Judy Chicago’s textiles. Sat., Feb. 23, 2-3:30 pm. Stained and Unstretched: work by Paul Reed. Fri., Feb. 15 to Sat., Mar. 23. davidrichardcontemporary.com D owntown S ubscription , 376 Garcia St., Santa Fe. 983-3085. Paintings and prints by Elizabeth Hahn. Fri., Feb. 1 through Thurs., Feb. 28. elizabethhahnart.com H arwood M useum , 238 Ledoux St., Taos. 575-758-9826. Red Willow— Portraits of a Town: group show. Social Realism and The Harwood Suite: prints by Eli Levin. Eva Mirabal and Jonathan Warm Day Coming. Sat., Feb. 9 through Sun., May 5. harwoodmuseum.org L annan F oundation at the Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St.,
Santa Fe. 988-1234. Readings and Conversations Series: events throughout Feb. and Mar. lannan.org

Silver City Museum, 312 W. B’way, Silver City. 575-538-5921. A Vessel By Any Other Name: group show. Feb. 8 to Sept. 8. M asley G allery at University of New Mexico’s main campus, 1 University Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-277-4112. Art Education Faculty Invitational Exhibition: group show. Through Thurs., Feb. 28. unm.edu/~arted/gallery.html Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Pl., Santa Fe. 983-1777. Images of Life: work by Tyree Honga. Spyglass Field Recordings—Santa Fe: work by Nathan Pohio. Moccasins and Microphones: performance poetry, group show. Through Sun., Mar. 31. Thicker than Water: group show. Summer Burial: work by Jason Lujan. Through Sun., May 12. iaia.edu/museum S anta F e F armer ’ s M arket , 1607 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 455-9177. Project Party: fundraiser with food and musical performances. Sat., Feb. 16, 6:30 pm. santafefarmersmarket.com S t . J ohn ’ s C ollege , 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe. 984-6000. Lectures and concerts throughout Feb. and Mar. sjcsf.edu Wade Wilson Art, 409 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 660-4393. Pretty Blunderbuss: mixedmedia work by Rosemary Meza-DesPlas. Through Sat., Feb. 23. wadewilsonart.com PERFORMING ARTS

T he L ensic , 211 W. San Francisco St., 
 Santa Fe. 988-1234. Violin performance by Hilary Hahn. Tues., Feb 19, 7:30 pm. ticketssantafe.org CALL FOR ARTISTS

O nly G reen D esign , 1401 Maclovia St., Santa Fe. 490-0694. Street Art Community Canvas: installation, musical performance, and silent auction. Sat., Feb. 16, 6-9 pm. onlygreendesign.com P age O ne B ookstore , 11018 Montgomery Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-2942026. Local Author Book Fair. Sat., Feb. 2, 3-5 pm. page1book.com S anta F e C lay , 545 Camino de la Familia, Santa Fe. 984-1122. Work by David Eichelberger, Donna Polseno, and Sam Taylor. Through Sat., Mar. 2. santafeclay.com S anta F e A rt I nstitute , 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., Santa Fe. 424-5050. Lecture by director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Blandine Chavanne. Mon., Feb. 4, 6 pm. sfai.org S anta F e U niversity of A rt and D esign , 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., Santa Fe. 473-6011. Artists for Positive Social Change: with Shepard Fairey, Obama “Hope” poster creator. Sun., Feb. 17, 7 pm. santafeuniversity.edu

30 | THE magazine

Greg Moon Art, 109-A Kit Carson Rd., Taos. 575-770-4463. After Dark II: national juried show. Deadline: Mon., Apr. 15. callforentry.org Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, 215 W. San Francisco St., 202-A, Santa Fe. 505-349-1414. 2013 Fifth Annual Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. Deadline: Wed., May 1. santafeindependentfilmfestival.com

From top to bottom: The Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar Avenue, Santa Fe, is presenting an exhibition of photographs—The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot—by Sid Avery. Reception: Friday, February 1, from 5 to 7 pm. photo-eye Gallery—376-A Garcia Street—presents a group show entitled The Nude: Classical, Contemporary, Cultural. Reception: Friday, February 15, from 5 to 7 pm. Photo: Neil Craver. Eggman & Walrus—30 West Palace Avenue, (2nd Floor), Santa Fe—will be displaying Pinup-ology—a pinup photography and multimedia show by artists Carolina Tafoya and Ungelbah Dávila. Reception: Friday, February 8, from 6 to 11 pm.

february/march

2013


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previews

Pilgrimage: photographs by Annie Leibovitz February 15 through May 5 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 217 Johnson Street, Santa Fe. 946-1000. Reception: Friday, February 15, 6 pm. Annie Leibovitz’s photo spreads for Rolling Stone, Vogue, and Vanity Fair have redefined the American portrait—without her, we never would have seen Demi Moore in all her naked, pregnant glory, or John Lennon and Yoko Ono in an intimate embrace hours before Lennon’s death. But in recent years, Leibovitz has turned her lens away from starlets and statesmen and focused her camera on a subtler portrait of fame. Between 2009 and 2011, she journeyed across the United States, photographing the homes, landscapes, and objects that surrounded great Americans—most of whom were dead before Leibovitz first held a camera. Among other locations, she visited Emily Dickinson’s home, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond, Ansel Adams’ trails in Yosemite Valley, and the roads that took Georgia O’Keeffe home to Ghost Ranch. The resulting collection, entitled Pilgrimage, is a meditation on photography’s role in recording history and Leibovitz’s personal artistic heritage—“It taught me to see again,” she has said of this project. Pilgrimage is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and is accompanied by a book of the same title. Leibovitz will be in Santa Fe to discuss this body of work on Tuesday, February 12, 6 pm at the Lensic Center for the Performing Arts.

Always Creative: performance art by Linda Mary Montano. February 23 to May 19. SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 989-1199. Opening Reception: Friday, February 22, 5-7 pm. Every so often we come upon artists so selflessly devoted to their work that the only thing to do is pay them homage. Linda Mary Montano is one of those artists. Influenced not only by her family’s fervent Catholicism, but also by her studies in Zen Buddhism and yoga, Montano’s astounding endurance has established her as a key figure in feminist performance art. It is impossible to define the boundary between Montano’s life and Montano’s art—“Art is the place where I practice for life,” she said in a 2007 interview. She is known for her work Seven Years of Living Art, in which she lived in her home wearing a single color for a full year, spending part of each day in a room of the same color and listening to a single tone, all associated with the energy of a specific chakra. At the end of each year, she would change colors and concentrate on a new chakra— the performance lasted from 1984 to 1991. Another notable work was her collaboration with Taiwanese artist Tehching Hsieh, during which the two artists were bound to each other with rope from July 4, 1983 to July 3, 1984. Starting this month, SITE Santa Fe is presenting the first exhibition to consider the full breadth of Montano’s practice from 1969 to the present. Montano will be present at the members’ opening on February 21 and also on May 18 to present her work, Art/Life Counseling, during which the artist counsels clients on creative solutions to problems and difficulties. While it is impossible to fully prepare our readers for this retrospective, we can at least offer a suggestion—visitors are encouraged to wear the color associated with the Chakra of their choosing. First chakra: red—security. Second chakra: orange—life force. Third chakra: yellow—courage. Fourth chakra: green—compassion. Fifth chakra: blue—communication. Sixth chakra: purple—intuition. Seventh chakra: white—bliss.

Top: Annie Leibovitz, Sigmund Freud’s couch, Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, London, 2009 Linda Mary Montano, Linda Montano Will be handcuffed to Tom Marioni from 9pm November 2 to 9 pm November 5, (1973). Photographic documentation. Courtesy of the artist.

32 | THE magazine

february/march

2013



David Nakabayashi Black Space PRINTS BY

DONALD JUDD,

ELLSWORTH KELLY, ROBERT MOTHERWELL, PIERRE SOULAGES

PRESENTIMENT February 22 through March 22 OPENING RECEPTION

Friday, February 22 from 5 – 7 pm

January 25 through February 15 OPENING RECEPTION

Friday, January 25 from 5 – 7 pm ROBERT MOTHERWELL detail

435 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe, NM 87501 505 982-8111 zanebennettgallery.com Tues–Sat 10–5 or by appointment Railyard Arts District Walk last Friday of every month

ZANEBENNETT CONTEMPORARY

ART


n at i o n a l s p o t l i g h t

Miss Imperial, Fort Lupton, Colorado by

Patti Hallock

It would be wrong to say that Patti Hallock’s work denies the beauty of the West. Taken in the wide-open spaces of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and wherever else the American sky stretches boundlessly from horizon to horizon, Hallock’s photographs are defined by the landscape that surrounds her subjects. But for those of us living in this region, it is the familiarity of the backdrop that renders her photographs so haunting. This is not the West as we usually choose to see it, but rather, a vision of its possible (or probable?) decomposition. A graduate of the New School for Design, in New York City, Hallock is preoccupied with loneliness. Almost universally, Hallock turns her camera toward objects that are either inanimate or dead—a pile of antlers, a burned forest, an abandoned church, a dead raccoon—a “place-less place,” as she describes it, a kind of abyss that stares right back at you. Patti Hallock: The West is Here runs through March 3, 2013 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, 1485 Delgany Street, Denver, Colorado. february/march

2013

THE magazine | 35


In Pursuit of cultural freedom A lecture series on political, economic, environmental, and human rights issues featuring social justice activists, writers, journalists, and scholars discussing critical topics of our day.

BarBara EhrEnrEich with David Barsamian WEDnEsDay 13 march at 7pm Lensic Performing Arts center

jamEs hansEn with subhankar Banerjee WEDnEsDay 20 FEBruary at 7 pm Lensic Performing Arts center james hansen is well known for his research in the field of climatology and for helping to bring global warming to the world’s attention in the 1980s. in recent years, he has become active in promoting efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Hansen, head of the nAsA goddard institute for space studies in new York city and adjunct professor of earth and environmental sciences at columbia University’s earth institute, is the author of Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. This is the world we have changed, and now we have to live in it —the world that caused the 2003 heat wave in Europe that killed more than 50,000 people and the 2011 drought in Texas that caused more than $5 billion in damage. Such events, our data show, will become even more frequent and more severe…The future is now. And it is hot.

Barbara Ehrenreich, writer and long time political activist, is the author of 21 books including New York Times best sellers Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (10th anniversary edition issued 2011 with a new afterword) and This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation. in may 2012 she founded, with the institute for Policy studies, the economic Hardship reporting Project, a website designed to place the U.s. crisis of poverty and economic insecurity at the center of the national political conversation. So what is the solution to the poverty of so many of America’s working people? Ten years ago, when this book first came out, I often responded with the standard liberal wish list — a higher minimum wage, universal health care, affordable housing, good schools, reliable public transportation, and all the other things we, uniquely among the developed nations, have neglected to do . . . Maybe, as so many Americans seem to believe today, we can’t afford the kinds of public programs that would genuinely alleviate poverty — though I would argue otherwise. But at least we should decide, as a bare minimum principle, to stop kicking people when they’re down. — From Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara ehrenreich © 2011.

— James Hansen, Washington Post, 3 August 2012.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

ticketssantafe.org or call 505.988.1234 $6 general/$3 students/seniors with iD Video and audio recordings of Lannan events are available at:

www.lannan.org


f e at u r e

Far from Waterloo:

Stuart Arends

and La Stanza del Amore by

Diane Armitage with photographs by Anne Staveley

Why

would a contemporary artist with an international career live in the middle of nowhere, in Willard, New Mexico? The artist in question, Stuart Arends, as a joke, greets one of his visitors to Willard in Italian, saying that he hopes she will be entertained. Speaking Italian may seem odd in front of the Willard Cantina, but it’s not so strange when Arends is in Italy on one of his frequent trips there for an exhibition. Or perhaps the artist’s signature painted objects or his aluminum wedges are scheduled for a show in Germany or Switzerland. When he is back in the desert, though, Arends lives off the grid in a house he built. And there the artist is surrounded by the silence of his own ninety acres plus the thousands of others that don’t belong to him. That land comes with the aridity of a high and dry life with little rainfall and virtually no snowfall, and in the far distance are the Manzano Mountains off to the northwest with the occasional line of a freight train passing slowly on its way to or from West Texas; the train looks like a long, shiny snake moving slowly on the horizon. continued on page 38 february/march

2013

THE magazine 37


Arends’ work seduces the viewer like a case of love at first sight

Top: left to right Winfred 22, oil and wax on wood, 8½” x 5½” x 3”, 2011 Stanza del Amore 15, oil and wax on wood, 10” x 6” x 3”, 2006-11 Table in Studio Left Bottom: Studio Detail

Arends’ house is not all that big but, with its many windows and its immediate segues into light and space, it feels more like being on the outside than being sequestered within. And strange as it may seem, when you can tear yourself away from the views, Arends might offer you a book on the frescos of Piero della Francesca in order to explain a certain color blue that he is partial to on his painted cubes. As a matter of fact, Arends has dedicated a particular body of work, his PDF series, to that early Renaissance artist and his iconic use of the color. As easily as the art of Piero comes into focus out there on the plains of Willard, so does the conversation shift to the stuffed crow on the artist’s studio wall—an object given to him by his father who was, no doubt, close by when Arends was born in Waterloo, Iowa. As the crow flies, Waterloo is indeed far away from Willard and farther still from the Villa Panza in Milan, Italy, and its prestigious Panza Collection, in which Arends’ work feels right at home. Pieces by the artist are also in the collection of places like the Whitney Museum, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Lannan Foundation, based in Santa Fe. I had for a long time thought of Arends as a sculptor who painted, but this is not the case. The artist began painting at an early age in the middle of Iowa farmland. Eventually his painting brought him to art school in Colorado, then to a residency in Banff, Canada, followed by graduate school at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. Arends came of age in the era of Punk, Postmodernism, and the on the wall/off the wall debates going on in the art schools of the 1970s and ’80s. For Arends, participating in that art school dialectic meant attempting to get to the essential components of what constituted a painting. There is an anecdote he relates about holding a painting in his hands and being struck by its support system and how the balance shifted from the painting to its frame; it was the hefty physicality of the frame that made the painting seem like an illusion. From that point, Arends began to swerve away from the traditional concerns of a painter and readjust his focus. He states, “I wasn’t interested in sculpture, I’m a painter, and I wanted to go into the painting space so I projected the canvas out.” Needless to say, projecting the canvas out meant creating a painting in three dimensions—four if you include all the time spent in deliberation, in making adjustments large and small, in studying a painted object as it

protruded into space and was modulated by the power of ambient light. Arends could have thought about his initial paintings-as-cubes in terms of an imposing scale, but he did not go in that direction. If scale is an indicator of psychological need, Arends’ boxes, cubes, and wedges range in size from small to very small to tiny, all the better to establish intimate relationships with the artist’s vision and the discerning choices he has made over time in terms of colors, textures, shadows, and reflections. The first wall pieces by Arends that I remember seeing were cubes painted with wax and oil on wood or steel, and they were about three inches on a side—tiny by any standard. Yet his work was unusually compelling. There was, in spite of his colorful palette reminiscent of a pack of Life Savers, a tendency for this work to break ranks with its surface accessibility and pull the viewer into a kind of aesthetic box canyon—no pun intended. Once inside the canyon, with its sheer walls and limited exit strategies, the viewer was left to figure out how these diminutive artworks could create such a weighty philosophical debate, such a craving to comprehend their genesis. Understanding the sculpture of Donald Judd was easy by comparison because Judd’s work takes up so much space and, whether you want it to or not, it demands you pay attention. Arends’ work makes no such demands but seduces the viewer like a case of love at first sight, like opposites attracting—appealing surface meets inscrutable object, strange alchemy resulting. In a review of an Arends’ exhibition in Santa Fe in 2007, at James Kelly Contemporary, John Yau wrote, in The Brooklyn Rail, “For Arends, formal issues didn’t mean achieving optical illusion at the expense of tactility or vice versa. If anything, he wanted the optical and the physical to be inseparable, which ultimately suggests that the informing impulse in his work is erotic…. [His] rigorous restating of formalism’s privileging of the optical is philosophical rather than purely aesthetic; it speaks to issues of the heart.” In the autumn of 2012, Arends had a show at Isaac’s Gallery in Roswell, the town that first introduced him to life in the Southwest desert thirty years ago. Featured were works on paper from the 1990s, and selected pieces from five series of the last ten years: PDF, Winfred, Wedges, Unfolded, and La Stanza del Amore. If the artist’s early painted


f e at u r e

boxes were products of a formalist struggle that addressed issues particular to painting, one of his later series, Winfred, deals with information that is both historical and personal. Winfred refers to a town in South Dakota where his grandparents and his mother moved looking for a new life in the Dust Bowl years. Using wax and pigment on small blocks whose largest size is ten by six by three inches, Arends repeatedly painted numbers in white on a dark gray, red, or blue ground. The numbers actually referred to years like 1932, 1933, or 1940—years of the Great Depression with its failed crops, disrupted lives, and poverty—and this was his mother’s generation as a child. Initially, the numbers don’t read as specific years, they run together as patterns that are, at first, confounding. Staying with the work, though, allows the poignancy of that era to leak out of its containment within this work in high relief. Arends’ family history is treated emblematically as a personal and universal time frame with its familial continuity from which the artist can and does draw inspiration. The series La Stanza del Amore (The Room of Love—more or less referring to the master’s bedroom) has its origins on quite another platform, that of the affluence of an Italian palazzo, with its own set of historical and aristocratic referents. The La Stanza del Amore pieces are box forms set on top of one another and painted with stripes in wax and oil on wood. However, each form contains a slightly staggered set of stripes in, for example, red, bright blue, or black on white so that as one line of color meets the stripes in the box below, the blue, for instance, is met with white; the colored stripes are not continuous vertical lines. Arends took this brokenstripe pattern from the designated field area of a coat of arms attached to a particular palazzo; the woman who lived there had commissioned the artist to do a piece for her and, in this case, he took his inspiration not from the privations of an American Dust Bowl existence, but from the signifiers of European gentry and their privileged lifestyles. Arends is someone who has navigated as the crow flies from his years as a young painter to his maturity as an artist, if not exactly in a straight line, then with a strong sense of intuitive precision nonetheless. And from Waterloo to Willard has meant a few Italian cities in between such as Verona, where the artist will be having an exhibition of new work, the Stormy Monday series, in the fall of 2013 at Studio La Città. The artist once said, “I look on the paint I use like blood, the wax like flesh, the wood and steel like bone.” Rather than make a career in formalist nitpicking, whose modulations can be aesthetically incestuous and tiresome, Arends has worked another vein of artistic inquiry. He isn’t interested in splitting the hairs of Minimalism in a hermetically sealed practice, but in transforming the influences that made him who he is and the affinities to which he gravitates. In contrast to the arid desert ecology that surrounds him, the artist lives in the fluid nature of his desires—desires for visual equivalencies that best express his lifetime of being an artist and letting his idiosyncratic gravitational fields pull on him slowly, from deep within. Diane Armitage is a video artist, a free-lance writer, and an art history teacher at the Santa Fe Community College.

february/march

2013

THE magazine 39


Vittorio Masoni

January 25 - March 16, 2013

Also: Hesse Weaver Aronov Man Ware Wright van Buren Forlano Salloch Voelkel

A Gallery Santa Fe 154 Marcy #104 Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.603.7744 agallerysantafe.com


Critical Reflection

Donald Judd

and

Marfa

Judd Foundation 104 Highland Street, Marfa, Texas Chinati Foundation 1 Cavalry Row, Marfa, Texas

“Actual space is intrinsically more and specific than paint on a flat surface,” wrote Donald Judd in 1965 in “Specific Objects.” Several years later in the early 1970s, actual space is what the artist found in Marfa, Texas, where he initiated a new interaction with the art object, proof of which is just a seven-hour car drive south of Santa Fe. Judd purchased a number of buildings in Marfa, many of which formerly functioned as a military base. Fort D.A. Russell started out as Camp Marfa, headquarters for the Big Bend Military District during the Mexican Revolution, then became a cavalry fort, housed German prisoners of war during World War II, was returned to civilian use in 1949, and was later bought by Judd who eventually purchased hundreds of acres of military property and at the time of his death, owned 40,000 acres of ranch land. Today two organizations maintain the legacy of Judd: the Judd Foundation and The Chinati Foundation. The Judd Foundation’s mission is to preserve what they call his “installed living and working spaces.” They reveal their mission to Juddappreciation and education, and these specific values are realized at his former bank turned Architecture Studio, which is maintained just the way he left it. Judd’s compulsion to order is impressive. This studio is a place of ideation where the artist’s spatial relationships appear in the smallest of objects. The crisp black lines on a set of Judd-designed teacups mirror the lines and circles of a corkscrew as well as patterning on an adjacent antique Iranian bowl, items intentionally arranged on a table downstairs. The bank is one of the many buildings purchased by Judd and then renovated. His real estate acquisitions always included changes to the architecture, always as few as possible, and generally settling around two or three. Among the most common were doorway modifications, raising ceilings, and stripping away façades to reveal internal structure such as stucco from bricks. Stripped and augmented by Judd’s architectural adjustments, the bank structure becomes archetypal, as if creating a standard all other projects would follow. Upstairs along the right side there is room after room, all in a line and all identical, suggesting production in their repetition. It’s not an assembly line but a series of chambers, perhaps once offices, that one feels continue forever. Used for different

purposes, these rooms are sequential, with a doorway placed exactly in the same location in each room so that from one end of this upstairs floor, where Judd would sit at his desk, he could see to the far end of the building through six black thresholds. The white walls and black trim echo the installation downstairs of teacups, corkscrews, and antiques. This studio space is unchanging, partly due to the Judd Foundation’s mission, but also because the entire building functions as an installed object. The bank itself functions like a found object, real estate that is itself an installation, and as long as the Judd Foundation remains, Judd’s living and working spaces will remain a constant. Indeed, time seems to be one of Judd’s mediums. The Chinati Foundation, founded by Judd, is located on three hundred and forty acres of land, the buildings of which belonged to Fort D.A. Russell. In 1979 the Dia Art Foundation facilitated funding for the site’s conversion to “an independent, non-profit, publicly funded institution” that would exhibit works by Donald Judd, John Chamberlain, and Dan Flavin. It has since expanded to show works by other artists whom Judd admired. In

a 1987 essay reprinted in Chinati: The Vision of Donald Judd (2010), Judd wrote, “Somewhere, just as the platinum-iridium meter guarantees the tape measure, a strict measure must exist for the art of this time and place.” This measure is The Chinati Foundation. The army base was in dilapidated ruins but due to this need of reparation, artworks installed within had the benefit of developing alongside their architecture. In Artillery Sheds, Judd describes how the artwork and architecture cross-referenced and became codependent. Two artillery sheds on the property contain one hundred aluminum boxes with identical outer dimensions. Each interior is an individual permutation of space, a studied division of its 41” x 51” x 72” exterior. The sheds have concrete floors, scored to create squares. Within each square rests a box, in one of three lengthwise columns so that standing at one end, three sequences of silver aluminum run to the far end. All of Chinati, save the Flavins, use natural light, and the shed’s former garage doors (of which there are over thirty) were replaced with enormous quartered windows, determined by the dimensions and placement of the boxes,

which were in turn determined by the “size and nature of the buildings.” Thus these works exist within the artillery sheds not just as installations but also as permanent structures. Judd’s tenacity regarding the permanent placement of three-dimensional objects was so critical that the gallery at his home in Marfa has no door for the artwork to exit. After placing each large piece, the garage door was sealed to continue the wall, leaving only the pedestrian door and holding the artwork indefinitely captive in the space. With the artillery sheds, as with most of The Chinati Foundation, Judd orchestrated what fellow artist Robert Irwin later defined as site-specific installations, where “the ‘sculpture’ is conceived with the site in mind; the site sets the parameters and is, in part, the reason for the sculpture.” The Foundation’s 2007 mission statement quotes Judd as saying in 1987 that, “The art and architecture of the past that we know is that which remains.” Housing artwork eternally in spite of its orphaned mobility is operative. “Art and architecture—all the arts—do not have to exist in isolation,” says Judd. They can exist within a certain place and this place is Marfa, Texas. —Hannah Hoel

The Donald Judd Foundation would not grant permission to THE magazine to show an image of the Artillery Sheds. To see images of the Sheds, go to the Chinati Foundation: http://www.chinati.org/visit/collection/artilleryshedsbyjudd.php or for more images, Google: “Artillery Sheds Judd”

Image © 2013 DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Texas Orthoimagery Program, Map data ©2013 Google february/march

2013

THE magazine | 41


Max Cole: Beyond

Charlotte Jackson Fine Art 554 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe

The painters Panza favors [Giuseppe Panza di Biumo] tend to understand, at least implicitly, that they are engaged in a deep revelation of individual sensibility. Max Cole, a painter of striped canvases included in this exhibition, has said the tiny vertical “articulations” in her work “relate to natural rhythms, such as the heartbeat and the process of breathing.” —From “Color and Light: A Sense of Joy,” essay by David Bonetti from the book The Panza Collection

Max Cole’s exhibition Beyond is one of the most elegant and masterful painting shows I have ever seen in Santa Fe. Her work, arresting and austerely beautiful, is contained by parameters that exude precision and a carefully honed sensibility. It’s as if Cole has devised a form of calculus whose aesthetic functions and analytic differentials are based on visual elements like pigment, spacing, and horizontal bands of information. Yet, the hermeticism one initially perceives in Cole’s work gives way to a profound pleasure in art that is so deeply intelligent and rigorously conceived. What at first feels like barriers to understanding Cole’s intentions—the work’s extreme elegance, its intense degree of finesse—proves otherwise in the viewer’s acceptance of Cole’s terms of engagement. In the end, Cole does not hold you at arm’s length. On the contrary, the only way to grasp her highly disciplined approach to painting is to

get as close to the work as possible in order to partake of the intimacy in her “articulations”— the thin vertical striations that run parallel to each other in bands that spread across the canvas—sometimes in a single band or many of them positioned up and down the canvas like steps, or a series of multiple tide lines, horizon lines, or horizontal shafts of light that alternate with bands of flawlessly applied black. The precision with which Cole determines her compositions is immediately evident, but the areas of her vertical striations, while not what you would ever call haphazard, admit the signature of the artist’s hand and its inability, or lack of desire even, to control the exact width of a line, or the line’s wavering verticality, or its proximity to the next one—always just a kiss away, and almost, but not quite touching. You can’t even see the patterns of the striations clearly until you are close to the

surface of the painting, and this is where the almost heartbreaking sense of intimacy occurs. The vertical lines vibrate ever so slightly and, as Cole said in the quote from David Bonetti’s essay above, her articulations relate to natural rhythms. If the mystery of the black areas within Cole’s work seem to suggest the dark void of the cosmos as well as the density of our inner spaces of reflection, her vertical lines are like a record of her heartbeats or the pattern of her thoughts. The lines feel organic and lyrical, diametrically opposed to the mechanical, and no two lines are ever the same. Cole’s paintings seem to exist in a contrapuntal relationship between a very private sense of place, visualized by a rigorous methodology, and the universally remote— spaces of speculation, existential isolation, and allusions to infinity. In part, what makes this work so beautiful is the manner in which

the artist distills her influences so that the work is powerfully clear in its assured sense of presence, yet these exquisite paintings also exist as a series of emotional fugue states where clarity of means is a device but not the final goal. Cole’s work is balanced between a devotion to the practice of painting and the way that meaning fluctuates, as in the gestural lines that give this work its subtle qualities of movement. And we willingly engage in the artist’s quest for visual perfection knowing that every artist gives birth to a work but has to submit to the vicissitudes of someone else’s subjectivity. It’s like a grand bargain that is struck as we exchange our attention for Cole’s intensely personal, even fragile, revelations. In Somerset Fall III, seven black horizontal bars alternate with six bands of lighter washes of pale-brown, gray, and tan that serve as the ground for her refined vocabulary of vertical lines. There is an irregularity in these lighter bands where the pale colors of the ground appear to be blushing from below the surface in unequal measures, and seen from a distance, Cole’s articulations tend to blend together and appear as gray veils that bulge outward from the picture plane—diaphanous and eerie. The revelations come when intimacy is achieved and each horizontal band becomes a distinct entity in possession of a code that relates to the artist’s feelings about the nature and meaning of art. Studying Cole’s work made me think of a book by Annie Dillard—Teaching a Stone to Talk. Dillard is a writer who deals with the nature of perception and the self’s relationship to physical and metaphysical states, and I thought about Cole’s work in relation to the title of Dillard’s book. In every generation of artists, from time immemorial to the present, making art is like teaching a stone to talk. Giving form, content, and a sense of purpose to insensate, obdurate materials is taking a stone and encouraging it to speak. Cole’s practice of painting, driven by a concentric vision, creates a bifurcating path out of the chaos of existence and leads to incarnations of breathtaking beauty, honesty, and rigor. After each epiphany, there is no place to go but beyond to an ineffable place that mirrors the passion to create. This is where transference of intentions can and does take place in those rare moments of sublime give-and-take between the artist and the observer—it’s like listening to someone’s heart through a stethoscope or to a stone in the act of whispering poetry.

—Diane Armitage

Max Cole, Somerset Fall III, acrylic on linen, 52” x 62”, 2012


Critical Reflection

50/50 Exhibition Lecture Series: Charlene Teters We are invisible under the weight of our mythology­. —Charlene Teters

Artist, teacher, lecturer, and Native rights activist Charlene Teters used to be so shy that speaking in public made her hyperventilate. Born into the Spokane tribe in Washington State, Teters escaped an abusive husband to attend the two-year program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Earlier this winter, Teters spoke to a small crowd at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in support of the exhibition 50/50 (see review, October 2012 issue THE magazine) about her life as an artist whose work was kick-started by her experiences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Recruited into their MFA program by the University, Teters and fellow IAIA students Marcus Amerman and Norman Akers unwittingly walked into an atmosphere of devastating racism in the form of Chief Illiniwek, the school’s sports mascot since 1926—played by a white male dressed in Sioux regalia. Attending a basketball game at the University of Illinois with her two children,

Teters watched her son and daughter shrink with shame at Chief Illiniwek’s appearance; the mascot eroded her family’s identity as Natives. She became politicized, and with Amerman and Akers protested against the use of Native caricatures as mascots for sports teams. The cost of standing up against the status quo was dear; the shy girl grew, painfully, into her role as an outspoken woman. Help arrived in the form of American Indian Movement icon Vernon Bellecourt, with whom Teters formed the Native American Students for Progress. The future Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller proved herself an early ally; civil rights and Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael, known to Teters by his African name Kwame Ture, lent Teters the courage to speak out by asking her “If not you, then who?” She held many a vigil outside sports events, carrying a sign that read “Just Say No to Red Sambo.” It was a lonely road, but after two decades

of controversy, the “Chief” was finally retired in 2007, the NCAA having labeled it a “hostile and abusive” mascot. The event that finalized Teters’ role as an activist-artist came with her daughter’s field trip to Dickson Mounds, the site of an Illinois museum built around the remains of more than two hundred Native individuals. Teters accompanied the class to the Mounds and was astounded at the desecration and disrespect she found there. AIM occupied Dickson, and eventually the ancestors were properly re-buried. Since then, Teters has used her work to examine notions of burial sites and remains as archaeological displays, as well as the confounding myth that Native culture is a thing of the past. What We Know About Indians and It Was Only an Indian comprise important samples in a body of work that challenges preconceptions about Indian people as an exoticized race from prehistory rather

Museum of Contemporary Native Arts 108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe than a proud contemporary culture. Teters made the installations Obelisk and Mound: To The Heroes, for SITE Santa Fe’s Third International Biennial, titled Looking for a Place, which was curated by Rosa Martínez. The Mound consisted of pantyhose filled with sand, heaped corpse-like onto a gallery floor, with a monumentally sized, altered version of the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima, shot by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. In Teters’version, the photograph depicts Ira Hayes alone, one of three of the six flagraisers to survive World War II, reaching for but not quite touching the flagpole. Ironically, Hayes was a Pima Indian from Arizona; when he returned after serving his country as a Marine, he was not allowed to vote. (Neither were the Navajo Code Talkers, who helped crack the Japanese stranglehold over the Pacific theater.) Hayes’ narrative is that of a man broken by war and racism. Retold through Teters’ art, his tale promotes poignantly effective dialog in the form of an unforgettable visual presence. Teters continues to make art that attracts viewers as much as it provokes them, using elements of street theater to surprise, please, and outrage her audience. She performed Around the Edges: The Corners of Ghent in Belgium in 2000, a piece in which she dressed in the attire of a traditional Spokane woman and presented herself to consumers of visual culture as a living mannequin in a store window. In 2002, she wandered in full Native regalia through the musty halls of New York’s Natural History Museum, disconcerting visitors who expect their Indians to be confined to museum dioramas. The granddaughter of a woman who taught the Spokane way through story telling, Teters learned that the most important question of all is “What is in your heart?” Like Joseph Beuys and Marina Abramovic, this artist has made a place for herself by making meaning visible. In the context of contemporary Native art and identity, mythologizing a people will no longer do. Charlene Teters aims higher than that, for all our sakes.

—Kathryn M Davis Charlene Teters, Obelisk and Mound: To The Heroes (digitally manipulated detail of original photograph by Joe Rosenthal, 1945). Installation exhibited at SITE Santa Fe’s Third International Biennial, 1999

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2013

THE magazine | 43


Art

of

Renewal

James Kelly Contemporary 550 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe

ART OF RENEWAL’S current group show (through February) at James Kelly Contemporary is a selection by director James Kelly of works from several of the gallery’s artists. Perhaps the recent holidays have something to do with the quiet, lowkey appeal of the show. Its ensemble cast of distinct artists, all gathered under one roof, invites the seasonal theme of all the kids come home for the holidays. Their assembly reveals an underlying family resemblance shared in common. This affinity might speak to Kelly’s own aesthetic or, at the least, to some aspect central to his collection strategy. Whatever the source, Art of Renewal’s display of manifold devices and desires occurs within a tacit harmony of effect. And what is that tacit harmony? Not a clue. And if I knew I wouldn’t tell. Art of Renewal makes no concession to any viewer expectations of being told what they’re looking at, much less how it should affect them. You’re on your own in there. And being on your own, you take in each piece on its own terms and then respond to it on yours. Left to yourself, you start to find—or make—connections. One link seems to be the artists’ shared belief in the capacity of “historical” art styles to reinvent themselves. The figuration and handling of Jack Balas’s easel-range oils on canvas are reminiscent of the work of David Salle or Eric Fischl during the Neo-Expressionist return of painting to the internecine terrain of the Postmodern 1980s. Yet the eclectic tact of Balas eschews the Postmodern polemic to pursue an authentic painterly style and highly personal narrative. Bill Jacobson’s pigment prints deploy the documentary bent of Postmodern photography in his Place series, in which the concept of place is grasped as installation space (#125), actual space (#425), and state of mind (#554). The irony at work in David Taylor’s archival inkjet prints affirms the medium’s objectivity while rejecting its Postmodern detachment. Border Monument No. 198 features an obelisk atop a rocky outcrop surveying a vast lunar landscape of silent desert—a mute memorial to oblivion. In The New River (with border fence), Calexico, a full moon in the deep blue night sky is usurped by the glare of the lights high above the chain link fence of the border station that keeps vigilant watch against a menacing flood of migrant labor. The abstract skeins of Wes Mills’ graphite-and-pigment arabesques and of Matt Magee’s oil-on-litho grids evoke the harmonic dissonance of some avant-garde concerto.

So does the fantasia on Euclidean solids in Pard Morrison’s enamel-on-acrylic Mutation series, scored with intense primary colors. The most subtle formal device at work in the show’s serendipity—likely intuitive, at times unintended—is arguably the most effective: a reciprocal scheme that rises to the level of visual trope’s ornament without detracting from any work’s structure. I refer to a pervasive bisymmetry achieved through recourse to reverse, converse or complementary forms or formal handling, especially in the mirror-image compositions. Bruce Nauman’s Partial Truth series is represented by two prints. In one, an etching, the dark Roman-type letters of the “Partial Truth” title are hatched against a white ground; in the other, the title letters are rendered as white embossed letters raised in low relief above the paper’s surface. Susan York’s diptych Daily Practice: Day 26, Drawing and Sphere pairs a solid graphite drawing of a six-and-a-half-inch diameter sphere with an “actual” six-and-a-half-inch sphere made of solid graphite and set on a painted wood shelf. Nic Nicosia’s Untitled Figure #8 is a white paper clay figure with arms akimbo. This sculpture is flanked by so thinking busy, an archival inkjet print on paper depicting the same sculpture. And in the print the lighting has thrown into shadow all the interior areas of the figure and its vertically stacked multiple heads while highlighting the outer contours of the form—the mirror-image of Untitled Figure, where the interior forms of the clay sculpture are highlighted while the contours of its body and heads are in shadow. In Jacobson’s Place series, with its vertical board/slab/rectangle as the underlying grid motif, the black stele of #425 linking the horizontally stacked bands of sky, distant shore, water, and coastal zone reverts to the grey-white rectangle of #554 locking together all the geometric elements of the grid composition. And bilateral contrast is attained within a single work in James Drake’s charcoal-on-paper Black Bird/White Mirror. The trait that is common to all the artists selected for the show is their command of an inherent structure and narrative potential that both enable and sustain a viewer’s vicarious experience of their works. Perhaps that’s the essence of the art of renewal.

—Richard Tobin

Nic Nicosia, Untitled Figure #8, paper clay, 18” x 11” x 2½”, 2011


Critical Reflection

Forget Your Perfect Offering

CCA Spector Ripps Projects Space 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe

How do artists make meaning? Is it possible to really get personal in an age as cynical as ours? In Forget Your Perfect Offering, a series of performance-based art pieces, ten Santa Fe artists explored ritual, interaction, and genuine offering, in unorthodox and often unexpectedly personal ways. Performance art, as a genre, is not for everybody, but the performance art in this exhibition is—literally: it’s a very intentional gift from artist to viewer, in the hopes of fostering a more meaningful relationship between those who make art and those who encounter it. The title of the show is taken from a Leonard Cohen song in which listeners are urged to “start again,” to “ring the bells that can still ring,” and yes, to forget our perfect offerings. The problem is that we’re consumers before we’re gift givers, and all too often we’re distracted by the actual gift and not the sentiment behind it. It’s okay to be imperfect, though. After all, like Cohen says, “there’s a crack in everything/ that’s how the light gets in.” In a recent radio interview, Sydney Cooper, who organized FYPO with fellow artist Edie Tsong, noted how important it is for her to interact with those who view her art, and to understand their reactions. She also mused that artists in Santa Fe are bound to come across “deep spirituality” as a theme or as a response to their work—that the quest for and very notion of spirituality is tightly woven into the city’s fabric. This sentiment carries through to the exhibition’s performances, whose collective thesis seems to be that genuine interaction is the ultimate goal of any ritual or offering. Moreover it places the artists in the context of Santa Fe, where many come to tap into the deep spirituality Cooper talks about. A show grounded in very intentionally offering your art and, in effect, your person, not only explores the relationship between artist and art encounter-er but also suggests that selflessness is of premium importance to an artistic practice. Throughout the duration of the exhibition a makeshift altar greeted visitors, who were invited to bring things (candy, flowers, puzzle pieces, you name it) to leave behind. For a show that identifies the artist/viewer connection as preeminently important, the altar was an ingenious and touching way of actuating that goal, wherein

february/march

2013

the viewer is thrust into an uncannily personal space of association and reflection. For those not exposed to religion as children, the purported holiness of a sacred place or thing can be perplexing. Edie Tsong tackles this feeling in her performance piece For Nobody Taught Me to Cry. Raised in an atheist household, Tsong questions whether secular rituals can be understood and practiced in universal, albeit personal ways. If your background doesn’t include worship, or even religious study, how do you approximate religious ritual? More importantly, is approximating religion or aspiring to belong to one a definable or desirable goal? Taping her mouth shut, the artist alternately meditated and chopped onions, producing a predictably tearful, and mesmerizingly visceral, result. In religious organizations, rituals

are often carried out in groups, where the very nature of the ritual act depends on participation and acknowledgment within a gathering of people. In her performance, Tsong manifested her own interpretation of ritual in a group setting. In conflating, even hypothetically, the relationship of grief with religious allegiance, Tsong urges us to consider the emotional depth of true devotional sentiment. Works like The Blessed Mother: Full of Grace, Full of Sorrow, in which artist Ruth D’Arcy shares her understanding of a matrimonial devotional figure with poetry and scripture readings, and Jennifer Joseph’s thoughtful arrangement of dozens of potently scented stargazer lilies, with which the artist “welcomes the divine feminine to the planet” serve as forceful, deliberately contemplative explorations of

female expression. One of the few male artists included in the exhibition, Matthew Chase-Daniel (co-founder of mobile art gallery Axle Contemporary), uses Churro fleece, traditional to Southwestern Navajo people, to spin yarn—most often thought of as a female activity. In exploring themes of interaction and offering, multiple artists were keen on expressing traits of warmth and protectiveness associated with recognizably feminine archetypes. Community is important, and for people who make art, it’s everything. In urging us to forget our perfect offerings, the artists in this exhibition persuasively encourage us to remember theirs. Because they lack calculation and perfection, their performances became transformed into earnest offerings, making perfection a happily unattainable goal.

—Iris McLister

Edie Tsong during opening reception for Forget Your

THE magazine | 45


Siobhan McBride: Strong Winds May Exist

When we’re inside, we’re outside. When it’s night, it’s day. And wherever Siobhan McBride takes us—underwater, into a blizzard, inside an aquarium, high above the earth—she gives us gorgeous light. The exhibition of her work at Eight Modern presents twenty-two of McBride’s blended scenes from 2010 to 2012, all created in gouache on paper on panel. The pictures range in size from five by four inches to eighteen by twenty-four inches and there is much drama within these spaces. Each work combines mini-views, or even snippets of views, aligned or superimposed or merely there. The composite images often have the feel of collage, but aren’t. McBride explains that her paintings “combine disparate yet familiar fragments into spaces that are still, anxious, and temperamental.” In Tapes we see four different styles of cassette tapes painted edge to edge on top of the picture’s tree section. Below them is a pond and beyond the trees are a canyon section and a sky section. I decide that each of the four cassettes contains different music to complement each of the painting’s four divisions. Yes, they are all part of the same painting, and yet they aren’t. They strike me as thoughts that are fighting with one other for expression. (I later read an interview of McBride where she describes how distraction often guides her work.) We never see people in these works, just plenty of evidence of our ability to mar landscapes. There are fish trapped in a manmade aquarium. There are freeway overpasses ruining views. And there are appliances and devices galore, from an electric range to a

microwave oven, to a phonograph record player. In Fah! a giant vinyl record album floats above the horizon like the setting sun, while the record player operates in the foreground. Its angled sides delimit the other scenes in the painting like patchwork—to the left a glimpse of the ocean borders a grassy field, to the right a sandy beach abuts a wood paneled floor. Here again McBride is deliberate about light. It comes from our left—as it often does in her work—and the shadow under the record player’s arm makes that clear. McBride’s outdoor scenelets— sometimes slipped unobtrusively into the very bottom of a painting, or glimpsed just outside a window, or emerging from the top of a teepee—offer vibrant combinations of teals, greens, and earth tones. Her dark colors are so rich that her use of light offers bright, eerie contrasts. In Side Car we see animal pelts and a taxidermy mount on what appears at first to be some sort of luminescent green monitor. But on closer inspection we find that we are inside a dark railroad passenger car looking out through the window at dead, preserved critters awash in blue-green light, like riding a vintage train through a dusty, forgotten natural history museum. McBride titles her work in ways that sometimes reflect what we are seeing and sometimes create unanswered questions. We identify the meandering road in Path, the kidcolored beach ball in Ball, and the grass and trees in Yard. But the rabbit in Rabbit Tattoo is elusive, unless he’s in the red-hot oven. And the hint of Canadian First Nations art in

Alligators All the Time doesn’t help me with the alligator reference. Equidistance leaves us trying to calculate which items are somehow equally spaced, and yet distant from what? The tree to the house? The house to the tower? The tower to the road, and then to the snowy ground we’re standing on? “I hope the work is strange and suspenseful,” says McBride, “like the excitement of exploring a new place, and the thrill of knowing you are drifting back into a frightening dream.” In college McBride double-majored in art and English. Once I know this, I begin to suspect that these paintings are McBride’s way of telling stories by using composites of scenes to create an acute sense of place and of mood. She is describing moments and leaves it to us to decide whether each moment precedes an important event or follows it. McBride works on several paintings at once to avoid boredom and to try not to overthink them, and to give free rein to distraction. Loon Habitat captures me entirely. There is no loon in sight but I realize that we are in his underwater world. We look up at the blinding

Eight Modern 231 Delgado Street, Santa Fe white light of the water’s surface above us. Down below, with our loon’s-eye view, McBride has created the muted tones of the ocean floor and yet light still reflects from the gently waving fronds of the water plants to our left and the shells, barnacles, and stones to our right. For the first time in my life, I am a loon. The humor in the hanging of the show is heartening. The tiniest painting (Rabbit Tattoo, five by four inches) shows a stove with all four burners blazing and a fiery oven, and hangs over the gallery fireplace. Loon Habitat’s wet world is the first painting we see upon entering the gallery from the miserably dry outdoors. Roadways share wall space as do cozy interiors. McBride borrowed the show’s title directly from those grammatically odd road signs warning that STRONG WINDS MAY EXIST. Like winds that apparently exist rather than occur, McBride’s suggestions of connectivity in her paintings may or may not exist.

—Susan Wider

Left: Siobhan McBride, Loon Habitat, gouache on paper on panel, 12” x 16”, 2010 Right: Siobhan McBride, Tapes, gouache on paper on panel, 16” x 12”, 2010


Critical Reflection

Emilia Faro

Destiny Allison Fine Art 7 Caliente Road #1, Eldorado

Caught between now and then, we see experience with greatest clarity only in retrospect. The meanings of the present moment will only make sense or appear clear in the next moment to come. The first lines of a drawing make sense when it is complete. Only in conscious reflection does experience create the meaningful past in relation to a projected future now, and both are imaginary signposts set in shifting sand. The projected future now, required to make the past meaningful, has interesting properties. It remains brilliantly, beautifully, forever over the horizon, like every luminous leprechaun chaser’s pot o’ gold, down roads paved with good intentions. The meaningful past is equally endlessly fascinating. The stories of the old projected futures are held in a crumbling storehouse, archived by a librarian whose senses, failing along with the entire bittersweet collection, will ultimately merge with the dust, save some ruins, some stone walls, a painting, a doll perhaps... What happened to the digital animation your grandmother created? Of course the real now, right now, is the most amazing of all three temporal concepts, the source of all the metaphors used to imagine the other two, and yet, grounded as it is in empirical reality, it is even more keenly elusive, since it has no meaning by itself. Sail the Ocean Now, Pirates! To the top of the mast and be it forcibly declared: “Strung out on the hammock of illusion are we!” since the vast canopy of now, seamless source of being, is meaningless without the imaginary (non-empirically extant) signposts of the past and future to suspend it. Leading us straight toward the jagged straits of Hindsight is 20/20 (regret’s no place to hang a hat) just in sight of the great cliffs of Cape Tomorrow, about a day away under good wind. The ancient Sumerians felt the time crunch. They needed to spend all day at their prayers to the Moon Goddess and they needed to tend the crops and livestock and maintain the surplus of the new agricultural reality. Just as writing supplanted their oral traditions, they set works of art within the shrines

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of the goddess in the form of statues supplanting themselves, wide-eyed, staring straight into the enormous eyes of the large effigy of the deity, locked in a perpetual reverence beyond time. An eternal now of permanent meaning is granted and sustained by the presence of the goddess. This is a key function of religion and art, a hedge of absolutist illusion built against death and the fundamentally indeterminable nature of existence. Like trying to dig holes in water. It may comfort you to do it, but in the end, it’s just a temporary thing. The only faces we really see are our own. From this human urge, this urge to look the past and future in the eyes and make meaning, we derive the art of portraiture. An Egyptian Ka statuette, like the Mesopotamian votive, housed the soul of the sitter. Byzantine icons have the same wide-open stare, evoking the mystical presence of the virgin or saints. The ability of portraiture to transcend time so threatened the upper reaches of the Byzantine clergy that they set about smashing artworks. With a portable icon you could be in the presence of the divine anywhere, anytime, whether you went to church or not. Emilia Faro is part of this grand tradition of the painted visage. From Van Eyck’s picture of himself in a red turban, to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, to nearly every piece in Chuck Close’s career, the ability to bring a face to life remains a mainstay of human creativity. The Turin-based artist is classically trained and, like Egon Schiele, another excellent watercolorist, her ability to set the perfect tension between the abstract formal qualities of the paint and the techniques of figurative representation is at times sublime, lovely with blots and dropsicals, all slippery smears, blurred, fuzzy, and intimate like good love. A couple of years ago she had a show on Canyon Road. To my mind, the work at Destiny Allison is too similar, if these aren’t perhaps some of the same pieces. She appears to be at that patch in the road painters sometimes hit,

often because of market forces (bad capitalism) where they find themselves milking a formula. The portrait piece of Faro’s game is substantiated by tradition, but European tradition is also the thing holding her back. Her Website has some initial stabs at video that show potential, and other intriguing subjects in paint. This show is yesterday. I look forward to seeing her bright tomorrows.

The real now (now, now) is your own meaningless hammock strung between the imaginary uprights of a pretend past and imagined future. Snooze, sprawl, or struggle all you want. I just want you to look me clearly in the eyes.

—Jon Carver

Emilia Faro, Lux Cordis, 20” x 14”, watercolor on paper

THE magazine | 47


Alcove 12.7

New Mexico Museum of Art 107 West Palace Avenue, Santa Fe

The Alcove Shows began in March 2012, coinciding with New Mexico’s hundredth anniversary of statehood. The New Mexico Museum of Art was established in 1917 and both its architecture and ethos were designed to celebrate the state’s historic qualities as well as exhibit contemporary artwork. The 1950s, 1980s, and 1990s all saw the museum host small, one-person exhibitions in its alcoves. Today the alcoves’ five recessed bays provide a setting for current work from artists living here in New Mexico. Curator

Merry Scully handpicked forty-five artists for a series of nine shows (five artists per show). Each show is five weeks long and Alcove 12.7 will end in April 2013. As the Alcove Shows conclude, two artists in 12.7 ground the show specifically in New Mexico. Eric Garduño and Jeanette Pasin Sloan use elusive Native American patterning. Compliment, a thirty-two-byforty-six-inch oil painting by Sloan, stages three trashcans queued horizontally. A smooth maroon and white decorative

background appears neither cloth nor tile, but spiraling circles windmill out, fanning into stylized feathers. Sloan paints the pattern refracted and skewed onto the shiny can exteriors and even blurs it into the copper interiors. Absorbed into the pattern, the objects in Compliment become props to flaunt the artist’s virtuosity— in good still-life tradition. Moreover, quotidian objects are formalized, not far off from a soup can. As a wife and mother, Sloan began by painting what she knew: household objects inclusive of Native American textiles. Garduño’s works on paper address line quality using charcoal. Centered on each page is a large, geometric shape, crisp and impossibly clean for the medium. First Phase (triangle) 001 is a triangle implied only by the internal stripes—two rows of saturated black bars, one on top of the other, staggered like a checkerboard. Garduño sweeps the excess dusty pigment down the paper, feathering the lines. Second Phase (ex) 001 is a perfect plus sign on a diagonal. Pale grey stripes meet the edge, and in one quadrant what would be the negative white space is charcoal black. Iconographic triangles and exes with feathery sweeps of charcoal betray the precise geometry of Frank Stella and instead expose our local mythos of pyramidal triads and four directions. Garduño commands the medium, reverting the three-dimensional stripes of Stella to a grey-scale while showing New Mexico residents Native symbolism. Matthew Chase-Daniel’s highcontrast works on paper use only India Ink and, unlike Garduño, Chase-Daniel’s line is sprawled and coagulated. Recurring Dream #24 has a central nexus from which three sets of tentacles shoot, each ending in an inky blot. The curved lines detour slightly in lumpy knobs. These black strands dismiss the perfection of a draftsman for the imperfection of a tree branch. His drawings, inspired by a recurring dream, resonate with the artist’s sculptures that are also in the show, made by binding natural plant fibers onto steel frames. These bulbous hives hang from the ceiling and their inversion is fitting for a construction of dried plant stems. The artist’s subconscious unfolding recalls the

curiosity found in Miro’s surrealism and the transformative pursuit inherent in these human-size cocoons. Marc Baseman’s graphite drawings recall the compactness of Piranesi contained within tiny squares. Garduño’s geometric divisions give way here to bustling vignettes. Within less than three square inches, Splitting unfolds in graphiteand-dried-pigment-amassed scenes of the multitude, sinister and wry. A dog peeks out from the square’s edge by a comparably tiny house. Manicured trees hang upside down like Chase-Daniel’s cocoons. Cubist faces hover over a cemetery. Splitting reads like Trajan’s Column documenting Santa Fe, seen through a tiny window: adobe and the night sky, a threesome, mushrooms, chicks eating a fuzzy worm, more sex, a serene lake, brick walls, a house on fire. Animals and humans get equal care except for two owls that reinstate hierarchical scale. They look out from the graphite matrix at us, the voyeur. Only in New Mexico would owls assume the role of a deity. Jared Weiss is an archivist and the other painter in 12.7. He works from anachronistic photographs, building up an acrylic ground and painting the image with oils. Island of Cyprus 1961 takes its title from handwriting on the original photograph. “If nothing is written,” says Weiss, “the piece becomes ‘archived’ in a serial fashion.” It is 1961 on the Island of Cyprus and a boy peers through a milky surface. Weiss’s paintings recall antiquated photography, when chemicals were brushed onto paper and exposed to sunlight via a contact negative. A vague ghost pushes through, obscured and distant with a surprisingly mature expression. The rest is a lost narrative. An archive, reminds Weiss, is “a place where information is placed to be reviewed in the future.” Indeed, protecting disintegrating stories by painting their snapshots may have some urgency, even if those stories will remain unknown. Thanks to the Alcove Shows, The New Mexico Museum of Art continues to chronicle our state’s artistic tradition and its contemporary vitality.

—Hannah Hoel

Eric Garduño 
Second Phase (ex), 001, charcoal on paper, 44” x 30”, 2012


Critical Reflection

Beginning to End: Christine Golden, Aisha Harrison, Clayton Keyes 545 Camino

Santa Fe Clay has long been a valuablE

art resource in town. These days, it includes a retail ceramics supply store, a gallery, and a fully equipped studio. Annually, SFC hosts twenty resident ceramic artists, and classes and workshops that provide a stimulating environment for students of all ages, from beginners to professionals. Every kind of clay work may be seen in various stages of completion on the shelves in the studios. In the gallery, the exhibitions focus on clay used in sculptural idioms. The current show, Beginning to End, is a case in point. Showcasing three artists, all of whom received their MFAs within the past few years, it has a freshness that enlivens the literal heaviness of the material. Clay, after all, is mud, sand, dirt, earth, dust, minerals. So, more than with bronze or stone sculpture, one can viscerally sense the weight of the earth’s body in these pieces. For one thing, every inch has been kneaded and stroked by the human hand. This fingerprint evidence of hand-crafting draws me in. Also engaging is the fact that all three artists represent the human body, in whole or part, and they do this not in the refined manner that we associate with beautifully finished ceramic vessels, but in ways that point to the vulnerability and impermanence of flesh. Clayton Keyes’ Conflict Resolution consists of two male torsos in a graphic representation of an ambivalent relationship—one stitching up, while the other cuts off the literal threads of their flesh-to-flesh connection. In Last Moments a nude female crouches to put flowers on the eyes of a supine male corpse. The ensemble is large and rests on a table, allowing views from different angles. Implying some mysterious and complex relationship preceding loss, it could be a tomb sculpture. Similarly unsettled (and unsettling) are the two female torsos of Christine Golden’s Together. Each has a single breast and arm. Their eyes and foreheads are covered by flowered washcloths that droop like batter, melting over their heads as each simultaneously gropes for and shoves away the other. Golden’s other work consists of four similarly sized pieces: Kids in the Garden 1, and Kids in the Garden 2, Memento 1 and Memento 2. All depict a young child from the waist up in a sort of tub. In one set, the (acrylic) water in which the child is supposedly soaking holds fragments of dismembered elderly bodies; in the other set, the children, a boy and a girl, have a focused, almost menacing air. The scenario’s allusion to birdbaths is complicated by its strange incorporation of innocence and menace.

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Aisha Harrison’s large slab of rough clay bears the title All the Tests Didn’t Prepare Me for This. The human figure in the tall rectangular doorway cut into the slab suggests the whole is something like a ruin at Chaco. The backside of this slab is glazed with a child-like rendering of a forest of tall pines. There is a slowly revealed sense of interplay or tension between solidity and monumentality on the one hand, and of transition, wonder, and misgiving on the other. Harrison’s three other pieces are of blindfolded figures. It Comes in Threes features a blindfolded woman with hand on hip, leaning expectantly upward toward three large black birds suspended above her as if they are about to land. The male figure of Restive is drawing on or poking through his blindfold. In If Only, he

is lifting the blindfold with a finger in order to peek under it. Expectation, hope, and uncertainty are rife in these pieces; there may be hope but there is more of something like bewildered seeking. Christine Golden’s wall relief, Flying with Waxed Wings, is a visceral allegory with multiple, unstable interpretive possibilities. The young fertility figure in the center, crowned with corncobs, breastfeeds an old man below her; below him a sheep’s head and legs weigh down the lower left of this complex composition. Above her, behind her back, an old woman with a plaited headdress is surrounded by shining globular shapes. On the lower right, tubes or pipes jut downward, lined with myriad decaled images of animals, cities, cars, and classical scenes. The work’s title

de la

Santa Fe Clay Familia, Santa Fe

brings to mind Icarus, a mythological character of hubris and recklessness who flew too near the sun and melted the wax on his wings, causing him to plunge to his death. Indeed these figures—somewhat like our civilization—seem enraptured by and swept up in their Dionysian processes and symbols without a thought for consequences. The allegorical is the primary symbolic mode here, using sharp polarities of youth and age, life and death, dark and light to underscore this elemental cast of mind. At the same time, a visceral interplay of desire and revulsion, fear and hope, keeps everything in motion, cycling through primal force fields of need and excess. Just like life.

—Marina La Palma

Christine Golden, Flying with Waxed Wings, clay, decals, paints, napkins, wood, and fabric, 40” x 45” x 13”, 2012

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THE-Butor:Layout 1

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“Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.” Dr Jane Goodall

Santa Fe Art Institute

Bryen et Butor

More about the 2013 Season CONTESTED SPACE at www.sfai.org

An insightful talk by Blandine Chavanne, Director of the Musée des Beaux Arts de Nantes in France Monday, February 4, 6pm at the SFAI $10 general | $5 students and seniors Noted French experimental writer, Michel Butor was teaching at the University of Albuquerque in 1973-4 when he began a long series of communications and collaborations with French poet and Post-war School of Paris painter, Camille Bryen. The two men exchanged letters, drawings, paintings, and collages over the course of their correspondence. Chavanne is curating an exhibition of their work during this period and will be speaking about the men and their project. WWW.SFAI.ORG, 505 -424 -5050, INFO@SFAI.ORG. SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE, 1600 ST.MICHAELS DRIVE, SANTA FE NM 87505 | SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE PROMOTES ART AS A POSITIVE SOCIAL FORCE THROUGH RESIDENCIES, LECTURES STUDIO WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS, COMMUNITY ART ACTIONS, AND EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH FOR ADULTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE. SFAI IS AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, AND CHALLENGING IDEAS THRIVE.

jennifer esperanza photography jenniferesperanza.com

PARTIALLY FUNDED BY CITY OF SANTA FE ARTS COMMISION AND 1% LODGER’S TAX AND BY NEW MEXICO ARTS, A DIVISION OF DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS

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505.204.5729

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Fine WoodWorking Faculty & Student ShoWcaSe February 7 through March 7, 2013

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Opening Reception

Ed

Michael Hoffer

Thursday, Feruary 7, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. SFCC Fine Woodworking faculty present a gallery talk on their work Wednesday, Feb. 20, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Visual Arts Gallery, Room 701

Doug Jones

Elliot Saltzman

Doug Jones

School of Arts and Design | Visual Arts Gallery Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 6401 Richards Ave., Santa Fe • 505-428-1501 • www.sfcc.edu


GREEN PLANET

Eric George: Singer, Songwriter, and Social Justice Activist Photograph

by

Jennifer Esperanza

Thirty-five-year-old blues rock musician Eric George started playing music on stage in his family’s band when he was ten years old in Alba, Texas. Since then he has worked with Buddy Guy, Buddy Miles, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, and Kid Rock among others. In January 2005, George brought his music to soldiers in Iraq. His clear, rich, impassioned voice calls out for kindness, understanding, and empowerment for all of humankind. His lyrics address social, environmental, and political issues. Eric’s music is soulful, heartfelt and rocks one to the very core. www.reverbnation.com/ericgeorgemusic www.reverbnation.com/mannosober

War is not the answer! Bombs are not the cure! Equality for all mankind, why can’t that thought endure?” —From “Revolution Son” by Eric George

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THE magazine | 51


MARK Z. MIGDALSKI, D.D.S.

Randolph Laub Stu dio 2906 San Isidro Ct {S i l a r & A g u a F r i a} ___

Picture Frame Specialist since 1971

505 473-3585

GENERAL AND COSMETIC DENTISTRY “DEDICATED TO PREVENTION, SERVICE & EXCELLENCE”


a r c h i t e c t u r a l d e ta i l s

Full Moon with Power Lines Photograph february/march

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by

Guy Cross THE magazine | 53


WRITINGs

GIRL by

Elizabeth Jacobson

Is summer on a painted bench hair pulled back lips pink knees to her chest the bony part browned darker on the top. Heat is fluid in her. A bath running birds in the yard sounding like cats, like nursery rhymes; clocks ticking. Evening doesn’t end pours from one open mouth into the next a syrup of days, the past and future at the same time all at once Promise of Magic by Alexandra Eldridge

Elizabeth Jacobson is the recipient of the Jim Sagel Prize for poetry, and her work has appeared in Puerto del Sol and Slipstream. “Girl” is from her first book of poems, Her Knees Pulled In (Tres Chicas Books, $14). Of it, Natalie Goldberg wrote, “This is a mysterious, terrific book of poetry. Intimate, deep-pulling, solitary, aware. Elizabeth Jacobson is doing exciting work.”

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Willis F. Lee Solitario: Shale Near Tres Papalotes #2, 1984/2013, pigment on baryta paper from color negative, 22 x 28 3/8�

WILLIS LEE Studio: 505-982-1115

willisflee.com


Wi n t e r G ro u p S h ow Fe b ru a ry 2 - M a rch 2 , 2 013

c h i a r o s c u r o 702 1/2 & 708 CANYON RD AT GYPSY ALLEY, SANTA FE, NM

505-992-0711

w w w. c h i a r o s c u r o s a n ta f e . c o m Caption (left to right): Renate Aller, Emmi Whitehorse, Dorothy Napangardi, Chris Richter, John Garrett, Rebecca Bluestone


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