Santa Fe’s Monthly of and for the Arts • September 2012 m e n i z a g a
Mar 31, 2016
Santa Fe’s Monthly of and for the Arts • September 2012m enizaga
53 OLD SANTA FE TRAIL | UPSTAIRS ON THE PLAZA | SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO | 505.982.8478 | SHIPROCKSANTAFE.COM
5 Letters
14 Universe of photographer Elliott McDowell
18 Art Forum: Bill Brandt: Eaton Place
21 Studio Visits: BJ Quintana and Kate Rivers
23 Food for Thought: The Absinthe Drinkers, by Edgar Degas
25 One Bottle: The 2010 Antoine Arena Patrimonio “Carco” Blanc, by Joshua Baer
27 Dining Guide: Aqua Santa, Tune-Up Café, and Kohnami
31 Art Openings
32 Out & About
38 Previews: Christopher Felver at Zane Bennett Contemporary Art; ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness at 516 Arts (Alb.); and Nora Naranjo-Morse at Chiaroscuro
41 National Spotlight: The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism at the de Young Museum, San Francisco
43 Feature: A Conversation with Derek Guthrie, by Mokha Laget
47 Critical Reflections: Bea Mandelman at Harwood Museum of Art (Taos); Brace for Impact at Eggman & Walrus; Contemporary Indigenous Australian Art at Chiaroscuro; Jennifer Joseph and Rex Ray at Turner Carroll; Jimmy Mirikitani at Eight Modern; Joan Gentry and Don Kirby at Verve Gallery of Photography; Meow Wolf at OmegaMart; More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness at SITE Santa Fe; and The Art of Gaman at the International Folk Art Museum
61 Green Planets: Clayton Campbell, photograph by Jennifer Esperanza
62 Writings: “Strokes III,” by Eleuterio Santiago-Díaz
During Hunter S. Thompson’s life numerous unauthorized biographies were written, and since his suicide, in 2005, at the age of sixty-seven, several others have surfaced. The latest is Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson (Abrams, $17.95), written by Will Bingley with illustrations by Anthony Hope-Smith. Narrated in the first person, Bingley’s prose uncannily succeeds in mimicking Thompson’s “voice.” Gonzo is not a full-scale biography of Thompson’s life—instead, through a series of vignettes, it offers a peek into key elements of his early days, along with some of the most exaggerated aspects of his drug-and-alcohol-fueled world. It presents a good look at Thompson’s excessive persona and the writer as a political activist. Gonzo, with its stark, movie-style black-and-white illustrations, is not only a highly entertaining read, but a page-turner as well.
contents
m a g a z i n eVOLUME XX, NUMBER III
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LETTERS
A fundraising auction focusing on Lyme Disease awareness will help to raise money for native Santa Fean Rebecca Cohen, who has been battling Lyme Disease since 2008. Works by: Paul Shapiro, Darren Vigil Gray, Michael Wright, Sam Scott, Doris Cross, Eli Levin, Tony Price, and others. Auction, music, and food on Friday, September 14, from 5 to 11 pm at the Inn of Loretto—211 Old Santa Fe Trail. Image: Leslie McNamara.
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 5
TO THE EDITOR: This letter is in response to the Irving Blum/David Hickey hoe-down at the Armory for the Arts in late July. Irving Blum showed some fire with his warm anecdotes about his close encounters with art giants, whereas David Hickey barely even got out of the bathtub. His verbal assault on the Getty Museum was positively Neanderthal. Hickey is a bloated jackass—pedantic and irrelevant are words that also might apply. Give him a brush and some paint and let’s see what kind of crap he conjures up! And I extend that challenge to all art critics! As George Burns once put it, “Critics are eunuchs at a gang-bang.”—randy Getty, santa fe, via eMail
TO THE EDITOR: As a visitor to Santa Fe, I attended the Irving Blum/Dave Hickey conversation at the Armory for the Arts. I found the back-and-forth talk between these seemingly mismatched lions of the art world to be extremely entertaining. Blum told war stories of his life in the art world, while Hickey, for the most part, watched and listened. Hickey seemed to be ceding the chair to Blum pretty much, and towards the end of the evening when the talk slowed down, Hickey took on the role of interviewer, probably to keep the conversation flowing. Though my husband complained that there was no “real meat” to their conversation and that he had “heard all of these stories before,” I found the evening to be both educational and stimulating. For me, it was an honor and a privilege to be able to watch and hear Blum and Hickey talk the talk. Thanks to SITE Santa Fe for presenting this event.—Cynthia laMB, MiaMi, florida, via eMail
TO THE EDITOR: My congratulations to THE magazine. It has been a delight watching your magazine evolve over the past twenty years. I remember when THE was printed in only black-and-white when it arrived on the scene in 1992. Now THE mag is pretty much all color. Change is good. THE has afforded me the opportunity to be
“in the know” through its art reviews, interviews, and articles on art players in New Mexico and elsewhere. The 200+ “Universe of” articles have been the focus of conversations that are relevant to my gaining a historical and contemporary perspective on art in the Southwest and beyond. THE examines what is pertinent. Simply stated—THE magazine really matters. I wish your publication continued success in the future within the Santa Fe art community and the greater art community at large.—t.r. souther, farMinGton, via eMail
TO THE EDITOR: Your announcement in the August issue stated pictorially that “Time Flies.” Yes, that is true, and it is quite difficult to believe that twenty years have passed since THE magazine arrived on the art scene. You should be praised by many for all that your magazine has contributed to the arts in New Mexico and elsewhere. Happy birthday, and many, many more. I see that THE magazine will be available on the iPad soon—that is a superlative move. Please renew my subscription. —steve pollard, Buffalo, new yorK, via eMail
TO THE EDITOR:We at Parallel Studios, the presenter of Currents 2012: Santa Fe International Media Festival, would like to thank THE magazine for their editorial coverage. There are two corrections we would like to make to the review Currents 2012 by Jon Carver in the Critical Reflections section of the August issue. The first Currents exhibition took place at the CCA in 2002. In the second parargraph, Carver refers to “Robert Drummond’s District.” The work he decribes is actually by Robert Campbell and is titled Pulchrior in Luce. We would also like to thank the community, the city of Santa Fe, the state of New Mexico, and the NEA for their support. —franK raGano and Mariannah aMster, exeCutive direCtors, parallel studios, santa fe, via eMail
The magazine welcomes your letters, which may be edited for clarity and space.
email: [email protected]: 320 Aztec St., Suite A - Santa Fe NM 87501
Joan Snyder, Madrigal X from 33 Madrigals, 2001, monoprint (color lithograph, monotype, and color woodcut). Collection of the artist. © Joan Snyder. Photo by Peter Jacobs.
Daniel Reeves, Video still from Avatamsaka, 2012, Video projection on 72 inch glass disc, 2:40:49 loop. Courtesy of the artist. This event is part of ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness. www.isea2012.org
SEP T E MBER 15 – DECEMBER 15, 2012 • OPENING RECEP T ION F R IDAY, SEP T E MBER 14 , 5 – 7 P M
UNIVERS IT Y OF NEW MEXICO ART MUSEUM | AL BUQUERQUE
www.unm.edu/~artmuse 505.277.4001 Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10 – 4 Closed Sunday & Monday
THETRAN SFOR MATIVE
SUR FACE
DANCINGWITH THE DARK:
JOAN SNYDER PRINTS1963 – 2010
AUG 31-SEP 29 | RECEPTION FRIDAY, AUG 31, 5-7 P.M.
C H A R L O T T E J A C K S O N F I N E A R TIn the Railyard Arts District | 554 South Guadalupe, Santa Fe, NM 87501
T e l 5 0 5 . 9 8 9 . 8 6 8 8 | w w w . c h a r l o t t e j a c k s o n . c o m
“ T i m e I s E l a s t i c ” ( d e t a i l ) , 2 0 1 2 , a l u m i n u m , e n a m e l , b o l t s , 5 8 x 1 7 6 x 1 5 6 i n c h e s
J O H N B E E C H | T I M E E X PA N D E D
Dust in the MachineSeptember 21 - November 25, 2012
Featuring Chris Ballantyne, Lisa K. Blatt, Adriane Colburn, Bethany Delahunt, Jamey Stillings, Lucy Raven, Jesse Vogler, and Shirley Wegner.
A group exhibition about the glories and failures
of the industrialized West
CCA Center for Contemporary Arts 1050 Old Pecos Trail Santa Fe www.ccasantafe.org Open: Fri - Sun 12-5pm
Dust in the Machine is presented in conjunction with the 18th International Symposium on Electronic ArtImage: Shirley Wegner, Explosion with Tractor Traces
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 6:30-8PM
August 31 – September 22Opening Reception
Friday, August 31, 20125:00 – 7:00 pm
Dust StoriesRaphaëlle Goethals
RAILYARD ART DISTRICT 540 S. GUADALUPE STREETSANTA FE, NM 87501 505.820.3300 WILLIAMSIEGAL.COM
Blue Rain Gallery | 130 Lincoln Avenue, Suite C, Santa Fe, NM 87501 | 505.954.9902 | www.blueraingallery.com
Blue Rain Contemporary | 4164 N Marshall Way, Scottsdale, AZ 85251 | 480.874.8110
E R I N C U R R I E R
D E L A D I E R A L M E I D A
Students and Soldiers, August 31–September 18, 2012
Artist reception and book signing: Friday, August 31, 5–7 pm in Santa Fe
New Paintings, September 14–September 29, 2012
Artist reception: Friday, September 14, 5–7 pm in Santa Fe
Femen, acry l i c and mixed media co l lage , 48"h x 60"w
Cacokinet i c s , o i l on l inen , 40"h x 72"w
Railyard: 1613 Paseo de Peralta (505) 988.3250 Downtown: 125 W. Palace Ave. (505) 988.8997
www.lewallengalleries.com [email protected]
billbarrett DNa
LewAllenGalleries A T T H E R A I L Y A R D
lucylyoN together, aloNe
Best Friends I I, 2012, cast glass, 17"h x 16"w x 7½"d
DNA 2, 2012, fabricated bronze, 46½" x 42" x 30"
August 31-OctOber 7.2012 Artists’ reception: Friday, August 31, 5:30-7:30pm
LewAllen galleries at the railyard
School of Arts and Design | Visual Arts GalleryMondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 6401 Richards Ave., Santa Fe • (505) 428-1501 • www.sfcc.edu
CURATED BY
Linda Ganstrom NCECA Exhibitions Director
Clark Baughan Director of Exhibitions, SFCC
James Marshall Head of Ceramics, SFCC
Jane Sauer Owner, Jane Sauer Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
SFCC Visual Arts GalleryAug. 29-Sept. 21, 2012 | Public Reception: 5 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 19
In conjunction with the 45th General Assembly of the International Academy of Ceramics Conference
Max LehmanRed Skeleton and Black Crows
Kari RivesLucy
Ryan FletcherPierogi Variation 6
Virginia Pates Playa Negra in Soda
Global Interface in American Ceramics
These exhibitions are sponsored in part with support from GROW Santa Fe Community College Foundation.
826 Canyon Road (505) 829-7338www.red-dot-gallery.com
A mixed-media art exhibition focused on organic forms, earthy visions, and primary materials.
ExhibitionAugust 24 to September 23, 2012
Opening ReceptionAugust 24, 5 to 8 p.m.
Special Public Reception for the International Academy of Ceramics ConferenceSeptember 20, 5 to 8 p.m. In conjunction with the 45th General Assembly of the IAC
Jacob Baudhuin, Joan Concetta Biordi, Berkeley Brestal, Donna Brownell, Larry and Nancy Buechley, Candy Carlson, Catherine Carr, Stefani Courtois, Melissa Dominguez, Emily Elliott, Bart Ellison, Nicola Gadbois, Mario Hinojoza, David Johnson, Doug Jones, Nancy Kushigian, Mayumi Nishida, Annie McGovern, Adriana Reyes Newell, Melinda Silver, Selene Sinclair, Touri Strick, Linda Mae Tratechaud, and others…
EcumEnE:
a fine art lithography workshop and gallery 2500 Central Avenue SE, Albuquerque, NM http://tamar ind.unm.edu | 505.277 .3901
NICOLA LÓPEZ
NOTES ON THE TOWER
Artist talk, Thursday, September 6, 5:30 p.m. Public reception, Saturday, September 22, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
in the Tamarind Gallery September 7 through December 21,2012
Nicola Lopez, Infrastructure +2 (2012). Lithograph., 30 x 44 inches.
Exhibition co-sponsored by Michael Emerson & Kathryn Naassan.
Richard Levy Gallery • Albuquerque • www.levygallery.com • 505.766.9888
DISTRICTROBERT DRUMMOND 09.13 - 10.12
SYN
ARTEREAZIONE+CONSONANT09.20 - 10.12
Reception: September 20th, 6-8 pm
In partnership with ISEA2012: Machine Wilderness
RMAC ROSWELL MUSEUM AND ART CENTER
Eddie Dominguez:Where Edges MeetSeptember 22, 2012 - May 26, 2013Reception: Friday, September 21, 5-7 pm
100 West 11th Street, Roswell, NMwww.roswellmuseum.org
Open Daily • Mon-Sat: 9-5, Sun: 1-5Free Admission • Donations Welcome
Eddie Dominguez, Rain Cloud, ceramic, 21 3/4” diameter x 3”. Image: Jose Rivera.
new work by gallery artists
Evoke Contemporary
variations on the reclining fi gure
Allan Houser
michio takayama
David Richard Contemporary
kevin red star
Windsor Betts
erin currier
Blue Rain Gallery
equine | benefi t for cimarron sky dog horse rescue
Legends Santa Fe
gilberto romero
Pippin Contemporary
michael namingha
Niman Fine Art
ALA ARTS DISTRICTALA ARTS DISTRICTGalleries At Lincoln Avenue
fi rst friday artwalk monthly ~ 5 - 7pmG
W W W . S F G A L A . O R GCONNECT TO OUR GALLERIES
Come experience the excit-ing energy of the GALA Arts District, just off the historic Santa Fe plaza on Lincoln Avenue between Palace Av-enue + Marcy Street. Every 1st Friday of the month, the GALA Arts District invites the public to join in the cel-ebration of new and cutting-edge exhibitions. Discover the artwork of more than 500 contemporary artists in eight distinctive venues while strolling along prominent Lincoln Avenue where you will find renowned museums of art and history, exception-al shopping, innovative cui-sine by award winning res-taurants and nightlife all in a stimulating + welcoming atmosphere. Enjoy explor-ing Santa Fe’s most vibrant art community, the GALA Arts + Museum District!
HAVING STUDIED Ansel Adams’ Zone System in the 1970s, Elliott McDowell quickly
became an expert on traditional photographic printing techniques. His classic black-and-white photographs were impeccably printed and had an out-of-the-ordinary edge as seen in Fleetwood, New Mexico—where the shark-like tail fins of a classic Cadillac dominate the foreground of a desert landscape. In 1993, influenced by the imagery of Jerry Uelsmann, Man Ray, and René Magritte, McDowell created the Mystical Dreamscapes series. In this body of work and others to follow, McDowell embraced Photoshop, delving into the surrealistic worlds of fairy-tale gardens, golden suns, ancient trees, winding waterways, and stone paths—imagery that invited the viewer to explore visual mysteries. In 2011 McDowell came full circle, returning to where he began some forty years ago—making straight photographs, this time in color.
UNIVERSE OF
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 15
My Passion for PhotograPhyI have been fascinated with photography since childhood. I was given a Brownie camera at a young age and remember that looking
into the viewfinder was a whole different world. Later, my dad let me use his Polaroid camera and I remember taking portraits of
my friends. As our family traveled by car, I have memories of looking out the window and seeing people, places, and things, which
I photographed in my mind. Today, that same feeling of entering into a special space occurs while looking into the camera. There
is a sense of being in another reality and I consider this place to be sacred. I lose track of time while working and I think it can be
compared to what athletes call being in the zone—my favorite place to be. I think that it was my destiny to become a photographer.
Looking back on my life, there were so many things that pushed me in that direction. Picking up a camera brings me to life.
Digital/PhotoshoP versus straight PhotograPhyI come from a background of classical approach. The early 1970s were a time of learning how to make photographs that looked
like those of the great photographers. Early mornings with a cup of coffee and viewing the big coffee table books of Adams, Arbus,
Caponigro, Weston was a meditation for me. The f/64 Group became my philosophy. In those days I was lugging around big cameras
to get the big negative, and would seek out those who knew more than me to help improve what I was doing, both in photographing
and printing. In the early nineties, with digital coming to life, I became interested in knowing just what the heck was a pixel. Digital
photography allows one to capture and make incredibly fine images. However, it took a long time for me to stop using film. In 2003
I took my last roll of film. It was a tough transition and I began to go through digital cameras like socks. I missed touching and feeling
the film, laying it on the light box, and looking through a loupe. Somehow I got over that sense of loss. Today, the equipment I use
gives me confidence and the look I have always wanted. Bottom line is we are in a digital age and I am fine with it.
exPloring Mystery anD MagicI have always been a believer of the unseen. When I am taking pictures or deeply involved in making the image in the digital
darkroom, something wonderfully mysterious happens—the feeling of being in another reality. When I was doing those early
sketches for black-and-white images like Moonrise over Rolls Royce Boots and Wurlitzer, the moment those images were made
was something I can go back to and replay in my mind. However, the thing that amazed me was that they always turned
out better than my sketches, and I felt that there was something more at work, something that really cannot be described.
The same thing occurs when building a composite image and it is given birth. At that moment, I am usually sliding across the
floor in my desk chair in a state of bliss. Without the mystery and the magic, life would be boring.
BujiI have a little book titled Zen 24/7. In it are a few pages discussing the Zen term buji. I thought about this on and off for years.
When I made the photo composite titled Buji Bird it became clear to me what it means. The little heron in Buji Bird is simply living
its life, doing what is in its nature—just living in the moment, walking on the beach. The same is true with Sweet Lassy—she is
following her nature of being a cow. She grazes and makes milk and is simply being. Photography is my nature. I am doing what
comes naturally to me, and it feels right. I thrive on the interaction with people while taking their portraits—the elation at the
moment of taking what I know is a great photograph, and that final moment when the finishing touch is done to a composite
image. Although I have now moved back into a more “straight” style of image-making, there will always be a photo composite
hanging in the ethers. I love what I do, and my hope is that when my work is viewed it brings some joy. That’s my buji.
photograph of Elliott McDowEll by Dana walDon
As well as showing locally at the Andrew Smith Gallery, Santa Fe, the Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, and Tina Goodwin Fine Art, Denver, McDowell has had numerous one-man and group shows in the United States and abroad. His photographs are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Center for Creative Photography, Albrecht Kemper Museum, and the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts. To see more: elliottmcdowell.com
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THE magazine asked a clinical psychologist and three people who love art to share their take on this 1955 photograph—Eaton Place—by Bill Brandt. They were shown only the image—they were not told the title, medium, or name of the artist.
ART FORUM
18 | tHE magazine | S e P T e M B e R 2012
This piece is voyeuristic. We see the private world of a lonely
pre-pubescent boy. He appears to be lying down on either a
bed or couch in what may be his parents’ bedroom. An empty
chair and dresser complete the scene. The emptiness of this
stark space suggests alienation. There is no emotion inside this
room. The only life we see is the child, who looks away from
the viewer. He does not connect with us or with anything in the
room. There is no suggestion of life outside the window, either.
This work is teeming with emotional isolation and sadness. The
child’s facial expression and position appear adult-like. We do
not see a carefree youth. I also imagine that he could be lying
on a Freudian psychoanalyst’s couch. The doctor sits behind
his head and says, “Tell me more about your dream.” The dark
room symbolizes the child’s sadness, while the open floor-to-
ceiling window implies a better future is possible. All is not lost.
The windows are in contrast with each other—one being fully
open while the other is fully closed. We see ambivalence here—
the boy longs for opportunities for his future in the outside
world but also wants to remain a child with his parents. This
child is feeling the profound conflict of adolescence.
—davis BriMBerG, ph.d.,CliniCal psyCholoGist, santa fe
Like a lucid dreamer, she lies on the bed with
the new loneliness he has presented her.
Minutes ago, he walked out, leaving the balcony door open, his cigarette
still burning in the ashtray outside. The smoke is languidly drifting
through the room, silently weaving around the space above her head.
There is nothing else left of him.
Is she upset? Or is she excited, shivering about the new
possibilities only now presenting themselves to her?
Despite the raw light illuminating the childlike contours of her
face, darkness creeps into the corners and stillness of the room.
The contrast is alien, paralyzing.
There is no sound, just the stale smell of smoke and
leather. Her breath is shallow, her eyes unblinking.
She lies upon an old blue bedspread, its coarse texture vaguely
registering in her subconscious. She stretches her arms gently
above her head and digs her right thumb into the nap of the
fabric. The smoke from his cigarette dissipates and all else is
motionless. She waits for the light to fade, for time to move
forward and bring inspiration, hope, anything.
A shoe drops to the floor, her foot dangling over the mattress
edge. Gradually, she becomes aware of the glare in her eyes.
Vapidity engulfs her.
—Jennifer Bartlett, professor of art,
GroosMont ColleGe, san dieGo
The camera can cut up everyday reality and create complete
surreality. This photo, like many others by Bill Brandt, uses the
natural properties of the wide-angle camera lens to dramatize
scale change and distort our perception of familiar distances.
These distortions, his cropping of the figure, and his characteristic
high contrast, create images with a dream-like feeling. I think
they are some of the best pictures of the human interior world,
pictures of the thoughts, images, and feelings that flit through our
minds constantly. His images are often strange and sometimes
shocking, but also, for me, they are comforting because
they feel somehow universal and shared. The words I think of
when looking at this image are dislocation, displacement, and
disembodiment. If Brandt were less of an artist, this archetypal
picture of the inner world contrasted with glimpses of the outer
world might seem a bit obvious. But Brandt was a great artist
who could see the expressive possibilities of pushing just one or
two properties of a lens and
black-and-white film. Other
great photographers have
cropped their subject to
show us that reality is often
only what is familiar to us
and that the unfamiliar and
abstract lurk everywhere, if
only we were to look harder.
Other great photographers
have pushed exposure
settings, darkroom work,
and printing to change the
familiar into something we
work hard to recognize.
Brandt did it not for
formal interest or technical
experimentation, but to
dig into the psyche. If we
wonder what is going
through the mind of the
young girl in the photo,
I feel it is simply what is
going through our own, and
Brandt has done his job well.
—steve halvorsen,
ColleCtions ManaGer,
tai Gallery, santa fe
He said, “Get out of your head. You are spending way too
much time there.” I knew what he meant. I had become
more interior than exterior, daily losing track of all that was
around me. I found the interior dialogue bigger, better, more
engaging. Safer. My retreat started slowly. I lost hours. Not
quite blacking out, I would voyage into another domain, free-
associating about the past and a fictional future. I controlled
the vision and the outcome. Alone on the couch, the windows
of my apartment thrown open to the white noise of street
sounds, I would imagine myself an entirely new person, an
avatar dominating a world so dynamic even the universal
laws of nature didn’t apply. Afghanistan was not a country
in my interior realm. The real world? Overrated. I had been
consumed by its searing reality. It wasn’t the carnage or the
killings. It was the real aftermath of the battles—the ennui
that choked me when I returned. No job. No family. No
prospects. No purpose. Flashbacks. I don’t know how long
I lay there. Was it simply overnight or for as long as a few days
or a week? I had lost touch. All my senses gone. There was
nothing but the inner voice and now the doctor demanding
my full attention.
—Marilyn Bauer, art writer, sewalls point, florida
18 County Road 55A(General Goodwin Road), Cerrillos, NM 87010
A non-profit arts organization. For map and information,
go to www.eainm.comor call 505 424-6487
Encaustic Art Institute
Nat iona l Encaust i c Inv i tat iona l ShowSept. 22nd - Sun. Oct . 21stOpening - September 22, 1 - 6 pm.Jurors: E l len Koment & Mark Di Pr ima
4th Annua l EAI Fundra is ing Ga la & Art Sa leSaturday, September 15, 5 - 8 pm.Jazz Qua r t e t - Wonde r fu l F oodBuy any dona t ed a r two rk f o r $299 .
September Events at EAI
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 21
STUDIO VIS ITS
RAY BRADBURY WROTE, “DON’T THINK. THINKING IS THE ENEMY OF CREATIVITY. IT’S SELF-CONSCIOUS, AND ANYTHING SELF-CONSCIOUS IS LOUSY. YOU CAN’T TRY TO DO THINGS. YOU SIMPLY MUST DO THINGS.” TWO ARTISTS RESPOND TO BRADBURY’S STATEMENT.
The intuitive is only realized after a history of critical process. Bradbury was only partially
correct. He negates that history. As a distance runner, I understand that the state of euphoria
that can be reached while running only happens after hours of training. However, it is crucial
to trust that history of artistic practice. It is important to begin, to “do things” without
self-doubt, fear, and questions. To know that all of my history will inform the marks, the
decisions that I make with my work, is a crucial first step. I can begin to do and to allow the
current to take me to transcendence. Expansion takes over and I arrive at a place where
intuition draws from all my history of thought and process.
—Kate rivers
Rivers’ paintings were shown at Mathews/Deloney Newkirk Galleries, Santa Fe, in 2011, and at Living Arts, Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2012. Upcoming shows in 2012 at Paseo Originals, Oklahoma City, in December, and at Mathews/Deloney Newkirk Galleries and Kirk Hopper Fine Art, Dallas, in 2013. kateriversart.com
Thought can lead to doubt and doubt is the number one Unholy Dog of Creativity. I saw
graffiti on a wall that said, “If you get out of the way, art will happen.” Creativity must be
allowed to surface without impediment. It rises from a collection of knowledge gained through
experience. This applies to all disciplines of art: writing, dance, painting, or just strummin’ on
an old guitar. Ya just gotta “Surrender, Dorothy.” I may be thinking too much, but it seems
to me that an artist is the epitome of a free person, simply because she/he has freed herself/
himself from limitations: their own and those imposed upon them.
—BJ Quintana
Quintana has been on hiatus from the art world for ten years, though quietly continuing to make art. The exhibition Brace for Impact at Eggman & Walrus in July was her first Santa Fe show in twenty years. For private viewing, contact Quintana at her Albuquerque studio: [email protected]. See page 57 for Brace for Impact review.
photographs by annE stavElEy
shibumiLunch: 11:30 am – 2:30pm Monday – Friday
Dinner: 5:30 –10pm Monday – SaturdayKaiseki / Izakaya Dinner: Last Thursday of the Month
26 Chapelle Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
505.428.0077 � shibumiramen.com
Fragrance Free � Parking Available
R A M E N Y A
T R A D I T I O N A L J A P A N E S E R A M E N H O U S E
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LUNCH 12 - 2PM W - F · DINNER 5:30 - 9pm t - s
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Drink different.
A glass of Absinthe is as poetical as anything in the world.Oscar Wilde
food for thought
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 23
thE abSinthE dRinkERS (1876)by EdgaR dEgaS
At the first cool sip on your fevered lip
You determine to live through the day,
Life’s again worthwhile as with a dawning smile
You imbibe your absinthe frappé.
—From the 1904 Broadway musical It Happened in Nordland, by Glen MacDonough and Victor Herbert
Perfectly potent and poetically prohibited, the infamous beverage known as “the green fairy”—absinthe—has made a comeback in recent years, luring a new generation of drinkers to discover what Vincent van Gogh and Arthur Rimbaud raved about during the drink’s bohemian heyday. Said to have been invented by Dr. Pierre Ordinaire in the late 1700s, absinthe’s key ingredients are wormwood, fennel, and anise, giving it a slightly bitter flavor similar to licorice. In the late nineteenth century, absinthe became so popular among the French bourgeoisie that the early evening was called “l’heure verte”—“the green hour.” After prohibitionists spread colorful—though patently false—rumors about the drink’s hallucinogenic properties, it was banned in the United States in 1912, and in France, in 1914. These bans only served to increase absinthe’s romantic allure, earning it the adoration of many great artists and writers, not to mention an entire scene in Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie, Moulin Rouge. The ban was finally lifted in 2007. Brand names such as Kübler and Jade began to appear in liquor stores and bars. Critics, initially made skeptical by the hype, have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of several brands. If you’re interested in sampling “the green fairy” for yourself, Eric Asimov, wine critic at The New York Times, advises, “forget the sugar, remember the water.” Sound interesting? You can buy Brimstone Absinthe Liqueur produced by KGB Spirits at purveyors in Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque. D
historic location / historic restaurant
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one bottle
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 25
We stayed in a house on the coast north of Boston. The house was fifty
yards from the rocks and the rocks were fifty feet from the Atlantic.
There was no sand. If you walked to the edge of the rocks and dove into
the water, you were swimming in the open ocean, with eighteen fathoms
below you and two thousand nautical miles between you and the west coast
of Ireland.
The house had a slate roof and a copper chimney. On the ground floor
there was a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom. A narrow flight of stairs
led up to two small bedrooms. The dormer windows on the second floor
faced north, east, south, and west. In the morning, when the sun rose out
of the ocean, the walls of the upstairs rooms turned pink, then orange,
and then gold. In late summer, the sunlight ripened into something rich
and thick. You saw it dance and float on the Atlantic but also felt the
weight of it against your skin. On cloudy days, the color of the water
made its way through every shade of pearl grey. At night, if there was
any kind of a moon, the ocean seemed closer and smaller than it
did during the day. On the dark water, the moonlight was a wide,
cobbled path that stretched all the way to the horizon.
It was the kind of place where you could not forget where
you were. Cormorants and seagulls flew by the house, calling
to each other in sharp cries. Lobster boats came within fifty
feet of the rocks. The purr of their diesel engines faded in
and out. The harbor buoy groaned every three seconds. At
night, and in heavy fog, the horn at the lighthouse blasted
away. Behind the foreground sounds was the ocean itself,
rinsing and grinding, pushing and yielding, never missing
a beat. Each time the tide turned, the pressure of the air
dropped. When you fell asleep, you drifted off with the
tide. When you woke up, a wave breaking against the
rocks was the first sound you heard.
There was a tide pool near the edge of the rocks.
The original owners of the house had called it “the crab
pool.” At low tide, the crab pool was empty, but an hour
before high tide, waves broke over the rocks and filled
the pool with six feet of clear water. At high tide, the
surface of the water came level with the surface of the
ocean. If you dove into the crab pool and floated on
your back you could look out at the horizon and watch
the waves roll towards you. The water in the crab pool
was warmer than the ocean, but it still took your breath
away. As soon as you dove in all you could think about
was how and when you would climb out, but after you
climbed out, all you wanted to do was dive back in.
Spending two weeks at the house was like spending
two weeks at sea. Towels, toothbrushes, and clothes
never dried. Regardless of whether you were inside
or outside, the air itself was damp. Breathing became
a lighter form of swimming.
My wife and I cooked simple meals. By the middle of
August, the local farms and orchards were in full harvest.
Cherry tomatoes, eggplant, sweet corn, torpedo onions; blueberries,
nectarines, white peaches—making dinner was almost too easy. Simple food
calls for simple wines, at least in theory. In practice, there is such a thing as
a surplus of simplicity. The more basic the dinner, the more complex the wine
needs to be.
Which brings us to the 2010 Antoine Arena Patrimonio “Carco” Blanc.
Antoine Arena lives and works in the Patrimonio region at the north
end of Corsica. Arena’s vineyards are planted in a chalky soil—the same vein
of chalk that runs north through Burgundy and Champagne and under the
English Channel to the Cliffs of Dover. The chalk is a remnant of fossilized
oyster shells. Vines planted in chalky soils tend to struggle during infancy
and mature slowly, but after they mature, they produce grapes of character
and distinction.
Arena’s 2010 Patrimonio Blanc is made with Vermentinu grapes from
his Carco vineyard, a three-hectare parcel with a south-facing slope.
Carco is the Corsican equivalent of chargé, which means “loaded” or
“laden” in French. Chargé can also be translated as “fraught.”
In the glass, the 2010 Patrimonio Blanc is a lean, transparent
gold. Depending on the temperature of the bottle, the bouquet
is either obvious or legendary. As the wine approaches room
temperature, its obvious aromas retreat and its legendary
associations emerge. Think of sunlight turning into straw and
straw turning into gold. On the palate, the 2010 Patrimonio
Blanc is like swimming in deep water. No matter how
disciplined a swimmer you are, you know you are at the
mercy of forces beyond your control. The finish extends
that connection by asking the right questions: Is this a shy
wine with aggressive tendencies or an aggressive wine
with defensive tendencies? How can a Vermentinu deliver
this degree of depth without showing all of its cards? If we
open a second bottle and drink it, will we know more or
less about this wine than we do now?
After we left Massachusetts, the house with the slate
roof and the dormer windows was sold to a couple who
used phrases like “unlocking value” and “implied consent.”
The husband was descended from an old Boston family.
He and his wife owned a pleasure boat and had admired
the property from the water. Their master plan was
to tear down the house with the slate roof and build
a mansion. Unless someone drags me there against my
will, I will never watch the moonlight on the water from
that spot again. No matter how beautiful the moonlight
might be, watching it from the bay window of a modern
mansion would be too simple—too simple, too obvious,
too painful, and too sad. D
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 ©2012 by onebottle.com. For back issues, go to onebottle.com. Send your comments or questions to [email protected].
OnE BOttlE:
The 2010 Antoine Arena Patrimonio “Carco” Blancby Joshua Baer
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 27
DINING GUIDE
c o n t i n u e d o n p a g e 2 9
315 rEstaurant & WinE Bar 315 Old Santa Fe Trail. 986-9190. Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: French. Atmosphere: An inn in the French countryside. house specialties: Steak Frites, seared Pork Tenderloin, and the Black Mussels are all winners. Comments: A beautiful new bar with generous martinis, a teriffic wine list, and a “can’t miss” bar menu. Winner of Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence.
317 aztEc 317 Aztec St. 820-0150 Breakfast/ Lunch. Patio. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: Cafe 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. $$Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual house specialties: Start with the Steamed Mussels or the Roasted Beet Salad. For your main, choose the delicious Chicken Marsala or the Pork Tenderloin. Comments: Good wines, great pizzas.
anasazi rEstaurant Inn of the Anasazi 113 Washington Ave. 988-3236 . Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Valet parking. Major credit cards. $$$$Cuisine: Contemporary American cuisine. Atmosphere: Elegant room. house specialties: Blue Corn crusted-Salmon with citrus jalapeno sauce, and the Beef Tenderloin. Comments: Attentive service.
aqua santa 451 W. Alameda. 982-6297. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: Casual house specialties: Start with the Pan Fried Oysters with Watercress. For your main, the perfect Wild King Salmon with Lentils or the Long-Braised Shepherd’s Lamb with Deep Fried Leeks. Comments: Good wine list, great soups, and amazing bread.
BEttErday cOffEEsHOp 905 W. Alameda St. Breakfast/Lunch Major credit cards. $Cuisine: Coffehouse fare. Atmosphere: Casual. house specialties: Espressos, Lattes, Macchiatos, Italian Sodas, and Teas. Comments: Food menu changes daily.
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 the Avocado and Cheese Wrap. Comments: Soups and salads are marvelous, as is the Carrot Juice Alchemy.
cafE cafE italian grill 500 Sandoval St. 466-1391. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: Casual. house specialties: For lunch, the classic Caesar salad, the tasty specialty pizzas, or the grilled eggplant sandwich. For dinner, go for the perfectly grilled Swordfish Salmorglio. Comments: Friendly waitstaff.
café fina 624 Old Las Vegas Highway. 466-3886. Breakfast/Lunch. Patio Cash/major credit cards. $Cuisine: Contemporary comfort food. Atmosphere: Casual and bright. house specialties: Ricotta “pancakes with fresh berries and maple syrup; chicken enchiladas; a perfect green-chile cheese burger. Comments: Organic andhousemade products are delicious. café pasqual’s 121 Don Gaspar Ave. 983-9340. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$$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 Breast Sandwich.
cHOpstix238 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.
(tHE) cOmpOund 653 Canyon Rd. 982-4353. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$Cuisine: Contemporary. Atmosphere: 150-year-old adobe with white linen on the tables. house specialties: Jumbo Crab and Lobster Salad. The Chicken Schnitzel is flawless. Desserts are perfect. Comments: Chef/owner Mark Kiffin, winner of the
James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef of the Southwest” award.
cOuntEr culturE 930 Baca St. 995-1105. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Cash. $$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. $$Cuisine: All-American. Atmosphere: Patio shaded by big cottonwoods. Great bar. house specialties: The smoked brisket and ribs are fantastic. Super buffalo burgers. Comments: Huge selection of beers.
cOyOtE café 132 W. Water St. 983-1615. Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$$$Cuisine: Southwestern with French and Asian influences. Atmosphere Bustling. house specialties: For your main course, go for the grilled Maine Lobster Tails or the grilled 24-ounce “Cowboy Cut” steak. Comments: Great bar and good wines.
dOWntOWn suBscriptiOn376 Garcia St. 983-3085. Breakfast/Lunch No alcohol. Patio. Cash/ Major credit cards. $Cuisine: Standard coffee-house fare. Atmosphere: A large room with small tables inside and a nice patio outside where you can sit, read periodicals, and schmooze. Tons of magazine to peruse. house specialties: Espresso, cappuccino, and lattes.
El faról 808 Canyon Rd. 983-9912. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$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.
El mEsón 213 Washington Ave. 983-6756. Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: Spanish. Atmosphere: Spain could be just around the corner. Music nightly. house specialties: Tapas reign supreme, with classics like Manchego Cheese marinated in extra virgin olive oil. Go.
El parasOl 833 Cerrillos Rd Santa Fe, 995-8015 30 Cities of Gold Rd., Pojoaque. 455-7185 603 Santa Cruz Rd., Española. 753-8852 298 Dinosaur Trail, Santa Fe. 995-8226 1903 Central Ave., Los Alamos. 661-0303 Breakfat/Lunch/Diinner
Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: New Mexican Atmosphere: Casual. House specialties: Tacxs, burritos,burgers. frito pies,, and combination plates.Comments: 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. $$$$Cuisine: We call it French/Asian fusion. Atmosphere: Elegant. house specialties: Start with the superb foie gras. Entrées we love include the Green Miso Sea Bass, served with black truffle scallions, and the classic peppery Elk tenderloin.
il piattO 95 W. Marcy St. 984-1091. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: Italian. Atmosphere: 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. $$Cuisine: Salvadoran Grill. Atmosphere: Casual. house specialties: The Loroco Omelet, Pan-fried Plantains, and Salvadorian tamales. Recommendations: Sunday brunch.
lan’s ViEtnamEsE cuisinE 2430 Cerrillos Rd. 986-1636. Lunch/Dinner Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: Vietnamese. Atmosphere: Casual. house specialties: The Pho Tai Hoi: vegetarian soup loaded with veggies.
la plazuEla On tHE plaza 100 E. San Francisco St. 989-3300. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full Bar. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: New Mexican and Continental. Atmosphere: Enclosed courtyard. house specialties: Start with the Classic Tortilla Soup or the Heirloom Tomato Salad with baked New Mexico goat cheese. For your entrée, try the Braised Lamb Shank, served with a spring gremolata, couscous, and vegetables. Comments: Seasonal menus.
lEgal tEndEr151 Old Lamy Trail. 466-1650 Lunch/Dinner Beer/wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual. house specialties: Burgers, Pulled Pork, Lamy Cubano Sandwich, Braised Short Ribs, and the Wedge Salad.Comments: Huevos Rancheros, Belgian Waffle,and a Special Drink Menu at Sunday Brunch. Kid friendly. maria’s nEW mExican KitcHEn 555 W. Cordova Rd. 983-7929. Lunch/Dinner (Thursday-Sunday) Beer/wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: American/New Mexican. Atmosphere: Rough wooden floors and hand-carved chairs set the historical tone. house specialties: Freshly made Tortillas, and Green Chile Stew. Comments: Perfect margaritas.
mu du nOOdlEs 1494 Cerrillos Rd. 983-1411. Dinner/Sunday Brunch Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$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 Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: New York deli. Atmosphere: Large open space. house specialties: Soups, Salads, Bagels, Hero Sandwiches, Pancakes, and over-the-top Gourmet Burgers. Comments: Deli platters to go.
nOstrani ristOrantE 304 Johnson St. 983-3800. Dinner Beer/Wine. Fragrance-free Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: Innovative regional dishes from Northern Italy. Atmosphere: Elegant. house specialties: Start with any salad. Entrees we love: the Veal Scalopinni or the Roasted Trout with Leeks, Pepper, and Sage. Dessert: Go for the Mixed Berries with Lemon. Comments: Organic ingredients. Menu changes seasonally. Frommers rates Nostrani as one of the “Top 500 Restaurants in the World.” Please note: fragrance-free.
$
k e
y
iNeXPeNSiVe MODeRATe eXPeNSiVe VeRy eXPeNSiVe
$ up to $14 $$ $15—$23 $$$ $24—$33 $$$$ $34 plus
Prices are for one dinner entrée. If a restaurant serves only lunch, then a lunch entrée price is reflected. Alcoholic beverages, appetizers, and desserts are not included in these price keys. Call restaurants for hours. eAT OUT OFTeN
...a guide to the very best restaurants in santa fe, albuquerque, taos, and surrounding areas...
Photos: Guy Cross
On the Patio at
Aqua Santa451 West Alameda, Santa Fe
Reservations: 982-6297
DINING GUIDE
SALEScan be fun
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To sell for THE magazineyou must be personable, responsible, a self starterand, yes, a team player.Experience is preferred.
All inquiries are confidential.
Call: 505-424-7641
1115 Hickox St.
Santa Fe, NM
M-F, 7a - 10p
Sat & Sun, 8a - 10p
(505) 983-7060
tuneupsantafe.com
our brand spankin’ new
bar now open!
DINNER NIGHTLY315 Old Santa Fe Trail • Reservations 505.986.9190
www.315santafe.com
PATIO DINING
SQUASH BLOSSOMSSOFT SHELL CRAB
NEW MENU FROM EXECUTIVE CHEF LOUIS MOSKOW
plaza café sOutHsidE 3466 Zafarano Dr. 424-0755. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner 7 days Full bar. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: American and New Mexican. Atmosphere: Bright and light, colorful, and friendly. house specialties: For your breakfast go for the Huevos Rancheros or the Blue Corn Piñon Pancakes. Comments: Excellent Green Chile.
rasa JuicE Bar/ayurVEda815 Early St. 989-1288 Major credit cards. $$ Cuisine: Organic juice bar. Atmosphere: Calm. house specialties: Smoothies, juices, teas, chai, cocoa, coffee, and espresso—made with organic ingredients. Juice: our favorite is the Shringara, made with beet, apple, pear, and ginger.
riO cHama stEaKHOusE 414 Old Santa Fe Trail. 955-0765. Sunday Brunch/Lunch/Dinner/Bar Menu. Full bar. Smoke-free dining rooms. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: All-American Atmosphere: Easygoing. house specialities: Steaks, Prime Ribs, and Burgers. The 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. $$$Cuisine: Southwestern with a French flair.Atmosphere: Contemporary. house specialties: Mediterranean Mussels in chipotle and mint broth is superb, as is the Ahi Tuna Tartare. Comments: Nice wine list san q31 Burro Alley. 992-0304 Lunch/Dinner Sake/Wine Major credit cards. $$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 Japanese Tapas Comments: A savvy sushi chef makes San Q a top choice for those who really love Japanese food.
san franciscO strEEt Bar & grill 50 E. San Francisco St. 982-2044. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: All-American. Atmosphere: Casual. house specialties: The San Francisco Street Burger, the Grilled Yellowfin Tuna Nicoise Salad, or the New York Strip. Comments: Sister restaurant located in the DeVargas Center.
santacafé 231 Washington Ave. 984-1788. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: Contemporary Southwestern. 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. $$Cuisine: American and New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. house specialties: Cornmeal-crusted Calamari, Rotisserie Chicken, or the Rosemary Baby Back Ribs. Comments: Easy on the wallet.
saVEur 204 Montezuma St. 989-4200. Breakfast/Lunch Beer/Wine. Patio. Visa/Mastercard. $$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. Family-run.
sEcOnd strEEt BrEWEry 1814 Second St. 982-3030. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Patio. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: Simple pub grub and brewery. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. house specialties: The beers are outstanding when paired with Beer-steamed Mussels, Calamari, Burgers, and Fish & Chips. Comments: Sister restaurant at 1607 Paseo de Peralta, in the Railyard District.
sHiBumi 26 Chapelle St. 428-0077. Lunch/Dinner Fragrance-free Cash only. $$. Parking available Beer/wine/sakeCuisine: 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 (small plates of delicious chilled appetizers), or select from four hearty soups. Shibumi offers sake by the glass or bottle, as well as beer and champagne. Comments: Zen-like setting. sHOHKO café 321 Johnson St. 982-9708. Lunch/Dinner Sake/Beer. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: Authentic Japanese Cuisine.Atmosphere: Sushi bar, table dining. house specialties: Softshell Crab Tempura, Sushi, and Bento Boxes. Comments: Friendly waitstaff, statiOn 430 S. Guadalupe. 988-2470 Breakfast/Lunch Patio Major credit cards. $
Cuisine: Light fare and fine cofffee and teas. Atmosphere: Friendly and casual. house specialties: For your breakfast choose the Ham and Cheese Croissant a Fresh Fruit Cup. Lunch fave is the Prosciutto, Mozzarella, Tomato sandwich Comments: Special espresso drinks.
stEaKsmitH at El gancHO Old Las Vegas Hwy. 988-3333. Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Major credit cards $$$Cuisine: American. Atmosphere: Family restaurant house specialties: Aged steaks, lobster. Try the Pepper Steak with Dijon cream sauce. Comments: They know steak here.
taBlE dE lOs santOs 210 Don Gaspar. 992-5863 Breakfast/Lunch/DinnerSunday Brunch Full Bar. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: New Mexican–inspired fare. Atmosphere: Large open room with high ceilings house specialties: Try the organic Chicken Paillard with vegetables—it is the best. For dessert, we love the organic Goat Milk Flan. Comments: Well-stocked bar.
tEaHOusE 821 Canyon Rd. 992-0972. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner 7 days Beer/Wine. Fireplace. Major credit cards. $$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. Teas from around the world.
tErra at fOur sEasOns EncantadO 198 State Rd. 592, Tesuque. 988-9955. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$$Cuisine: Amrecian with Southwest influences. Atmosphere: Elegant and sophisticated. house specialties: For dinner, start with the tempting Burrata Cheese, Heirloom Tomato, Asparagus, and Petite Greens appetizer or the perfect Tempura Soft Shell Crab with Avocado, Citrus, Radish, and Margarita Aioli. For your main, we love the delicious Pan-seared Alaskan Halibut with Baby Artichokes, Corn Purée, and Wild Arugula Salad, and the tender and flavorful Black Angus Beef Tenderloin with Espanole Sauce, Summer Baby Vegetables, and Truffle Fries. Comments: Local organic ingredients. A fine wine list, and top-noth service.
tHE palacE rEstaurant & salOOn 142 W. Palace Avenue 428-0690 Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio Major credit cards $$$Cuisine: Modern Italian Atmosphere: Victorian style merges with the Spanish Colonial aesthetic house Specialties: For lunch: the “Smash” Burger or the Prime Rib French Dip. Dinner: Start with the Marlin Sashimi. For your main, go for the Herb-Crusted Chicken Breast, the Alaskan Halibut, or the All-American Steak au Poivre. Comments: Good wines list and a great pour at the bar.
tHE pantry rEstaurant 1820 Cerrillos Rd. 986-0022 Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: New Mexican/American. Atmosphere: Bustling with counter service and extra-friendly service. house specialties: Breakfast rules here with their famous stuffed French Toast, Corned Beef Hash, and Huevos Rancheros. A hand-breaded Chicken Fried Steak rounds out the menu. Comments: The Pantry has been in the same location since 1948.
tHE pinK adOBE 406 Old Santa Fe Trail. 983-7712. Lunch/ Dinner Full Bar Major credit cards. $$$ 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, get the Steak Dunigan, with green chile and sauteed mushrooms, 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. $$Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: A local institution located just off the Plaza. house specialties: Order the red or green chile cheese enchiladas.Many folks say that they are the best tin Santa Fe.
tHE rancH HOusE (forMerly Josh’s BBQ) 2571 Cristos Road. 424-8900 Lunch/Dinner Full bar Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: BBQ and Grill. Atmosphere: Family and kid-friendly. house specialties: Josh’s Red Chile Baby Back Ribs, Smoked Brisket, Pulled Pork, and New Mexican Enchilada Plates. Comments: Nice bar.
tia sOpHia’s 210 W. San Francisco St. 983-9880. Breakfast/Lunch Major credit cards. $Cuisine: New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual. house specialties: Green Chile Stew, the traditional Breakfast Burrito, stuffed with bacon, potatoes, chile, and cheese. Comments: The real deal.
tOmmE rEstaurant229 Galisteo St. 820-2253 Dinner Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: Contemporary. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. house specialties: Start with the Cheese Board. Entrée: Choose the Steak Frites, or the Southern Fried Chicken. Fave dessert: the Caramel Pots de Crème.
trEE HOusE pastry sHOp and cafE DeVargasCenter. 474-5543. Breakfast/Lunch Monday-Saturday Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: Only organic ingredients used. Atmosphere: Light, bright, and cozy. house specialties: Order the fresh Farmer’s Market Salad, or the Lunch Burrito, smothered in red chile. Yum.
tunE-up café 1115 Hickox St.. 983-7060. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: All World: American, Cuban, Salvadoran, Mexican, and, yes, New Mexican. Atmosphere: Down home, house specialties: Breakfast faves are the scrumptious Buttermilk Pancakes and the Tune-Up Breakfast. Comments: Super Fish Tacos and the El Salvadoran Pupusas are excellent. Now serving beer and wine.Yay!
VinaigrEttE 709 Don Cubero Alley. 820-9205. Lunch/Dinner Beer/Wine. Major credit cards. $$Cuisine: We call the food here: farm-to-table-to-fork. Atmosphere: Light, bright and cheerful. house specialties: All of the salads are totally amazing—as fresh as can be. We love the Nutty Pear-fessor salad, and the Chop Chop Salad. Comments: Vinaigrette will be opening a “sister” restaurant in Albuquerque in the fall.
WHOO’s dOnuts 851 Cerrillos Rd. 629-1678 6 am to 3 pm. Major credit cards. $Cuisine: Just donuts. Atmosphere: Very, very casual. house specialties: Organic ingredients only. Comments: Our fave donut is the Maple Barn.
zacatEcas3423 Central Ave., Alb. 505-255-8226. Lunch/Dinner Tequila/Mezcal/Beer/Wine Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: Mexican, not New Mexican. Atmosphere: Casual and friendly. house specialties: Try the Chicken Tinga Taco with Chicken and Chorizo cooked or the Slow Cooked Pork Ribs with Tamarind Recado-Chipotle Sauce. Over sixty-five brands of Tequila are offered. Comments: Savvy waitstaff.
zia dinEr 326 S. Guadalupe St. 988-7008. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Full bar. Patio. Major credit cards. $$$Cuisine: All-American diner food. Atmosphere: Down home baby, down home. house specialties: The Chile Rellenos and Eggs is our breakfast choice. At lunch, we love the Southwestern Chicken Salad, the Meat Loaf, all the Burgers, and the crispy Fish and Chips. Comments: The bar at the Zia is place to be at cocktail hour.
DeLiCiOUS BeNTO BOXeS AND MORe...
Now serving Beer and Wine
TUNE-UP CAFÉ1115 Hickox Street, Santa Fe • 983-7060
kOhNAMi -313 SOUTh GUADALUPe STReeT - 984-2002
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 29
DINING GUIDE
Three Guys from Venice Beach
BiLLy aL BenGsTonIt HIt tHe Fan!
freD eVersLeyLIgHt Lens
DouG eDGeMoLded, Poured and Cast
sepTemBer 28 - noVemBer 3, 2012
openinG recepTion friDay, sepTemBer 28, 5:00-7:00 pm
Davidrichardgallery.com544 south Guadalupe street, santa fe, nm 87501 | p (505) 983-9555 | f (505) 983-1284
FRIday, august 31
daVid ricHard gallEry, 544 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. The Circle ReViewed—1964 to 2012: work by Tadasky. Shapin’ Up: work by Leo Valledor. 5-7 pm.
tHuRsday, sEPtEMBER 6
sOutH BrOadWay cultural cEntEr gallEry, 1025 Broadway Blvd. SE, Alb. 505-899-0456. Closer to the Bone—Wild Passion: paper sculpture, etchings, and more. 6-8 pm.
FRIday, sEPtEMBER 7
BOdy, 333 Cordova Rd., Santa Fe. 986-0362. A Walk in the Woods: landscape photography by Daniel Quat. 5-7 pm.
capricciO, 333 Montezuma Ave., Santa Fe. 982-8889. Elegy: photographs by Deborah Samuel. 5-7 pm.
gEBErt cOntEmpOrary, 558 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 992-1100. Around the Globe: work by Patsy Krebs, Bruno Mezcua, Rakuko Naito, and Keiko Sadakane. 5-7 pm.
gVg cOntEmpOrary, 202 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 982-1494. Anthro: group show. 5-7 pm.
HuntEr KirKland cOntEmpOrary, 200-B Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 984-2111. Two-Person Show: paintings by Greg Harris. Sculptures by T. Barny. 5-7 pm.
inpOst artspacE at tHE OutpOst pErfOrmancE spacE, 210 Yale Blvd. SE, Alb. 505-268-0044. Folk Artists of Albuquerque: group show. 5-8 pm.
lEgEnds santa fE, 125 Lincoln Ave., Santa Fe. 983-5639. Equine—An Exhibit: group show to benefit Cimarron Sky Dog Horse Rescue. 5-7 pm.
manitOu gallEriEs, 123 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 986-0440. Work by Ethelinda and Arthur Lopez, Jim Eppler, and B.C. Nowlin. 5-7:30 pm.
maripOsa gallEry, 3500 Central Ave. SE, Alb. 505-268-6828. Hoy Soy Mariposa: prints by Diana Stetson. Dreams of Floating Leaves: paintings by Sam Esmoer. 5-8 pm.
mEyEr East gallEry, 225 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 983-1657. Desert Skies: paintings by David Jonason. 5-7 pm.
nEW cOncEpt gallEry, 610 Canyon Rd. Santa Fe. 795-7570. Landscape Paintings: works by Cecilia Kirby Binkley and Linda Petersen. 5-7 pm.
palEttE cOntEmpOrary art and craft, 7400 Montgomery Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-855-777. Nature: paintings by Daniel North. 5-8 pm.
silVEr sun gallEry, 656 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 983-8743. L.I.F.E.—Live It Fully Expressed!: photography by Rick Allred. 4:30-7:30 pm.
starBucKs, 106 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe. 670-8004. Santa Fe and Abroad: paintings by Dominic Monti. 5-8 pm.
strangEr factOry, 109 Carlisle Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-508-3049. The Pit of Unease: 2-D works by Travis Lampe. Anomie: sculptures by Doubleparlour. Kaiju vs. Yokai: paintings by Joel Nakamura. Mystic Visions: woodcuts by Jon MacNair. 6-9 pm.
WEyricH gallEry, 2935-D Louisiana Blvd. NE, Alb. 505-883-7410. Public Lands, Personal Visions: mixed-media works by Carol Chamberland. 5-8:30 pm.
satuRday, sEPtEMBER 8
203 finE art, 203 Ledoux St., Taos. 575-751-1262. Recent Paintings: oil paintings by Tom Dixon. 5-8 pm.
Burris Hall gallEry, 903 National Ave., Las Vegas, NM. 505-454-3024. Back Into the Woods With You, Son: paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Michael Gullberg. 2-5 pm.
riO BraVO finE art, 110 N. Broadway, Truth or Consequences. 575-894-0572. Selections from The Window Series: paintings, aquatints, and linocuts by Harold Joe Waldrum. 6-9 pm.
FRIday, sEPtEMBER 14
ExHiBit 208, 208 Bway SE, Alb. 505-450-6884. Two-Person Show: collage and assemblage work by Cynthia Cook and Carlos Quinto Kemm. 5-8 pm.
pEytOn WrigHt gallEry, 237 E. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 989-9888. The Constant Line: paintings by Sewell Sillman. 5-8 pm.
santa fE clay, 545 Camino de la Familia, Santa Fe. 984-1122. Primed: group show. 5-7 pm.
stEVEn BOOnE gallEry, 714 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 670-0580. Terra Ventus Earth Wind: photographs of world travels by Steven Boone and Joseph Cosby. 5-7 pm.
VErVE gallEry Of pHOtOgrapHy, 219 E. Marcy St., Santa Fe. 982-5009. A Sense of TIME: work by Susan Burnstine, Michael Crouser, and Douglas Ethridge. 5-7 pm.
satuRday, sEPtEMBER 15
nEdra mattEucci gallEriEs, 1075 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 982-4631. Michael A. Naranjo—Inner Vision: bronzes by Native American artist Naranjo. 2-4 pm.
uniVErsity Of nEW mExicO art musEum, 203 Cornell Drive NE, Alb. 505-277-4001. Dancing with the Dark: prints by Joan Snyder, 1963-2010. The Transformative Surface. 5-7 pm.
sePteMBer art oPenings
ART OPENINGS
c o n t i n u e d o n p a g e 3 4
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 31
Together Alone, an exhibition of contemporary glass by sculptor Lucy Lyon at LewAllen Galleries at the Railyard, 1613 Paseo de Peralta. Reception: Friday, August 31, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
HERE’S THE DEAL for artists without gallery representation in New Mexico.
Full-page b&w ads for $600, color $900.
Reserve your space for the October issue
by Monday, September 17 Call: 505-424-7641
THEMAGAZINEONLINE.COM
THE magazine is now available on the iPad at the Apple Newsstand. Page 46 for details
“No statue has ever been erected to a critic.”1. Lionel Trilling 2. Pauline Kael 3. Jean Sibelius 4. Paul Fussell
WHO SAID THIS? WHO SAID THIS?
Jonas Povilas Skardis Mac (and PC) Consulting
Training, Planning, Setup, Troubleshooting, Anything Final Cut Pro, Networks, Upgrades, & Hand Holding
Serving Northern NM since 1996
(505) 577-2151 [email protected]
phone: email:
®
OUT AND ABOUT
photographs by
Mr. Clix, Dana Waldon,
Jennifer Esperanza, and Lisa Law,
HERE’S THE DEAL for artists without gallery representation in New Mexico.
Full-page b&w ads for $600, color $900.
Reserve your space for the October issue
by Monday, September 17 Call: 505-424-7641
THEMAGAZINEONLINE.COM
THE magazine is now available on the iPad at the Apple Newsstand. Page 46 for details
Jonas Povilas Skardis Mac (and PC) Consulting
Training, Planning, Setup, Troubleshooting, Anything Final Cut Pro, Networks, Upgrades, & Hand Holding
Serving Northern NM since 1996
(505) 577-2151 [email protected]
phone: email:
®
WEdNEsday, sEPtEMBER 19
santa fE cOmmunity cOllEgE Visual arts gallEry, 6401 Richards Ave., Santa Fe. 428-1501. Ecumene—Global Interface in American Ceramics: juried group show. 5-8 pm.
tHuRsday, sEPtEMBER 20
ricHard lEVy gallEry, 514 Central Ave SW, Alb. 505-766-9888. DISTRICT (2012): installation by Robert Drummond. SYN: installation by Artereazione+Consonant. 6-8 pm.
FRIday, sEPtEMBER 21
a gallEry santa fE, 154 W. Marcy St., Santa Fe. 471-8255. Equinox Opening: group show of sculpture and painting. 5-7 pm.
cEntEr fOr cOntEmpOrary arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe. 983-1338. Dust in the Machine: group show. 6:30-8 pm.
gf cOntEmpOrary, 707 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 983-3707. Les Origines: sculptures by Pascal. 5-7 pm.
nEW cOncEpt gallEry, 610 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 795-7570. Figurative Etchings and Photographs: works by Julia Roberts and Bill Heckel. 5-7 pm.
patina gallEry, 131 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. 986-0432. Speaking of Klee: clay works by Sheryl Zachariah. 5-7 pm.
rOsWEll musEum, 100 W. 11th St., Roswell. 575-624-6744. Where Edges Meet: work by Eddie Dominguez. 5-7 pm.
WadE WilsOn art santa fE, 409 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 281-788-7609. Solo Show: paintings by Justin Garcia. 5-7 pm.
satuRday, sEPtEMBER 22
tamarind institutE, 2500 Central Ave. SE, Alb. 505-277-3901. Notes on the Tower: lithographs by Nicola Lopez. 4:30-7:30 pm.
FRIday, sEPtEMBER 28
daVid ricHard gallEry, 544 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 983-1284. It Hit the Fan: new work by Billy Al Bengston. Light Lens: new work by Fred Eversley. Molded, Poured and Cast: new work by Doug Edge. 5-7 pm.
manitOu gallEriEs, 225 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 986-9833. The Secret Works of B.C. Nowlin. 5-7 pm.
marigOld arts, 424 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 982-4142. Wind Maps and Wild Horses: art rugs by Connie Enzmann-Forneris. 5-7 pm.
suNday, sEPtEMBER 30
nEW mExicO HistOry musEum, 113 Lincoln Ave., Santa Fe. 476-5200. Altared Spaces—The Shrines of New Mexico: photography by Siegfried Halus, Jack Parsons, and Donald Woodman. 2 pm.
sPECIaL INtEREst
516 arts, 516 Central Ave. SW, Alb. 505-242-1445. ISEA2012 Albuquerque—Machine Wilderness: conference and exhibitions. Sat., Sept. 15 to Thurs., Sept. 27. isea2012.org
amErican HEart assOciatiOn at the Hotel Albuquerque, 800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, Alb. 505-353-5818. 2012 Heart and Soul Ball: benefit dinner. Fri., Sept. 21, 6-10 pm. heart.org/albuquerquenmheartball
BarnEtt’s las crucEs HarlEy daVidsOn, 2600 Lakeside Dr., Las Cruces. 575-621-4942. Cruisin’ for Critters: charity motorcycle run. Sat., Sept. 29, 10 am-6 pm. staysunny.org
BuffalO tHundEr rEsOrt and casinO, 20 Buffalo Thunder Trail, Santa Fe. 438-4650. Artist’s Materials Expo 2012—Creative Spirit!: art supply and workshop exposition. Thurs., Sept. 13 to Sun., Sept. 16. expoartisan.co
canyOn rOad cOntEmpOrary, 403 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 983-0433. Aspect 3: paintings by Mark Horst. Through Mon., Sept. 10. canyoncontemporary.com
cHarlOttE JacKsOn finE art, 554 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 989-8688. Time Expanded: works by John Beech. Through Sat., Sept. 29. charlottejackson.com
cOusE fOundatiOn, 146 Kit Carson Rd., Taos. September Open House: exhibition honoring Virginia Walker Couse. Sat., Sept. 1, 5-7 pm.
daVid ricHard gallEry, 544 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 983-9555. The Circle ReViewed—1964 to 2012: works by Tadasky. Through Sat., Sept. 22. davidrichardgallery.com
dElgadO strEEt cOntEmpOrary, 238 Delgado St., Santa Fe. 920-6487. Sites of Disrepair—States of Repair: work by Michael Diaz. Through Sat., Sept. 29. delgadostreetcontemporary.com
El rancHO dE las gOlOndrinas liVing HistOry musEum, Exit 276 off I-25, Santa Fe. 471-2261. Fiesta de los Niños: children’s festival. Sat., Sept 1 and Sun., Sept 2, 10 am-4 pm. golondrinas.org
El rancHO dE las gOlOndrinas liVing HistOry musEum, Exit 276 off I-25, Santa Fe. 471-2261. Santa Fe Renaissance Fair. Sat., Sept. 22 and Sun., Sept 23, 10 am-6 pm. sfrenfair.org
El zaguan, 545 Canyon Road, Santa Fe. 983-2567. Family Secrets Redux: works by Brenda Roper. Through Wed., Sept. 12. contemporaryartinsantafe.com
Encaustic art institutE, 18 Country Rd. 55-A, Cerrillos. 424-6487. 4th Annual Art Gala. Sat., Sept. 15, 5-10 pm. Annual National Juried Show. Sat., Sept. 22, 1-6 pm. eainm.com
gEOrgia O’KEEffE musEum at Georgia O’Keeffe’s home and studio, Abiquiu. 505-685-4539. Abiquiu Day: sketch and watercolor at O’Keeffe’s home. Mon., Sept. 24, 7 am-6 pm. okeeffemuseum.org
gErald pEtErs gallEry, 1011 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 954-5700. A Modern Epic Vision: works by Gaston Lachaise. Through Sat., Sept. 22. gpgallery.com
gHOst rancH, 1708 U.S. 84, Abiquiu. 505-210-1092. Annual Exhibition: Art Through the Loom Guild. Through Sun., Sept. 23. ghostranch.org
inn and spa at lOrEttO, 211 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe. 820-2653. Lyme Disease Awareness Benefit: art auction and talk. Fri., Sept. 14, 5-11 pm. innatloretto.com
HarWOOd musEum, 238 Ledoux St., Taos. 575-758-9826. Bea Mandelman Collage: exhibition runs through October. harwoodmuseum.org
lannan fOundatiOn at the Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe. 988-1234. Michelle Alexander with Liliana Segura: conversation on mass incarceration and racial injustice. Wed., Sept. 12, 7 pm. lannan.org
ART OPENINGS
c o n t i n u e d o n p a g e 3 6
New oil paintings by Tom Dixon at 203 Fine Art, 203 Ledoux Street, Taos. Reception: Saturday, September 8, from 5 to 8 pm.
Dust in the Machine—a group show about the glories and failures of the industrialized West at the Center for Contemporary Arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail. Reception: Friday, September 21, from 6:30 to 8 pm.
34 | tHE magazine | S e P T e M B e R 2012
J U S T I N G A R C I A
Opening ReceptionFr iday, September 21st , 2012
5pm - 7pm
4 0 9 Ca nyo n R o a d Santa Fe, NM 87501ph: 505. 423. 5933www.wadewilsonar t.com
o n v i e w t h ro u g h S at u rd ay, O c to b e r 2 7 t h , 2 0 1 2
i m a g e a b ove : “ D a r k Tu r q u o i s e ” o i l , a c r y l i c , a n d c o m p o u n d t e x t u r e o n c a n v a s , 5 0 x 5 0 i n .
a n i n t r o d u c t i o n
lEWallEn gallEry, 1613 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe. 988-3250. Together Alone: sculptures by Lucy Lyon. Through Sun., Oct. 7. lewallengallery.com
mEsa puBlic liBrary, 2400 Central Ave., Los Alamos. 505-662-8247. The Next Big Idea: physiocartography work by Bill Gilbert. Through Fri., Sept. 28. Panel discussion: Sat., Sept. 15, 1-2:30 pm. losalamosnm.us/library
musEum Hill laBOratOry Of antHrOpOlOgy, 708 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe. 231-1776. Native Treasures Collectors’ Sale: benefit for Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Sat., Sept. 15 and Sun., Sept. 16, 10 am-4 pm. nativetreasures.org
natural HistOry musEum, 1801 Mountain Rd. NW, Alb. 505-269-7711. Open Your Heart 2012 Gala: benefit auction and raffle for New Mexico foster children. Sat., Sept. 15, 6:30-9:30 pm. heartgallerynmfoundation.org
nuart gallEry, 670 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe. 988-3888. Theory of Forms: paintings by Erin Cone. Through Sun., Sept. 16. nuartgallery.com
OffcEntEr cOmmunity arts prOJEct at Robinson Park, 8th St. and Central Ave., Alb. 505-247-1172. 10th Annual “We Art the People!”—Folk Art Festival. Sun., Sept. 9, 10 am-4 pm. offcenterarts.org
pEcOs studiO tOur, various locations in Pecos. 505-670-7045. 2012 Pecos Studio Tour. Sat., Sept. 29 and Sun., Sept. 30, 10 am-5 pm. pecosstudiotour.com
santa fE art institutE, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., Santa Fe. 424-5050. “The Dance of Waters”: lecture by Rulan Tangen, director of Dancing Earth
Indigenous Dance Company. Mon., Sept. 10, 6 pm. Of Bodies of Water: workshop. Sat., Sept. 9 and Sun., Sept. 10, 4-7 pm. September Artists and Writers in Residence Open Studio. Thurs., Sept. 27, 5:30 pm. sfai.org
santa fE cEntEr fOr spiritual liVing, 505 Camino de Los Marquez, Santa Fe. 983-5022. The 1 of Hearts: film on writers and poets. Sat., Sept. 8, 6:15 pm and 8:15 pm. the1ofhearts.com
santa fE uniVErsity Of art and dEsign, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., Santa Fe. 473-6011. Making a Better Living as an Artist: marketing workshop with Sara Eyestone. Sat., Sept. 15, 9 am-4 pm. learn.santafeuniversity.edu
santa fE WinE and cHilE fiEsta, various locations in Santa Fe. 438-8060. 22nd Annual Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta: tastings and tours. Wed., Sept. 26 to Sun., Sept. 30. santafewineandchile.org
taOs cEntEr fOr tHE arts, 133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. 575-758-2052. 12th Annual Quick Draw and Art Auction: watch local artists as they work. Sat., Sept. 29, 12 pm. tcataos.org
taOs cOnVEntiOn cEntEr, 120 Civic Plaza Dr., Taos. 575-613-5340. Taos Fall Arts Festival: work by over 250 artists. Fri., Sept. 28 to Sun, Oct. 7. taosfallarts.com
taOs institutE fOr glass arts, 1021 Salazar Rd., Taos. 575-758-4246. Taos Art Glass Invitational: group show. Fri., Sept. 14 to Sun., Oct. 7. tiganm.org
taOs puEBlO, 120 Veterans Hwy., Taos. 575-758-1028. San Geronimo Festival: traditional ceremonies. Sun., Sept. 30, 7:30 am. taospueblo.com
tHE HaciEnda, 3124 Hwy. 28, La Union. 505-470-1067. Working with Energy, Symbol and Sacred Geometry: presentation by Marcia McCoy. Sun., Sept. 2, 11 am-1 pm. [email protected]
uniVErsity Of nEW mExicO art musEum, 203 Cornell Dr. NE, Alb. 505-277-4001. UNMAM Distinguished Lecture Series: lectures throughout Sept. and Oct. unmartmuseum.unm.edu
Villa Hispana at Expo New Mexico, 300 San Pedro Dr. NE, Alb. 505-222-9700. Southwest Tequila & Taco Fest. Sat., Sept. 29, 12-5 pm. tequilaandtacofest.com
Virtual artspacE, 316 Read St., Santa Fe. 795-8139. Opening Celebration: photography, video, and sculpture. Fri., Aug. 31, 5–8 pm. buchen-goodwin.com
Wild riVErs rEcrEatiOn arEa, NM Hwy. 378, Cerro. 575-586-2049. NeoRio—Confluence of Art and Environments: art symposium on the natural world. Thurs., Sept. 27 to Sat., Sept. 29. leapsite.org
William siEgal gallEry, 540 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe. 820-3300. Dust Stories: paintings by Raphaëlle Goethals. Through Sat., Sept. 22. williamsiegal.com
PERFORMINg aRts
dancing EartH at the Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe. 988-1234. Walking at the Edge of Water: dance performance. Fri., Sept. 28 and Sat., Sept. 29, 7:30 pm. lensic.org
HarWOOd musEum Of art, 238 Ledoux St., Taos. 575-758-9826. Taos Chamber Music Group: 20th season opener. Sat., Sept. 22, 5 pm. taoschambermusicgroup.org
lOdgE at santa fE, 750 N. St. Francis Dr., Santa Fe. 2012 Heritage Performance Series—
Shelley Morningsong’s Full Circle: Native American fusion music. Through Sun., Sept. 2. Wed.-Sun. at 7 pm, Sat. at 1 pm. shelleymorningsongonline.com
music frOm angEl firE, various locations in and around Taos. 888-377-3300. Music from Angel Fire: chamber music festival. Through Sun., Sept. 2. musicfromangelfire.com
Old dOWlin mill, 641 Sudderth Dr., Ruidoso. 575-257-7395. You’re Family: play by Robert Patrick, directed by Mary Maxson. Fri., Sept. 21 and Sat., Sept. 22, 7 pm.
sHOrtgrass music fEstiVal, various locations in Cimarron. 888-376-2417. Shortgrass Music Festival: music by Charlie Albright, Ann and Pete Sibley, and Gary P. Nunn. Fri., Sept. 7 to Sun., Sept. 9 cimarronnm.com/shortgrass.html
sunsHinE tHEatEr, 120 Central Ave. SW, Alb. 505-764-0249. ABurlyQ!: burlesque performances. Fri., Aug. 31 and Sat., Sept. 1, 8 pm. aburlyq.com
tHE lEnsic, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe. 988-1234. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet—Program II. Sat., Sept. 1, 8 pm. lensic.org
CaLL FOR aRtIsts
3rd aVE. arts, 910 E. 3rd Ave., Durango, CO. 970-903-8854. 7th Annual Sacred Arts Festival: request for sacred art from any faith tradition. Deadline: Mon., Sept. 24. sacredartsfestival.com
frEd JOnEs Jr. musEum Of art, University of Oklahoma, 555 Elm Ave., Norman, OK. 405-325-3178. National Weather Center Biennale: juried art exhibition awarding prizes for weather art. Deadline: Mon., Oct 1. ou.edu/fjjma
ART OPENINGS
ABurlyQ! Burlesque and Sideshow Spectaculár!, featuring burlesque and “boylesque” performers, sideshow artists, and more to be held Friday, August 31 to Saturday, September 1. Stage show series occurs on Friday, August. 31, and Saturday, September 1, at the Sunshine Theater, 120 Central Avenue, SW, Alb. Tickets: sunshinetheaterlive.com and holdmyticket.com
Solo show of paintings by Justin Garcia at Wade Wilson Art Santa Fe, 409 Canyon Road. Reception: Friday, September 21 from 5 to 7 pm.
36 | tHE magazine | S e P T e M B e R 2012
brought to you with help from:
September 14th – October 7th
Celebrating national and regional artists working in glass
Exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations, workshops, The Collectors Tour, and artist receptions
www.tiganm.orgFor full schedule and brochure:
2012 Taos ArtGlass Invitational
previews
38 | tHE magazine | S e P T e M B e R 2012
Nora Naranjo-Morse
September 14 through October 13
Chiaroscuro, 702½ Canyon Road, Santa Fe. 992-0711
Reception: Friday, September 14, 5 to 7 pm.
Tewa sculptor and poet Nora Naranjo-Morse explained how she decided to combine her clay work with other media. One
day, while mining clay on a hillside, Naranjo-Morse noticed a landfill nearby. She had always considered clay deposits sacred
places—places people could think about their connection with the earth. “The juxtaposition of this ‘sacred’ place with the dump
brings to light environmental and cultural issues that in reality are global, human, and environmental issues,” she concluded, and
began to incorporate materials from the dump into her work. After completing Always Becoming in 2011, a celebrated five-year
project for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Naranjo-Morse will have a solo show at Chiaroscuro
this September. Always Becoming, a family of five upward-reaching sculptures, is stunningly creative and contains symbols that
are deeply significant to the Native community. Naranjo-Morse created her new body of work after the completion of Always
Becoming, building on her experience at the Smithsonian but once again embracing solo work in the studio. This show will
confront the relationship between humans and their environment through both large- and small-scale works.
Ordered World: Christopher Felver
September 28 through October 19
Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, 435 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe. 982-8111
Reception: Friday, September 28, 5 to 7 pm.
Take heed, photography junkies! On September 28, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art will unveil works
by Christopher Felver—an internationally celebrated photographer and filmmaker. The exhibition will
feature black-and-white portraits taken over the past thirty years of musicians, artists, writers, and
poets: Agnes Martin, Hunter Thompson, Patti Smith, Susan Sontag, Allen Ginsberg, Donald Judd,
and Norman Mailer to name but a few. “Felver’s endeavor has been to use a stubborn sympathy
to depict the face without introduction, fussiness, or false elegance,” writes New Art International
Magazine. Felver has also created several important documentaries, including films on poet Lawrence
Ferlinghetti and artist Donald Judd that will be on view.
ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness
Saturday, September 15 through Thursday, September 27.
516 Arts, 516 Central Avenue SW, Alb. 505-242-1445
Reception: Thursday, September 20, from 6 to 8 pm.
Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain Road NW, Alb. 505-243-7255
Reception: Thursday, September 20, from 5 to 7 pm. 505-766-9888
Richard Levy Gallery, 514 Central Avenue SW, Alb. 505-766-9888
Reception: Thursday, September 20, from 5 to 7 pm.
Northern New Mexicans are known for being more environmentally aware than your average bear—
check out the Earthships in Taos if you’re skeptical. Additionally, the area has secured a respected place
in the world of contemporary art. So it’s no surprise that one of the world’s premiere conferences
on art, technology, and the environment is based in Albuquerque. Organized by 516 Arts, the theme
of this year’s International Symposium of Electronic Art is Machine Wilderness. Artists and scientists
from around the globe will discuss the intersection of nature and technology, from the creation of
wildlife-friendly cities to an examination of the complex and powerful infrastructure we all depend on.
Speakers include performance artist Laurie Anderson and Dr. Denis Rolo—a.k.a. Jaromil—who will
talk about the revolutionary currency known as the Bitcoin. Music, installations, films, and exhibits will
take place throughout Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos, and beyond. We highly recommend
heading to the Website—isea2012.org—to check out the almost overwhelming list of events.
Nora Naranjo-Morse, Untitled, mixed media, 33” x 37” x 16”, 2012
Gerhard Richter by Christopher
Image by Stephanie Rothenberg
Find Your SELFI N S I LVE R C ITY
SilverCityTourism.org • 575.538.5555
Funded by Silver City Lodger’s Tax
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October 5–8
2012
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 41
WoMan With a VEil
By henri Matisse
William S. Paley, the man who transformed CBS into a media giant, was known for his excesses and affairs. Twice married and known
as a playboy well into his eighties, Paley purchased expensive European cars, racehorses, and the New York Yankees. But without
philanthropists like Paley, we wouldn’t have much to look at in museums. Paley, who died in 1990, was friends with Pablo Picasso
and maintained a long relationship with the Museum of Modern Art. When he died, the museum received eighty-four masterpieces
from his collection, including Picasso’s Boy Leading a Horse and Gauguin’s Queen of the Areois. If you can’t make it as far as the East
Coast to see Paley’s collection at MoMA, the de Young Museum in San Francisco will be exhibiting a selection of works from Paley’s
collection in mid-September. Many must-see paintings will be on display, including Boy Leading a Horse and Matisse’s Woman with a Veil.
The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism is on view from September 15 through December 30 at the de Young Museum,
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA. D
NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
ISEA2012
MACHINEWILDERNESS
ALBUQUERQUE:
In 1974, Derek Guthrie and the late Jane Addams Allen put out an eight-page gazette in Chicago called the New Art Examiner, which became the largest serious art journal published outside New York City. The NAE had a nearly three-decade run, gained a national audience, and produced a remarkable list of writers who subsequently found professional success and status. In 1995, ill health forced Allen into retirement and within a few years the publication folded. Returning to Chicago in 2004, Guthrie gave a lecture that inspired Kathryn Born to lead a publication effort by Northern Illinois University Press, which gave rise to an anthology—The Essential New Art Examiner. In reviewing the anthology, art critic Donald Kuspit praised its contribution to art criticism. Mokha Laget spoke with Guthrie for THE magazine about art criticism, the gallery system, and the “powerful art elite.”
Mokha Laget: You were one of the founders of the New Art Examiner, a magazine that
was a seminal publication of art criticism in the eighties and nineties. Last month the
NAE anthology was published. Take me back. Derek Guthrie: The NAE started because
both Jane Addams Allen and I were fired from the Chicago Tribune after pressure from
the powerful art elite, museums, and galleries. We refused to be part of the Chicago art
cheerleading club. We were dead professionally, and Jane said, “If we want to be art writers
we have to be our own publishers.” The anthology is the result of a renewed interest in
the NAE’s legacy.
ML: The NAE’s editorial policy was different from that of other art publications—it wanted to
take the difficult and controversial issues head-on. How did you find your writers? DG: We
offered a freedom that was attractive to both new and established critics who couldn’t quite sing
in the same way elsewhere. We wanted intelligent writing that was free from politics. It was about
the quality of discourse that would not be dumbed down nor bound by jargon.
ML: You were one of the only venues to help young critics develop a voice. How have they fared
after the NAE? DG: I think Eleanor Hartley is a superb example; she’s written stuff for Art in
America and other publications. By the way, I’ve got a great quote here, let me find it... “In writing
art criticism,” Eleanor says, “there are practical problems. The venues for art criticism today are
limited and impose restrictions on what may be discussed. Art magazines that operate as trade
journals and are dependent on gallery advertising for income tend to focus on reviews of artists
or exhibitions that are in the public eye, while art coverage in most publications has a strong bias
towards celebrity and entertainment. As a result, certain kinds of essays never get written, as
there’s nowhere to publish them.”
ML: Right, there are art critics and there are art writers. People often confuse the two. DG: Let’s
just say that an art critic is a thinking person, and whereas an art writer may just be writing copy,
an art critic shares a response and an opinion. Intelligent discourse. Now that’s criticism.
ML: Which brings up the media outlets. There’s an increasing stranglehold on content in the
mainstream press—and it definitely has an anti-intellectual bias. DG: Yes, and it’s been gaining
ground for a long time. It’s part of postmodernism, which questions the whole idea of people
making judgments. And it’s a total failure of academia. Kids think success is a matter of social
networking. The old-fashioned intellectual is obsolete in this modern world—except for people
who really care about ideas and thinking.
ML: It’s reached crisis proportions. Anti-intellectualism is on the march to “manufacture consent,”
as Noam Chomsky said. And the critic always depends on the editor who is dependent on the
publisher… who depends on revenue. DG: There is no critic unless there is an editor who
has somewhere to put the stuff. A critic can only get in the pulpit where he’s asked to be. And
obviously it will be a different kind of freedom depending on if it’s a niche audience or a larger
magazine. So there’s no point in talking about criticism, you have to talk about the critical venue.
ML: The relevant venues like October Journal are small. Then you have the big three: Artforum, Art
News, and Art in America. You are from England—how does criticism compare in Europe? DG: I
don’t know enough about France or Germany. It’s better in London than New York; we have Art
Monthly there. Frieze is also a big magazine in London, and they’re very trendy. In Europe, you
have a diversity of press that you don’t have in the States.
ML: What about museum catalogues? DG: The academic who is hired by the museum to write
the catalogue essay is like a lawyer hired to make your case inside the art jargon. It may be
enlightened. But it’s not criticism.
ML: Have art critics become irrelevant? The gallery system is pretty much in cahoots with the
art market, and art is big business now. They don’t really have much use for a critical framework.
DG: The system is so well oiled and the market so well fixed that they don’t need critics anymore.
Art criticism originated to speak about the phenomena of looking and thinking, and there is still a
need for that.
ML: So the problem happens in the “art distribution system,” as you’ve called it. The system takes
a product, packages it, and streamlines it to pass through the culture to get bought and sold, or go
to auction. In other words, does the corporate art system basically cannibalize the artist, the art,
and the critic? DG: Yes, absolutely. Forty years ago, you could look at the market and you could
say there were a few dealers out there who were ready to stand by other work than the tried and
true. There was a choice. I think that we’re going to have to reignite relationships with artists, and
rethink the course of how art has developed—the history and the struggles. Otherwise, there’s
no notion of a standard except what sells.
ML: And critics need to become informed sources again. Today there is no place where critics can
even be trained. Art students go to school, they sit in art history classes and look at a lot of slides,
but they’re not told how to think about them. Art colleges in the United States have become
talking art criticisM with Derek guthrieby Mokha lagEt
feature
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 43c o n t i n u e d o n p a g e 4 5
M a s t e r p i e c e s o f P h o t o g r a p h y
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Announcing new hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday
From Ansel Adams to Zig Jackson the Andrew Smith Gallery is the leading gallery for classic 19th and 20th Century
photographs. Artists include Edward S. Curtis, William H. Jackson, Laura Gilpin, A. C. Vroman, F. J. Haynes, Alfred Stieglitz, Timothy O’Sullivan,
Edward Weston, Annie Leibovitz, Joel-Peter Witkin, Carleton Watkins, John K. Hillers, Paul Caponigro,
Lee Friedlander, Henri Cartier-Bresson and many more.
September Hands-on Art Events:FALL ARTS FESTIVALQUICK DRAW AT TCACHILE CHALLENGE
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ISEA2012 TAOS DAYHAND OF MAN INTERACTIVE
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very codified cookie-cutter environments… DG: The art education system is totally stupid, out
of date, and irrelevant. You can get your MFA without ever having read a word of criticism. You
might as well graduate economics students who don’t know how to read the Wall Street Journal.
ML: It’s about learning to read on another level, to read what’s going on in your environment, to
understand the meta-language. DG: Absolutely. That’s why bloody artists ought to be taught criticism.
They should be encouraged to read or think about what The New York Times says. That’s essential.
ML: Looking forward, we can say yes, things are bleak, but somewhere there are still thinking
minds at work, there are still pockets of resistance, as John Berger calls them. So how do their
voices get heard? DG: I think it’s very hard for us today to get out from under the toxic world that
the media has created. And of course that’s a terribly tall order. Just to know how one’s brain is
being deadened by the banality of the consensus. What Andy Warhol told us is that banality is fine.
ML: It’s also a tall order for artists who are looking to the media for recognition, and dealers who
expect them to get exposure, because all of it fuels the system. DG: I think the first thing you have
to do is get competence back, which is the ability to have a discourse. You can start with Critical
Mess, edited by Raphael Rubinstein, or James Elkins’ Whatever Happened to Art Criticism?
ML: The art critic also has to be thinking and writing globally now. There are huge cultural hurdles
there that need some form of mediation for different audiences, because the reference points
aren’t the same. DG: That’s why we like to look at art from other places, to find out what their
values are. But the market of late capitalism flattens indigenous culture. Even Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates were buying and exhibiting contemporary art from the West because they wanted
to be part of worldly international culture. And that’s about buying icons of approved vitality. Now,
whether they have vitality or not is a critical issue, because the market is not constant. That’s about
how the money gets channeled and is the issue of patronage. They don’t need critics for that.
ML: And many of these countries in parts of the East or Africa have not been through this kind
of art-critical discourse, but globalization is forcing a lot in their face. DG: The Arab Spring was
a revolution because of the cell phone, facilitated by technology, and by the kids that are into
technology. The old regime that was kept in place by Western money was upstaged by populism.
And that is an aspect of the Western idea of freedom that traditional, Middle Eastern Islamic
cultures don’t have. So people will always go to the place where they think there is freedom.
ML: Yet here we are in the West and the East with extremist ideologies and religious zealots who
hate the notion of an open society. DG: Now that takes you to the philosophical question, What
is freedom? That’s as old as the hills, but in terms of a society, it’s moving into a Westernized global
market. Cars and Gucci bags are going to appeal all over the world. They’re status symbols. It’s
not just simply an issue of art appreciation—it’s a question of the modeling of the image.
ML: Then who determines whose images become essential. It’s a war of persuasion, of
propaganda—basically a culture war, which also targets science, women’s choices, and LGBT
issues. DG: Look, American art was subsidized during the Cold War as a battering ram to show
a dynamic, heroic image. Jackson Pollock was like a genius. People living under Communist rule
didn’t want to look at programmed revolutionary art. The American government had a stake in
art criticism because the critic’s words became icons of freedom. And there’s always been social
warfare going on around different identities.
ML: Let’s talk about who the critics are in the United States, what’s their position, what is
meaningful and what is not. Take Donald Kuspit. DG: Well, Kuspit is one of the major critics out
there, and he fights his corner, and he is an old-timer now, but he is perhaps the most critical
person on the art scene. He takes his cue from a kind of European thinking. Kuspit has strongly
attacked some of the leaders in the American avant-garde, on academic and philosophical terms.
ML: Robert Hughes. DG: Well, he did Shock Of the New, and that was definitive, but he’s not
very active. His book Nothing If Not Critical is worth a thorough read. Hughes was one of the first
people to point out that the New York art scene was losing the cutting edge of being authoritative.
ML: Rosalind Krauss. DG: She is an incredible influence on so many people, a great thinker, and
with Benjamin Buchloh, Douglas Crimp, and Hal Foster they’re like the Vatican of New York,
with the exception of Kuspit who is more like Martin Luther. (Laughs.) They’ve dealt with all the
issues in a very scholarly way. They are the authentication of the New York avant-garde of the last
thirty to forty years.
ML: Dave Hickey. DG: Well, he raises issues of high culture and low culture. But Dave Hickey
managed a rock-and roll group for years and he’s looking to find a source of vitality inside the
American culture that can be co-opted into making good visual art, even if it’s about a Las Vegas
waitress. And he attacks some of the hypocrisy that goes on. But I don’t know if he’s very discerning.
ML: How do you rate critics who are writing for The New York Times, like Roberta Smith versus
figures like Jerry Saltz who is pretty much a paid billboard to promote the system. DG: Roberta
Smith writes professional, straight reporting. She’s studious. By the way, she’s Saltz’s wife. Jerry
Saltz is the Woody Allen of the art world, except he’s not as intelligent as Woody Allen. I’d rather
hear Woody Allen talk about culture than Jerry Saltz any day. (Laughs.)
ML: LA Times? DG: What’s his name? Christopher Knight. He’s quite good. I think he is one of the
best, actually. He refused a job at The New York Times.
ML: The American concept of “culture” is Pop culture, not the European sense of intellectual and
artistic knowledge. We talk of high/low culture, but those two concepts are still blended here, there’s
little distinction. It’s tough for a serious critic. DG: You have museum culture, and you have popular
culture. What’s happened in recent years is that popular culture and museum culture have been
moving closer together. Andy Warhol started all of that in the sixties. The lines between art culture and
popular culture are now blurred. And God help anybody who wants to say they shouldn’t be blurred.
ML: Let’s fast-forward twenty years. Give me your view of what art making and art criticism looks
like here in twenty years. DG: Well, everything goes in cycles; history tells us that. And nothing
can live indefinitely. And, you know, fashion has gotten into this business, and fashion
is the market. So you’re either going to have intelligent commentary on it or you’re
not. You have to decide what’s the intelligent commentary, and then you look to
those people. The visual arts have always been profoundly affected by technology.
And now images are machine-made. I think we will be debating the viability of this
human business of making marks as an integral part of making art, because art can
only exist in an object.
Mokha Laget is a writer, translator, and poet who lives in New Mexico. She travels extensively as an international French interpreter, was a contributing writer to the New Art Examiner, and has written art reviews for THE magazine.
thE corporatE art systEM cannibalizEs thE artist, thE art, anD thE critic.
feature
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 45
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| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 47
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
Truthiness, M e r r i a m -Webster ’s
2006 word of the year, was coined on Comedy Central’s news-parody show The Colbert Report. Steven Colbert, the anchorman-handsome, faux-conservative, pundit charmer host, defined the Report’s word of the day in October 2005 as “the reality that is intuitively known without regard to liberal ideals such as reason and logic.” In other words, he who yells loudest—and broadcasts the most stridently— is right.
In these days of blatant media bias, we can no longer trust that our news is presented with anything other than a stab at factual accuracy. Context is gone; even such grande-dame institutions as The New York Times, long a bastion of objectivity in reporting, is suspect as it comes down on the side of style over journalism. Today, Colbert and his progenitor, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, both of whom hold heady court on Comedy Central, serve to point out the blather of inconsistency and general knuckleheadedness in cable-television news programming. From Fox to MSNBC, punditry reigns. Objectivity is arguable, dependent upon which talking head’s particular bias you happen to agree with. Journalism derives truth, such as it may be, from its audience.
In a parallel, post-minimal and/or postmodern art—call it what you will—sets aside the primacy of the object in favor of its meaning. The object, if indeed there is one, stands in for a sign, or signs, whose meaning wavers in and out of focus like a desert mirage. Real or not? That’s up to you, the viewer. And since personal identity is as mutable as the ocean’s surface on a stormy day, the meaning of a work of art is going to change from moment to moment, because it can never be viewed by the same person twice. Meaning in art, therefore, is as much a construct as individual identity with all its characteristics including gender, ethnicity, intelligence and emotional quotients, ancestry, class, and educational and career opportunities. Identity is, in a word, fluid. Therefore truth in art is equally pliable. Richard Locayo said it this way in his review of the exhibition in Time magazine’s July 30 issue, “[Colbert’s] truthiness turned out to offer a way to think about all kinds of things… a term as widely useful as authenticity.” Through the ages, art has lied to us: For example, painting represents three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional surface. But we’ve gotten so used to that fact we no longer question it—except when we do, as in the case of trompe l’oeil paintings. What other lies does the visual language of popular culture get away with?
SITE Santa Fe’s exhibition, More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness, was curated by Elizabeth Armstrong of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The show is commendable for its clarity of purpose, combining as it does notions of truthiness with one of the chief purposes of contemporary art—to question all that is universally accepted about art. Tautologically, art today is often most effective and pleasurable when it successfully embodies the infinity symbol of the snake eating itself, referencing an endless chain of meaning derived from that which is lent it by the viewer. As Marcel Duchamp had it, the viewer completes the work of art. More Real? is a pleasure to experience, starting off as it does with an architectural intervention by Gregg Lynn of pod-mod forms—the exterior of the building hasn’t looked this good since Dave Hickey’s 2001 biennial exhibition, Beau Monde. One of the first installations the viewer encounters is Mark Dion’s delightfully exasperating Waiting for the Extraordinary. His mid-twentieth-century waiting room is a performance piece that perfectly caricatures being rudely put in one’s place by a bored, gum-snapping, nail-filing receptionist—who does not break character—and her tools of the trade: a take-a-number machine, ancient magazines that exacerbate the crawl of time, and the symbolic language hinting at the occult
practice of the man behind the door whom we await. We find ourselves hoping that, like the Wizard of Oz, he’ll give us courage, brains, and heart—we hope, succinctly, that the wait will be worth it. When the receptionist finally calls our number, we enter the inner sanctum, only to discover that no one is present. Cast items lie like ciphers of the Illuminati on a long, narrow table, glowing in the dark as if to suggest they hold impossibly lofty secrets. Unfortunately, as art and as symbols, they are anticlimactic and rather dreary. No wonder that receptionist looks so put upon.
Many other works of art deserve attention, but one must not be omitted from mention. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s Phantom Truck is a stunner, in large part because it is so difficult to see. For one thing, the lighting in the gallery is dim at best; the murkiness suggests an evil sorcerer’s dark mirror. For another, the content is difficult to discern by looking alone; the semitruck trailer is an innocent vessel for what the Bush administration longed for it to contain, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Is the language of WMDs, as presented here, a sign of truth or flat-out lies, or—more likely in politics and art—the vocabulary of a position that can never be pinpointed exactly?—KatHryn m daVis
More real? art in the age of truthinesssite santa fe
1606 Paseo de Peralta, santa fe
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Phantom Truck, mixed media, 393” x 98” x 156”, 2007Courtesy the artist and Galerie Thomas Schulte. Photo: Wendy McEahern
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| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 49
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
The story of t h e artist
Jimmy Mirikitani reads like a work of fiction by Haruki Murakami, except Murakami did not invent this tale. Jimmy was born Tsutomu Mirikitani in Sacramento, California in 1920, and was therefore an American citizen. However, he had spent his youth in Hiroshima, only coming back to America when he was eighteen in order to attend art school. When America declared war on Japan after Pearl Harbor, Mirikitani and 120,000 other Japanese-Americans were swept up and taken away to internment camps all over the Western United States. At that time, Mirikitani was living with his sister in Seattle, but families were often separated, and his sister was sent to the Minidoka internment camp, in Idaho, while Mirikitani wound up at Tule Lake, in California. Mirikitani, outraged by the injustice, renounced his citizenship rather than sign a forced oath of allegiance. And so begins Mirikitani’s strange and sad odyssey—from handsome young artist
to indentured servant after the war, to traveling cook after his citizenship was restored, to live-in chef, to homeless man on the streets of New York. Through it all, the artist, even as he aged, did his drawings every day through every season, just a few blocks away from the World Trade Center. So many surreal elements in this saga, so much fertile ground for an ultimate rebirth facilitated by the filmmaker Linda Hattendorf and her award-winning documentary The Cats of Mirikitani.
In her film, a miracle slowly unfolds as Hattendorf, taking an interest in Mirikitani and his daily life on the corner of MacDougal and Prince Streets in SoHo, begins to film the shy artist. She is curious about his dedication to his work, his mysterious persona, the story of how he wound up homeless. But it’s only after 9/11 that Hattendorf becomes directly involved in Mirikitani’s survival as she literally moves him out of the dust and ashes from the collapsed Twin Towers and into her apartment. This is the
crucial intervention that begins the unraveling of Mirikitani’s past, present, and future selves and leads to the artist’s familial, and financial, resurrection. Hattendorf brings about a reunion between Mirikitani and his sister after fifty years; he gets healthcare and his own place to live; and recognition comes to him for his drawings. Mirikitani’s art functions as a bridge to his cultural roots, to his memories of being unjustly interned and humiliated at Tule Lake, and to his childlike wonder at the world of cats and fish and flowers.
Mirikitani’s exhibition at Eight Modern has a direct relationship to The Art of Gaman at the Museum of International Folk Art, and one of the artist’s images is in that show, a panoramic view of the Tule Lake camp done when he was interned there in the early 1940s. The Art of Gaman incorporates the work of many
individuals who used whatever materials they could lay their hands on: pieces of discarded wood, metal, toothpicks, buttons, sewer pipes, weeds, string, and pieces of cloth. And they created a variety of things: dolls, furniture, elaborately carved walking sticks, games, paintings of the camp, carved relief sculptures. And there is one example of a traditional-looking baseball shirt created from a mattress cover—the Japanese-American men loved the game of baseball and promoted the playing of it in the
internment camps. In addition, they fabricated a lot of jewelry, and none of what I saw seemed as if it was made from found objects; it was all very professional looking and ran the gamut from traditional Japanese motifs to up-to-date stylish designs.
One piece of particular interest, both visual and cultural, was the suite of decorated envelopes created by Mikisaburo Izui and addressed to his son, George, who had been released from internment in order to go to school. Sent from the camp address of 41-3-F, Minidoka, Idaho, to places in Illinois, Izui’s envelopes were small works of art, with ink drawings on the left side—either a camp scene or a botanical study. These envelopes are not only things of beauty, they are an archive of longing symbolizing the will to rise above the hand of fate. Is that the end of the story? No. Unlike the artist Jimmy Mirikitani, not everyone held in the camps had such inspiring chapters added to the dark parts of their story—few individuals were able to pick up where they left off in their previous lives, as careers had been shattered and houses and property confiscated or sold off to the highest bidder. A complicated saga such as Mirikitani’s rarely gets such a redemptive blast of hope and good will at the eleventh hour, let alone a measure of recognition for the commitment to his artwork against all odds. —dianE armitagE
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231 delgado street, santa fe
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To exult in monotony: perhaps the only real challenge
left for accomplished photographers shooting landscape monuments of the Southwest is getting people to look at them. I am referring both to their prints and to the monuments themselves. Thanks to our National Park Service, access to these natural wonders is easy and open to anyone with a camera. And the digital camera of the common man today is often the same one that professional photographers use. Add the pervasive presence of the Internet and its instant and inexhaustible inventory of digital images of these sites, not to mention the frequent appearance of these high desert monuments as backdrops to slick new car commercials on TV. The Web provides digitized prints of these sites taken by the great American photographers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Viewing the prints of ancient Indian ruins published in The Anasazi Project, by Don Kirby and Joan Gentry, visitors to Verve Gallery could not help but recall the now iconic photographs of the same sites—often from the very same vantage—by the likes of Timothy O’Sullivan and Ansel Adams. And—not to go too deep into Plato’s cave—the photo book, being a collection of scaled-down
images of the prints of the photographed images of the actual monuments, is what the Philosopher would call shadows of shadows of shadows of the real thing. No doubt Marshall McLuhan would be able to decipher the message in the medium here, but I’m hard put to find it.
Like most coffee table books, The Anasazi Project is short on explanatory text that could help to situate a viewer not familiar with the geography or history of the Southwest. The photographs in the book (and the selected prints for the small exhibit) depict cliff dwellings that survive from the “Anasazi,” a Navajo word borrowed by early archaeologists to identify prehistoric ancestors of the twenty or so modern Pueblo tribes or communities living in New Mexico and Arizona. The ancient groups or clans that eventually formed these Puebloan ancestors date perhaps to 1500 BCE. From about 1200 CE they occupied and farmed in the Four Corners region of the Colorado Plateau—encompassing the area around the quadripoint juncture of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The legacy of the ancestral Puebloans from the Four Corners region during this period survives in the ruins of small villages and larger pueblos comprising shallow cave structures built into the sides of soaring cliffs.
These defensive dwellings were abandoned and reoccupied at various times in response to the impact of the local climate on farming. Several of these structures and their surviving wall paintings are the focus (mostly in Utah) of The Anasazi Project.
One special feature of this book of photographs is the poetry that accompanies it. The format, pairing photographs of a particular cliff dwelling site with poems by Ann Weiler Walka, succeeds in reinforcing the visual impact by an effective fusion of image and text. Perhaps the strength of Walka’s poetry goes a long way toward ensuring what we are supposed to feel when contemplating these powerful images of a vanished culture embedded in timeless landscapes. But if the intended effect of every artistic image is put at risk by the “familiarity breeds contempt” of pervasive dissemination, how much harder for images created by the mimetic medium of photography in particular.
It is too facile to argue that, in landscape photography, the unerring eye of the photographic medium has the unique capacity to vicariously place us on site, experiencing the monument as directly as if it were actually before us. But whether we encounter these ancient cultures of the Colorado Plateau in prints or in person, how do we come
away with even a fraction of what the ancestrall Puebloans must have felt (unless it wore for them as well?) gazing down from an adjacent ridge upon the enormous oxymoron of their magnificent, diminutive cave structures, set like rows of shark’s teeth in the clenched jaws of a towering cliff?
In short, in an incessant cycle of repetitive images, how do we really “see” them in the daily iteration memorialized by the photograph? I don’t have the answer, but clearly the ancient Puebloans did, and these photographers do. And G.K. Chesterton, who—and allow for his Christian metaphors—got a lot closer to the answer than most. Chesterton once wrote: “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon…. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” —ricHard tOBin
don kirby & Joan gentry: the anasazi ProJeCt VerVe gallery of PhotograPhy
219 east MarCy street, santa fe
Joan Gentry, Anasazi Ruin, “Pico,” Utah, gelatin silver print, 14” x 18¼”, 1995
First there was the Taos Society of
Artists, and later the Taos Moderns. Now the University of New Mexico’s Harwood Museum of Art brings us a welcome female Taos six. The group includes Barbara Harmon, Frieda Lawrence, Gisella Loeffler, Ila McAfee, Millicent Rogers, and Stella Snead in an exhibition of fantastical realism.
The show is beautifully presented by Harwood curator Jina Brenneman in the museum’s second-floor Peter and Madeleine Martin Gallery, and the discovery of these artists and their work makes a visit well worth the trip. The building itself is a treat, with its blend of original John Gaw Meem construction along with new galleries, all tucked away on a quiet Taos side street.
Most of these six women were contemporaries. The thread that links them is their desire and ability to capture the whimsical and the fanciful. The paintings by Barbara Harmon—unique among the six, as she is still alive and residing in Taos—take us into her Beatrix Potter–like world of adorable, yet realistic bunnies, squirrels, and kittens. It is easy to see the influence of artists and writers who inspired Harmon, such as Kenneth Grahame and British children’s book illustrator Arthur Rackham. In
Bringing in the Harvest (1956) Harmon uses pencil on watercolor to create a charming scene with pipe-smoking grandpa mouse sorting seeds while grandbaby mouse tries on grandpa’s shoe.
From Harmon we move to paintings by Frieda Lawrence. Brenneman has included a thirty-three by twenty-six inch photograph of each artist, and Lawrence’s is in complete contrast with her art. In the photo she has a cigarette dangling from her half smile, a frumpy dress, and even frumpier hair. Yet in her paintings, she presents sophisticated settings. One of these untitled, undated works includes gilt-edged mirrors and wall sconces, elaborate cakes, even a dainty fan and a pink parasol. In another untitled work she gives us her version of the lady and the unicorn, sprinkling the canvas with red—even in the unicorn’s mane.
Up next are paintings by Stella Snead, whose work feels like an introduction to surrealism. Crisis Birds (1950) depicts two leafless trees in the foreground—a dark-brown one on the left and a dark-blue one on the right. On the trees’ stark branches Snead perches birds that look like stylized, stone-carved chess pieces. Only one has its beak open to sing, or perhaps to squawk in alarm, given the painting’s title and what appears to be a menacing cloud of smoke over the low
hills in the distance. The works by Millicent Rogers represent her interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, and are all drawn in colored pencil with tremendous whimsy. As the red and gold dragon stands on the shore and ponders his reflection in the green lake in She Sets Eyes on Narcissus and Goes Journeying (ca. 1930), the sky boasts yellow air-bubble clouds. Here dragons are adorable, quests fanciful and fun.
The exhibition’s section on Gisella Loeffler gives the viewer excellent insight into her creative range. She was inspired and influenced by Austro-Hungarian folk art style, and we see it played out in her letters, crewel embroidery, paintings, and children’s book illustrations. Several of her letters are presented in a wall display, which shows us how much she cared about color. These letters are full of illustrations, sometimes in watercolor, sometimes colored pencil, and even children’s crayons. “Fall is so beautiful—so gold and blue—here in New Mexico,” she writes. We are also treated to what Mabel Dodge Lujan described as Loeffler’s “funny little painted children.” Here the bold colors of the Austrian tradition are obvious. Loeffler has taken Southwestern Pueblo Indian children and rendered them on wooden squares with blocks of dense vivid acrylic. In Rabbit Hunt, that’s exactly what we do; we search under the three horses’ hooves for the poor little bunny. But no; he has in fact escaped to the upper right hand corner where he prepares to dash out of the picture in a blaze of candy pink.
The exhibition concludes with two paintings by Ila McAfee. Encounter on the Stairs is an undated lithograph of two of McAfee’s performing Siamese cats. (Yes, she really did train her cats to perform tricks of sorts, and there’s even a video loop in conjunction with the exhibition to prove it.) Foam Fillies brings us into McAfee’s world of horses, a subject she is noted for. A quick walk past this painting would be a shame. The viewer might catch the way McAfee painted gorgeous reflected sunlight in the foreground, but would probably miss the way she fashioned the waves’ crests into horses’ heads.
Brenneman cleverly weaves a seventh artist into the exhibition in photographer Mildred Tolbert, who took five of the six black-and-white photographs of the artists and probably merits her own show sometime soon. Throughout the presentation there are also display cases containing other examples of and insights into these artists’ work, such as books they illustrated and note cards and gift tags they designed. Best of all, in the middle of the gallery there is an inviting Southwestern-style seating area complete with a cowhide rug and an old chest covered with children’s books from the period. (Half of the show’s artists, Harmon, Loeffler, and McAfee, were children’s book illustrators.) Here you can sit and read to yourself or to a child—if you’re lucky enough to have one with you—from books illustrated by Loeffler and others. Oh, go ahead; read to your lost child inside.—susan WidEr
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 51
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
susPension of disbeliefthe harwood MuseuM of art
238 ledoux street, taos
Stella Snead, Crisis Birds, oil on board, 22 ¾” x 14 ¾”, 1950 Collection of Andrew Teufel. Photo: Cris Pulos
Gisella Loeffler, Black Pottery, acrylic on board, 83/8” x 83/8”, n.d.Collection of the Harwood Museum of Art. Photo: Cris Pulos
PRIMEDSEPTEMBER 14 - OCTOBER 27
EDWARD EBERLE
CHRIS GUSTIN
TOM SPLETH
CHRIS STALEY
CHERYL ANN THOMAS
SANTA FE CLAYCONTEMPORARY CERAMICS
505.984.1122
545 CAMINO DE LA FAMILIA
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 87501
WWW.SANTAFECLAY.COM
435 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 T: 505 982-8111 www.zanebennettgallery.com
ALEXANDRE ARRECHEA Last Days of Champlain, 2012. Stainless steel, 14½ x 188½ x 12 inches. PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGNAN METZ GALLERY
Message from La Habana CONTEMPORARY CUBAN ARTISTS
Alexandre Arrechea, Roberto Diago, Glenda León, Reynier Leyva Novo, Ibrahim Miranda, Sandra Ramos, José A. VincenchAugust 31 – September 21 • OPENING RECEPTION: Friday August 31, 5–7 pm
M O N R O E G A L L E R Yo f p h o t o g r a p h y
Exhibition continues through September 23
112 DON GASPAR SANTA FE NM 87501 992.0800 F: 992.0810e: [email protected] www.monroegallery.com
Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas,James Forman and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965
Open Daily
PEOPLE GET READYThe Struggle For Human Rights
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 53
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
Where the Buffalo Roam is a 1980s
flick about Hunter S. Thompson’s rise to fame alongside Oscar Zeta Acosta. The film also shares a title with an obscure Western made in 1938, as well as a sculpture at Eggman & Walrus by New Mexico–based artist Bunny Tobias. In this sculpture there is one buffalo, and it doesn’t roam, but rather stands in a living room that’s about a foot wide and seven inches tall with a burgundy wood floor. The box hangs on the wall at about eye level. The buffalo (a small model, perhaps store-bought and quite realistic) gazes in a decidedly full-length mirror boasting beveled edges opposite. There are two mid-century modern ochre armchairs, one in each corner, with a floor lamp off to the right. This is the picture of a dignified vintage home or log cabin, fairly normal except for the exchange of mammals—buffalo for human. Behind the somewhat miserable-looking housed creature, hanging on the far wall, is a handsome matted and framed portrait of him. Like some Joseph Kosuth paradigm, this life-size image is exactly the scene we see, as if questioning the viewer in some vague mockup universe: what is art, the photograph, the vignette, or the idea of roaming buffalo? Dissimilar to Kosuth is that the definition does not describe what we see. Here, the description/title is not a dictionary definition. Far from some Hunter S. Thompson lark or wild thunder of free beasts, Tobias’s sculpture is quite the opposite. In fact, the whole show at Eggman & Walrus, Brace for Impact, reads like a Saussurean caper.
Tobias and complementary New Mexico–based artist BJ Quintana hold a two-woman
show downstairs in the main gallery while several other artists command the upstairs—namely Christopher Lavery’s piece called Vacations West or Anywhere Else, which is an installation that projects the sounds of a provincial parade through a series of unexpected speakers. An overturned plastic red lawn chair holds nine small black discs (speakers) that adhere like a life-support system with a tangle of black wires disastrously left untied. It’s offensively reminiscent of Weekend at Bernie’s, while three small UFO-style barbeque grills sporting sprouted submarine tubes that end in mini gramophones (also speakers) provide the accompanying shiny pistachio and light blue enamel color scheme. Likewise, the bright-yellow ladder with useless hoses piled on top could provide a lookout point for some ineffectual vacationer. Yes, this scene could be west or anywhere else, but it definitely evades the image of any ideal vacation, not that that’s its claim. Vacations West or Anywhere Else consumes most of the room, and with its lo-fi soundtrack is less evocative of a holiday than an all-American barbeque bearing a sign outside that says, “Wave as you go by.”
The most obvious example of Brace for Impact’s Saussurean rouse is BJ Quintana’s Alligator In An Alligator Box. No surprises here. A black play alligator sits inside the rather refined interior of a black vintage alligator box that’s the perfect size for opera gloves. It’s lined with red silk and herein lies the artificial alligator, humorously resting as if in an open casket. He seems keenly aware of the perpetrator who skinned his long-lost namesake, and the title reads on the inside top on a black plaque in gold script. The red silk, the vintage black alligator, and the self-
aware italicized lettering are all reminiscent of a magician’s trappings, and although Alligator In An Alligator Box is nothing but transparent, a certain suspicion lingers throughout the upturned social vestiges of this show.
No, things aren’t exactly what they seem. Tobias’s Lolita could not light the loins of any but the most perverse man. A miniature white wooden garden chair reclines adhered with disjointed body parts of four different dolls. A head, two disparate arms and a pair of legs join in varying barely compatible sizes, all stuck to the chair’s white slats in a freakish Frankenstein composition that’s reminiscent of a defiled Barbie catching some rays. She may not appear unbearably alluring or deviously sexualized, but Tobias’s Lolita is nonetheless a vivid interpretation of Nabokov’s leading nymphet.
Always with a sense of humor, Brace for Impact showcases a whacky lineup saturated by Snellen-chart-meets-Ed-Ruscha quips by Quintana, and repurposed h o u s e h o l d objects inspired by the Dadaists. Various boxes stage miniature vignettes (not just in alligator), retro toy cars pour out of a cast iron faucet, and Spider-Man hinges from a scuffed
wooden axle with Quintana’s one-liners like “Metamorphosis” and “Sex is just a click away” hovering nearby in bold black-and-white letters. The most fetishized objects for both Tobias and Quintana are the ample wooden tailoring contraptions. Dress forms and old shoe lasts parade down the gallery walls in a spectacle intended to disrupt our conceptions of art. It is perhaps unfortunate or auspicious that today’s hipster subculture, which is barely shy of mainstream, is obsessed with quotidian retro objects. From LPs and vintage cocktails to Chuck Taylors and sweater vests, most of Brace for Impact’s vintage finds are now prized as charming household décor easily found in reproduction at places like Urban Outfitters. Mainstream or not, applause goes to Eggman & Walrus for showing anything comparable to Urban Outfitters’ décor that parades as art. —HannaH HOEl
braCe for iMPaCteggMan & walrus
31 west san franCisCo street & 130 west PalaCe aVenue
santa fe
Top: BJ Quintana, Alligator In An Alligator Box (ca.1930), plastic alligator toy, brass, 12” x 4” x 4”, 2012 Bottom: Bunny Tobias, Where the Buffalo Roam, mixed media in shadow box, 2011
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2 tHE magazine | 55
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
Australia is a unique place, a huge continent
peopled by humans who may have been part of the first wave of migrations out of Africa over forty thousand years ago. The impact of the arrival of Europeans, beginning a few hundred years ago, on its indigenous cultures was dramatic and sometimes dreadful. In the 1960s the great anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss noted the disappearance of entire communities of meaning in the region. Fortunately, there has been a counter-development in the saga. Since the 1970s, a small number of Australian aboriginal people have been able to pursue artmaking that, while grounded in their own legacy, also has access to a variety of traditions, materials, and markets outside their own communities.
Australian Contemporary Indigenous Art II is the second show of such work at Chiaroscuro
(the first was in 2010) in conjunction with Vivien Anderson Gallery in Melbourne. The artists included are Djambawa Marawili, Dorothy Napangardi, Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Ginger Wikiylirir, Kay Baker, Anyupa Stevens, Teresa Baker, and members of the Tjungu Palya whose work is sometimes produced collectively. Coming from around the continent—Yolngu country, Arnhem Land, the Pitjanjatara lands of the Anangu artists, the Tiwi islands off the coast of the northern territory, and Yuendumu in the central desert—they bring us their complex expressions and reflections, informed by international modern art as well as the work of their own indigenous predecessors.
Aboriginal artists explain that their work comes out of something that is usually translated as “dreaming” or “dreamtime,” which seems to operate like the multi-dimensional memory palace of a vast land.
Quite distinct from our conventional sense of dream as either a “made-up” fantasy or a deep clue to individual psychological conflicts and mental structures, “dreamtime” denotes a collectively held cosmos in which past and future are also immediate and present; continuous with the landscape and environment in which it developed over long time periods, it is a kind of necessary witnessing of the created world. Most of the indigenous, pre-industrial cultures we know of had something like this sort of deep reciprocity with the natural world.
Dorothy Napangardi’s Sandhills is a large painting executed in synthetic polymer on canvas. It speaks of rain and distance, starry skies, cloud formations, and geological time and change, of human and animal movement across vast space—appearing and disappearing, seeking and losing, hiding and
finding. It does so in a palette of blacks, greys, and browns, creating different experiences for the viewer from across the room and up close. Djambawa Marawili’s Baykultji, Burrumitjpa and other earth-pigments-on-bark works by him hang in a room off the main gallery. Sinuous energy lines of black, white, red ochre, and brown marked by intricate cross-hatchings depict force fields within which figures float, spatially neither behind nor in front of the patterned lines. The snout and paws of a dingo-like creature, in Metamorphosis/Dhahkalmayi, touch a point from which lines fountain off downwards and bellow upward in squash shapes: the lines resemble many things—furrowed fields, ant trails, sand dunes, ocean waves. Their fractal and never-the-same-twice quality induces a kind of trance.
In today’s physics a select few individuals, with years of preparation and the aid of complex systems, witness certain classes of phenomena. The rest of us have to take their word for it. They report back from realms—such as those of sub-atomic particles or interstellar spaces—which we may believe in but which are not directly tangible to us. Aboriginal art’s particularly abstract renditions of the interpenetration of landscape, ceremonial, and mythic symbols have the urgent clarity of communiques from a world that’s not always accessible but is nevertheless very real. These works can be read like graceful, idiosyncratic blueprints bringing news of a sentient, dynamic, and inspiring realm in which humans may participate but not dominate.
Several of the artists were present at the opening. Marawili spoke a little about their work and performed ceremonial actions to bring in or connect the works with the gallery space and the gathered people. Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, who works in earth pigments on canvas, prepared herself with a beautifully painted face and feathered armbands and “danced in” her paintings. Just as the artists were welcomed by a Pueblo elder, the gallery staff, and the audience-participants (who also danced a little), the artworks, too, needed to be acknowledged as being alive and connected to their legacy. Perhaps this is true of any genuine artwork, but we cannot always feel it or we lack the means to acknowledge it.—marina la palma
australian ConteMPorary indigenous art iiChiarosCuro
708 Canyon road, santa fe
Dorothy Napangardi, Karntakurlangu 2, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 60” x 60”, 2009
P E C O S S T U D I O T O U R
P E C O S S T U D I O T O U R . C O M
September 29 & 30, 2012
10AM to 5PM
S E P T E M B E R 1 3 - 1 6
ARTISAN & THE ARTIST’S MAGAZINE PRESENT
e x p o a r t i s a n . c o m
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
Santa Fe’s young artist c o l l e c t i v e
Meow Wolf has consistently presented extraordinarily good and deceptively complex work for several years. Their latest project does not disappoint. OmegaMart is an effort fueled by Meow Wolf–offshoot CHIMERA, an arts cooperative whose aim is to involve children in collaborative creative projects. Meow Wolf artists went into dozens of Santa Fe schools, working with kids to dream up the products that line the shelves of this outrageously fun faux-mart. Says long-time Wolfer Nicholas Chiarella, “Our goal was to not only educate kids and encourage them to reconsider the media and messages of their everyday world, but also to demonstrate that their conceptual abilities as artists are already developed—that their ideas are already art-worthy.” The creative input of elementary-age children is evident here, but there’s also a sure-footedness that’s an essential but woefully overlooked quality in art. Playing on our familiarity with American retail environments, Meow Wolf turns its marvelously unorthodox eye and orgiastic, seemingly endless energy to the decidedly mundane arena of the grocery store.
On opening night, bright balloons festooned
the modest space, which is situated in an inconspicuous shopping mall anchored by a Carl’s Jr. and a bicycle shop. A couple of small tables by the front door were laid out with “snacks”—hard-boiled eggs dyed in noxious neon colors and a tray of some goopy, muffin-cupped mixture that the counter girl told me was “semi-edible.” The exhibit is made realistic by the inclusion of industrial metal racks and tinny elevator music. When I asked Meow Wolf organizer Emily Montoya about public response to OmegaMart, she replied that many visitors “really understand and appreciate good value.” The aluminum casings of irresistibly silly 15 oz.-size cans of “Rabbit Shards” and “Beef Peels” are rendered obsolete by the fact that the cans’ contents are actually filled with adobe. Reassuringly, organic bits of hay pop out over the top—after all, the labels do claim that they’re “all-natural.” Against the wall is a produce display case containing items that ostensibly belong to the fruit and vegetable family. One open bin contains “happles”—lumpy spheres that resemble Granny Smiths—with smiles carved into them. Feather- light coils of metallic purple “Zalg” look and feel like hardened spray foam, and, with their psychedelic color and otherworldly weightlessness, they might be organs of outer-space creatures. A birth-
control packet says IMPULSE CONTROL on the front, but instead of pills the tiny plastic windows inside hold bright Nerd candies. A lot of works in the show are like this—genius in their ability to make you giggle. A box containing a product called Shrubs advertises “avocado-flavored French fry treats.” The translation of goofy concepts into tangible, purchasable products is thrilling. These things beg to be touched, studied, and sometimes recoiled from, which is not unlike the way we shop for groceries, but certainly unlike the way we think of our interactions with contemporary artwork.
The OmegaMart website is fun, if not particularly informative, but that’s probably the point. Described as “a grocery store committed to affordable, organic, nationally localized product,” the website has an employment section, where a downloadable job application informs would-be employees that the corporation “may disclose information relating to inventory management systems, hematophagy, stocking techniques, apocalyptic prophecy, herpetology, invasion plans, and broad artistic satire.” Unlike in previous installation-based exhibits, OmegaMart provides a space where Meow Wolf can sell their art, which is a real treat. Why not pick up a packet
of miniature “Fuzzy Balls?” Or a “Futuristic Party Hat for Small Animals,” packaged expertly in durable plastic? It’s actually a teeny-weeny red battery cap. It set me back five bucks and now makes for a particularly pleasing objet d’art, thumb-tacked above my thermostat.
The exhibition’s visual language—for OmegaMart introduces, unquestionably, its own lexicon—is shot through with elements of steam punk, anime culture, and Fellini-esque absurdity, but no artspeak is necessary in describing this show and, best of all, there’s no pressure to “get it.” Nevertheless, with OmegaMart, Meow Wolf achieves several things. The store successfully questions the unflinching trust we put in the corporations whose products we’re accustomed to buying and consuming; it satirizes American consumer culture and our rabid, mostly illusory obsession with saving money. It also delightfully reinvents and revitalizes an experience as seemingly humdrum as grocery shopping, and maybe most importantly, it reminds us that modern art can be interactive and participatory, in fact it should oftentimes be tactile and enjoyable and rather silly.
—iris mclistEr
oMegaMartoMegaMart
1640 st. MiChael’s driVe, santa fe
Installation view.
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 57
Chuck LathropWest Mesa & Gallery Drawings
West Mesa Drawings: Studio View, each 23.5” x 18”, 2012
Leich Lathrop GallerySeptember 7 to October 3, 2012
Open Mon. – Sat.10 – 5 & Sun, 12 – 5Reception: September 7, 5:30 to 7:30 pm323 Romero Street NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104
ph 505-243-3059 leichlathropgallery.blogspot.comNow selling Japanese and Asian paper for artists
The Northern Nineat La Tienda Gallery
Linda Wooten-Green • Janet Stein Romero • Johanna Keenan
This exhibit features artwork from nine women artists living and working in and around the northern New Mexico town of Las Vegas, one hour east of Santa Fe.
Carol Hodge • Debbie Morse• Carol MacomberNancy Bohm • Amber Lon MacLean • Jane Lumsden
Exhibition dates: August 31 – September 25, 2012
Reception: Saturday, September 8th, 4:00 – 7:00 pm
La Tienda Gallery at Eldorado7 Caliente Road, Santa Fe, NM 87508
LAS VEGAS
SANTA FE
CLINES CORNERS
AV VISTA GRANDE
GALLERY �
US
285
I–25
I–25
at the La Tienda Exhibit Space
Show Dates: August 31 - September 25Opening Reception: Saturday, September 8 from 4 to 7 pm
7 Caliente Road Santa Fe, NM 87508 www. TheExhibitSpace.com
MILTON AVERY EMIL BISTTRAM DONNA GUNTHER BROWNMARIO CARRENOLEONORA CARRINGTON CAROL CORELL RANDALL DAVEYRICHARD DIEBENKORN WERNER DREWES ANNE FARRELLNORMA BASSETT HALL HANS HOFMANN CARL HOLTY WOLF KAHNGENE KLOSS GINA KNEE WIFREDO LAM
BEATRICE MANDELMANREGINALD MARSHROBERTO MATTACARLOS MERIDA
ROBERT MOTHERWELL
LOUIS RIBAKDIEGO RIVERAROLPH SCARLETTLOUIS SCHANKER
NILES SPENCERRUFINO TAMAYOABRAHAM WALKOWITZWILLIAM ZORACHFRANCISCO ZUNIGA
HIRSCH FINE ARTMuseum Quality Works on PaperFor the New to Experienced Collector
BY APPOINTMENT 505.988.1166LITERALLY STEPS OFF CANYON ROADwww.hirschfineart.com
ALFRED MORANG
JANE PETERSON
JOHN SLOAN
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 59
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
Perceptual pleasure is constantly
in demand, yet deeply suspect for being so. Too much fun and unencumbered beauty will drive those who perceive themselves as having less fun and experiencing less unencumbered beauty to do some very strange things. Usually these involve covert or overt attempts to stop the fun and unencumbered beauty from happening. This takes the form of inspiring fear of fun and encumbering beauty with all sorts of sophistry, demanding censure, preaching imperatives concerning the conduct of the body (the key to all social control), and legislating to outlaw as much fun and unencumbered beauty as possible. This pleasure in life must be stopped before you hurt yourself, they will say. They being the mayors and governors, legislators, judges, military chieftains, and our dear conniving
president, to name a few. They being the CEOs and the CFOs and the boardroom chairmen and the priests and preachers and the crooked cops. It’s not most of us. Planet-wide, the people who make the point of their lives the social control of others is actually a fairly small percentage. Most of us don’t engage in that kind of large-scale oppression and big-league pathology.
Life is full of risk. No government, organized religion, or corporation will ever be capable of completely mitigating those risks, but the psychos who run such entities don’t see it this way. They’re busily hemming in your life and possibilities, using the excuse that they’re saving you from risk when, in fact, their real desire is your oppression. The number of stupid laws, ordinances, statutes, and rules that function this way continues to grow, and nobody I know doesn’t have at least one
story of how they have been made to suffer unnecessarily through some governmental, religious, or corporate organization. And for many this is a daily occurrence. In the United States, we are currently operating under a government by the corporation-person, for the corporation-person, with a fat dollop of hypocritical religiosity on top. Call it creeping totalitarianism. The antidote for this situation is fun and unencumbered beauty, the pleasures of real pleasures and the pursuit of happiness minus so much restriction. It is not enough to oppose. Alternative social realities must be established. Take note: the three-headed corporate, governmental, religious beast of strangling social control adamantly seeks its own unregulated freedom at the daily expense of ordinary people. Follow your leaders, then, and insist you have the right to seek, and take, the same liberties.
Color Rx, a recent showing at Turner Carroll Gallery of works by local artist Jennifer Joseph and San Franciso denizen Rex Rey was a welcome alternative. Nowhere near as preachy as I’m being here, the exhibition offered pure perceptual pleasure of the type that makes you remember why life is worth living. These elegant images of unencumbered beauty remind us of what awaits once the psychopaths of social control are cleared away. Color, an extravagance that nature doesn’t require but rather gives freely, is one of the great pathways to happiness. It is pure, essentially uncontrollable, and as such, deeply suspect.
In the 1800s, in painting, pure, bright colors were considered shockingly libertine. The soot on Michelangelo’s ceiling had grown so heavy that everyone assumed he toned down his tones, and since he is the greatest religious painter of all time, everyone else
sought to follow his temperate example and reign in the potential brilliance of chroma. But we know that the little giant of art was nothing if not passionate, and the twentieth-century cleaning of the Sistine Chapel ceiling revealed that he was also an incredible colorist, though early Modernism had already started prying the lid off the box of pure pigment and bold color. Joseph and Rey are both keepers of this bright flame.
Joseph’s oil paintings consist of concentric rings of delicately modulated color at the super-saturated end of the spectrum. Like ripples in water, these beautiful pictures continuously expand and contract in the eye in a way that is arresting. They ground you in the here and now of optical pleasure. They make no overt references. They have no social program to announce. But their boldness and freedom sing an inspiring song of freedom, and pure pleasure. Rey’s work exhibits a similar sense of freedom, play, excellence of design, and perfection of perceptual pleasure. His small, resin-coated collages are delicious. The power of pleasure, the enjoyment of life, ought not to be underestimated. The current, dominant tone of our fucked-up world is the muddy grey of increasing oppression. Color Rx offers up just the right medicine. —JOn carVEr
Color rx: Jennifer JosePh and rex reyturner Carroll gallery
725 Canyon road, santa fe
Jennifer Joseph, Eye Test 03, oil on panel, 2012
MARK Z. MIGDALSKI, D.D.S.
GENERAL AND COSMETIC DENTISTRY“DEDICATED TO PREVENTION,
SERVICE & EXCELLENCE”
jenn
ifer
espe
ranz
a new mexico california
photogra
phy 505 204 5729
WWW.SFAI.ORG, 505 -424 -5050, [email protected]. SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE, 1600 ST.MICHAELS DRIVE, SANTA FENM 87505 | SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE PROMOTES ART AS A POSITIVE SOCIAL FORCE THROUGH RESIDENCIES, LECTURESSTUDIO WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS, COMMUNITY ART ACTIONS, AND EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH FOR ADULTS ANDYOUNG PEOPLE. SFAI IS AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, AND CHALLENGING IDEAS THRIVE.
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
Santa Fe Art Institute
Dancer, ChoreographerFounding Director ofDANCING EARTH CREATIONS,Rulan TangenLecture/Reception “The Dance of Waters”Monday September 10, 6pm Tipton HallWorkshop “Of Bodies Of Water”Sat & Sun, 9/8&9, 4-7pm Driscoll Fitness Center
September Artists & Writers in Residence OpenStudio. Thursday, September 27, 5:30pm SFAI
Musician and Sound Artist Steve PetersLecture, "Making a Place to Listen", October 8Workshop, "Listening, Finding, Giving, Receiving"October 13&14Sound Installations "The Very Rich Hours"October 8 (folllowing lecture)"Chamber Music 2: Atrium" October 1– 31
THE-SFAITangenCorrected:Layout 1 8/23/12 5:20 PM Page 1
Green Planet
| S e P T e M B e R 2012 tHE magazine | 61
artist clayton caMPBellContemporary artists need to put back more into their communities than they take out. This is the era of the socially engaged cultural producer, a hybrid of practicing artist, arts writer, facilitator, fundraiser, production manager, publicist, and advocate for the overwhelming necessity for artists to contribute to the evolution of knowledge and intelligence, and to be seen as a public asset contributing to the general good.
—Clayton CaMpBell
This August, Clayton Campbell’s seminal project
Words We Have Learned Since 9/11 was presented
at Linda Durham’s Wonder Institute. The project
is a site-specific exhibition of photographic
portraits, which establishes intercultural dialogue
between diverse populations about cultural
differences and how people view their futures.
At each exhibition site, visitors are invited to be
photographed with “words” they have learned
since 9/11. The new photographs are then added
to the exhibition.
Words We Have Learned Since 9/11 can be viewed
at claytoncampbell.com.
photoGraphed in santa fe, new MexiCo By Jennifer esperanza
WRITINGS
Breaths (UNM Press, $21.95) is “a poetic exploration of Budo and Zen” by Eleuterio Santiago-Díaz. His poems—accompanied by Yoshiko Shimano’s prints—”balance action, energy, meditation, and contemplation on how to live attentively and actively in the world.”
62 | tHE magazine | S e P T e M B e R 2012
Print by Yoshiko Shimano
Strokes III by ElEutErio santiago-Díaz
Your word has been painted,
steady hand and fire, infinite times.
The mind never retains the canvas—
how could it?
But step after step,
my breath secretes back
its dense substance.
The strokes still come
with the sweat and pain
of so many dusks at the old dōjō.
I just hope they resemble your germ,
Unlettered Master,
more than the kanji calligraphy
I once laid at your feet.
Mary Etherington, Director of Contemporary Art505.954.5761 or [email protected]
1011 Paseo de Peralta, santa Fe, nM 87501 | tel 505-954-5700
August 24 – October 6, 2012
Opening reception: August 24th from 5pm to 7pm
To view more works by These arTisTs visiT gpgallery.com
W A T E R C O L O R S H O W
H a r o l d G r e g o r | K e i t h J a c o b s h a g e n | S u z a n n e S i m i n g e r
Harold Gregor, Hot Day; Rain?, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 52 1/8 x 80 1/8 inches © 2012 courtesy Gerald Peters Gallery.
Mary Etherington, Director of Contemporary Art505.954.5761 or [email protected]
1011 Paseo de Peralta, santa Fe, nM 87501 | tel 505-954-5700
August 24 – October 6, 2012
Opening reception: August 24th from 5pm to 7pm
To view more works by These arTisTs visiT gpgallery.com
W A T E R C O L O R S H O W
H a r o l d G r e g o r | K e i t h J a c o b s h a g e n | S u z a n n e S i m i n g e r
Harold Gregor, Hot Day; Rain?, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 52 1/8 x 80 1/8 inches © 2012 courtesy Gerald Peters Gallery.
c h i a r o s c u r oCHIAROSCUROSANTAFE
September 14 - October 13, 2012
Nora Naranjo Morse