Lyn Bishop : Sharing Secrets

The contemporary art scene in Santa Fe seems to be moving downtown to the new Railyard district. Once construction is finished, it should be a nice alternative to the plethora of galleries on Canyon Road.

We started our walk at the James Kelly Contemporary Gallery where Roy McMakin’s architectural forms are on display. To the average viewer, McMakin’s art may not appear to be art at all, rather more like over-priced average furniture. It wasn’t until I began reading his bio that I started to understand the intent and meaning behind his work. While McMakin’s work is based in architecture, furniture craftsmanship, and design, it is in his role as artist where he finds his work meaningful, exploring both the functionality and non-functionality of things. His architectural sculptures include objects such as functioning houses, partially-functioning chest of drawers, and curio cabinets turned on end. He is able to take simple, everyday objects and presents them within the context of contemporary art.
James Kelly | Contemporary: 1601 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe, NM.

Next Door, Evo is showing Jenny Holzer: The Venice Installation, Gallery D, which was exhibited in the United States Pavilion at the 1990 Venice Biennale, for which Holzer was awarded the Leone d’Oro (Golden Lion prize) for best pavilion. She was the first woman artist to be so honored. Go Jenny! The installation is comprised of alternating red and white Italian marble tiles inscribed with Holzer’s Truisms and her best known text carved only into the red tiles. Three marble benches run the length of three walls, with text from Holzer’s Inflammatory Essays carved on the top of each bench. The text are presented in German, French, Italian, Spanish and English. Her major themes – sex, death, and war – are explored with fearless directness.
Evo Gallery: 554 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM

Over at Gebert Contemporary they were unloading the FedEx truck with crates of work by Michael Eastman. Even in the chaos of sorting and staging the work for mounting, the gallerist graciously invited us in for a sneak peak of the new show opening on Friday. Eastman’s large format photography show “Urban Alchemy” is based around a theme of Vanishing America. Perhaps his work could be considered as historical landscape, as he captures the fading facades of buildings, or desolate homes being ravaged by time. He documents a pre-millennium world with a invisible yet, present veil of nostalgic imagery.
Gebert Contemporary: 544 South Guadalupe Streeet, Santa Fe, NM

After talking with the gallerist at URSA, I got to thinking about the way in which galleries speak about an artists work can either help to elevate the artist, or in some cases, be a disservice to them. I felt a pang of disappointment for the way that Hunt Rettig’s “Right-side-up Duplex on Wheels” was described to me. If an artist wishes his process to be secretive, I think it’s the gallerist’s job to find a way to describe the work in some sort of magical terms. Saying that they can’t say anything about the process is a cop-out, in my opinion.
URSA: 550 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM

Of all the art we viewed, I enjoyed Masaru Tatsuki’s “Decotora: Japan’s Truck Art Scene 1998-2007” the best. He was showing oversized photographs of tricked out trucks parked in perfect juxtaposition with their Japanese surroundings at Tai Gallery. Hayakawa Shokosai V and Torii Ippo were exhibiting painstakingly detailed woven Japanese baskets/sculptures that were absolutely precious and perfect. The epitome of a Japanese craftsman.
Tai Gallery: 1601 B Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM

William Siegal Gallery is an interesting mix of the ancient and the modern, with contemporary art hanging besides antiques. I was pleasantly surprised to find 3 artist proofs of Jonathan Singer’s recent botanical portfolio created for the Smithsonian. The thrill came in knowing that my good friend Larry Danque of Cone Editions Press in Vermont was the master printmaker on the project and had pulled each of these beautiful Iris prints on a delicate handmade Japanese paper. Larry shared with me the challenges in finding suitable paper for the project and all the testing that went into getting the color just right. We asked the gallerist sitting behind his big desk what the edition size of the collection was. His answer “I don’t know.” I found that astonishing.
William Siegal Gallery: 540 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM

Lastly, we stopped into the box gallery where Ted Laredo’s “reflection of the immaterial” was on view along with Michelle Cooke’s “Graphite, Glass and Steel” series. I must admit that I was board with the work of Laredo, who was showing large minimulist painting in a single hue, embellished with glass beads. It felt like Rauschenburg’s all-white painting redux. More interesting was the upstairs exhibit of Cooke’s. She had very cleverly attached small squares of glass to the wall in such a way that the lighting cast beautifully geometric patterns on the wall.
box gallery: 1611A Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM

If you are an art lover of any kind, chances are you’ll find interesting work being exhibited in many of Santa Fe’s 100+ galleries scattered across town. It really is an art collectors paradise. Do you have any favorite art spots in Santa Fe? Leave your comments here:

Tags: Contemporary Art, Galleries, Railyard, Santa Fe

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Art, Exhibitions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.