Seisme (Earthquake) by Evelyne Alcide, 2010

The Arts of Survival: Folk Expression in the Face of Disaster
Museum of International Folk Art
July 3, 2011 through May 6, 2012

The Arts of Survival: Folk Expression in the Face of Disaster explores how folk artists helped their communities recover from four recent natural disasters: the Haitian Earthquake; Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast; Pakistani floods; and the recent volcanic eruption of Mt. Merapi in Indonesia.

Opening July 3, 2011 in the Museum of International Folk Art’s ‘Gallery of Conscience,’ The Arts of Survival will be the gallery’s second annual exhibition. Last year’s inaugural exhibition Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities showed the successful efforts of women folk artists improving their communities from the ravages of war and worse to build clinics, provide education, and the basic necessities of life.

The Arts of Survival runs through May 6, 2012.

The Arts of Survival opens International Folk Arts Week and culminates with the 8th Annual International Folk Arts Market running July 8 – 10, 2011. Highlights of the week will be artist demonstrations, artist talks, lectures, and more. A full schedule of events will follow soon.

Dr. Marsha Bol, Director of the Museum of International Folk Art described the ‘Gallery of Conscience;’ “.as a forum where current issues facing folk artists around the world can be discussed. With The Arts of Survival we continue our examination of issues threatening the survival of the traditional arts, bringing them to the attention of our visitors,” Dr, Bol continued; “As the largest folk art museum in the world we believe it is our responsibility to address issues that threaten to disrupt folk arts – and in the case of this exhibition – the effect of natural disaster on the folk art community.”

The Arts of Survival will feature work by folk artists—some of whom have also won a coveted spot at the 2011 Santa Fe International Folk Art Market—with monumental artifacts, poetry, spoken word, and photographic and video documentation to explore the many ways in which a country’s traditional arts and artists rally in times of disaster. to rebuild and renew, one day at a time. As tragic events and terrible forces become part of carnival masks, scrolls, paintings, and vodou flags, the events are memorialized and the pain they brought is brought to a manageable state. When the force of the Earth breaks the world into pieces, the pieces can be collected and sold to bring an artist a step closer to economic recovery.

Visitors to this second ‘Gallery of Conscience’ exhibit will see the devastation of the Haitian earthquake emblazoned into the carnival masks and sequined vodou flags; how a New Orleans quilter took the flood-stained bedclothes of her neighbors ruined home and made art that both restores and represents. The visitor will hear the voices of the women whose centuries old tradition of ralli quilts bring comfort and color to the millions of flood refugees living in tent cities in Pakistan, and the puppeteers of Indonesia who incorporate the news of recent volcanic eruptions into their wayang performances.

Exhibition curator Dr, Suzanne Seriff said; “The Arts of Survival provides a window to the many ways contemporary folk artists use what they know best to respond to natural disaster with vision, perseverance, dignity and imagination—even in the midst of political infighting, infrastructural log jams, and environmental after-effects. Through this experience they learn that the most fundamental power is the indomitable spirit of mankind.”

Dr. Suzanne Seriff, curated the Gallery of Conscience inaugural exhibition Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives that Transform Communities which opened at the Museum of International Folk Art July 4, 2010 as the lead event of International Folk Art Week. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin.

People in both exhibit and Market:

• Tri Suwarno, puppet maker, Java, Indonesia
• Gurundar Chitrakar, scroll painter, West Bengal, India
• Ralli Quilters from relief camps in Hyderabad, Lila Handicrafts, Pakistan
• Onel Bazelais, papier mache maker from the ADASE coop in Jacmel, Haiti (members of the coop are coming)
• Serge Jolimeau (pending)
• Mirreille Delsime (or another vodou flag maker in Haiti)

Museum of International Folk Art

The Museum of International Folk Art houses the world’s largest collection of international folk art, with ongoing exhibitions Multiple Visions: A Common Bond in the Girard Wing and Familia y Fe in the Hispanic Heritage Wing. Changing and traveling exhibitions are offered in the Bartlett Wing and exhibitions highlighting textiles are featured the Neutrogena Wing. Lloyd’s Treasure Chest offers visitors interactive displays about collections and how museums care for collections.

The Museum of International Folk Art is a Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

Seisme (Earthquake) by Evelyne Alcide, 2010

Check the Blue Star Museums Initiative website for a complete and up-to-date list of participating museums.

This list only includes museums that charge admission. Some museums, like the Crow Collection of Asian Art, in Dallas, Texas, offer free admission all year round.

Arkansas

• Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources, Smackvoer, AR
• Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff, AR
• Grant County Museum, Sheridan , AR
• Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum & Educational Center, Piggott, AR
• Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, Springdale, AR
• Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, Tyronza, AR
• William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum, Little Rock, AR

Louisiana

• Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA
• DeQuincy Railroad Museum, DeQuincy, LA
• The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA
• Louisiana Art & Science Museum, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA
• LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge , LA
• Sci-Port: Louisiana’s Science Center, Shreveport, LA
• T.R.E.E. House Children’s Museum, Alexandria, LA
• West Baton Rouge Museum, Port Allen, LA

New Mexico

• Coronado State Monument, Bernalillo, NM
• El Camino Real International Heritage Center, Socorro, NM
• Fort Selden State Monument, Radium Springs, NM
• Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM
• Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
• Jemez State Monument, Jemez Springs, NM
• Lincoln State Monument, Lincoln, NM
• Los Alamos Historical Museum, Los Alamos, NM
• Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM
• Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM
• Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Santa Fe, NM
• National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
• New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque, NM
• New Mexico State Monument/Fort Sumner State Monument, Fort Sumner, NM
• NM Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces, NM
• Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM

Oklahoma

• American Banjo Museum, Oklahoma City, OK
• Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc., Tahlequah, OK
• Chisholm Trail Heritage Center, Duncan, OK
• Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, OK
• General Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum, Hobart, OK
• Guthrie Museum Complex, Guthrie, OK
• Jasmine Moran Children’s Museum, Seminole, OK
• Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art, Shawnee, OK
• The Mustang Historical Society, Mustang, OK
• National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK
• Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK
• Oklahoma Museum of Telephone History, Oklahoma City, OK
• Osage County Historical Society Museum, Pawhuska, OK
• Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum, Pawnee, OK
• Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa , OK
• Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum, Woodward , OK
• Price Tower Arts Center, Bartlesville, OK
• Price Tower Arts Center, Bartlesville, OK
• Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Norman, OK
• Science Museum Oklahoma, OKC, OK
• Sheerar Museum of Stillwater History, Stillwater, OK
• Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, Tulsa, OK
• Stafford Air & Space Museum, Weatherford, OK
• Toy & Action Figure Museum, Pauls Valley, OK
• Will Rogers Memorial Museum & Birthplace Ranch, Claremore, OK

Texas

• 1940 Air Terminal Museum, Houston , TX
• Acton State Historic Site, Acton, TX
• Alvin Historical Museum, Alvin, TX
• Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo , TX
• American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum, Fort Worth, TX
• American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum, Amarillo , TX
• American Wind Power Center, Lubbock, TX
• Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX
• Arlington Historical Society, Arlington, TX
• Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX
• Austin Museum of Art, Austin , TX
• Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
• Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History, Bryan, TX
• Brownsville Historical Association, Brownsville, TX
• Buddy Holly Center, Lubbock, TX
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site, Alto, TX
• Camp Hearne Historic Site, Hearne, TX
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site, San Antonio, TX
• Children’s Discovery Museum of the Golden Crescent, Victoria , TX
• The Children’s Museum of the Brazos Valley, Bryan, TX
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site, Mexia, TX
• Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center, Temple, TX
• Dallas Heritage Village, Dallas, TX
• Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance, Dallas, TX
• Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site, Denison, TX
• El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX
• Ellen Noël Art Museum, Odessa , TX
• Fannin Battleground State Historic Site, Fannin, TX
• Fort Concho National Historic Landmark, San Angelo, TX
• Fort Griffin State Historic Site, Albany, TX
• Fort Lancaster State Historic Site, Sheffield, TX
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site, Fort McKavett, TX
• Fort Sam Houston Museum, Fort Sam Houston, TX
• Frontier Times Museum, Bandera, TX
• Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas, TX
• Fulton Mansion State Historic Site, Rockport, TX
• George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, TX
• The Grace Museum, Abilene, TX
• The Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country, Canyon Lake, TX
• Kell House Museum, Wichita Falls, TX
• Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX
• Landmark Inn State Historic Site, Castroville, TX
• Martin & Frances Lehnis Railroad Museum, Brownwood, TX
• McFaddin-Ward House, Beaumont, TX
• McNay Art Museum, San Antonio , TX
• Meadows Museum, Dallas, TX
• Modern Art Museum of Fort Wort, Fort Worth, TX
• Museum of South Texas History, Edinburg, TX
• Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
• Museum of the American Railroad, Dallas, TX
• Museum of the Gulf Coast, Port Arthur , TX
• Museum of Western Art, Kerrville, TX
• Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX
• National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum, Fort Worth, TX
• National Musuem of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg, TX
• Nature Discovery Center, Bellaire, TX
• Neill-Cochran House Museum, Austin , TX
• Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum, Galveston, TX
• Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture, Dallas, TX
• Pearce Museum, Corsicana, TX
• Port Aransas Museum, Port Aransas, TX
• Railroad & Heritage Museum, Temple, TX
• The Red River Historical Museum, Sherman, TX
• Republic of Texas Museum, Austin, TX
• Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site, Port Arthur, TX
• Sam Houston Memorial Museum, Huntsville, TX
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo , TX
• San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
• San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site, San Felipe, TX
• Scurry County Museum, Snyder, TX
• Silent Wings Museum, Lubbock, TX
• Southwest School of Art, San Antonio , TX
• Star of the Republic Museum, Washington, TX
• Stark Museum of Art, Orange, TX
• Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX
• Umlauf Scupture Garden & Museum, Austin, TX
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site, West Columbia, TX
• Veterans Memorial Air Park, Fort Worth , TX
• W.H. Stark House, Orange, TX
• Wolf Creek Heritage Museum, Lipscomb, TX
• The Women’s Museum: An Institute for the Future, Dallas, TX
• The Woodlands Children’s Museum, The Woodlands, TX

Santa Fe-Based Gallery to Curate Installations at Hotel ZaZa’s Art House & Social Gallery

Hotel ZaZa Dallas has announced it will collaborate with Turner Carroll Gallery and Art Advisors to bring internationally acclaimed art exhibitions to the newly opened Stay ZaZa Art House & Social Gallery. Based in Santa Fe, Turner Carroll Gallery (www.turnercarrollgallery.com) will curate shows of nationally and internationally recognized artists in the hotel’s new art and event space.

The first exhibition will feature noted artist Ashley Collins. She will unveil new works from her Twelve O’Clock body of work, in addition to her sought after paintings of larger than life horses and abstract works inspired by her travels through the African desert. The show will open to the public Friday, January 28 and remain on display through the end of March. The Art House and Social Gallery will be open to the public Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For private showings by appointment, please call (505) 986-9800.

The Twelve O’Clock pieces are highly conceptual and consist of 12 original paintings that were inspired by a photograph found of a French Foreign Legionnaire and the relationship he has with his horse. Each painting is named for and captures the relationship between the two at specific five-minute intervals of the clock. Collins’ intent is to show how every relationship in life is constantly in motion and changing. It has been suggested that the horse and the man could substitute for any two individuals in the world.

“Collins’ process of making art has evolved over 26 years. From sleeping on concrete studio floors to breaking price point records for living female contemporary painters, Collins has produced a diverse composition of works,” says Tonya Turner Carroll, gallery owner.

Ashley Collins’ paintings are included in collections from Germany to Dubai, Los Angeles to Shanghai, New York to Brunei including noted art collectors Robert Redford, Sally Horchow, Kate Kapshaw, Gianluca Galtrucco, Paul Vanderpool, Wendy Malick, Ringo Star, George Rosenthal, Blythe Danner Paltrow, Holly Hunt, Debra Winger and many other corporate and private collections worldwide.

Collins’ works employ paper aged by the elements, partially obscured images of her iconic horses, and pages from old books and musical scores. She covers these layers of our collective memory with resin, which she moves around each painting with a torch, as the resin creates a life of its own on the surface of each work, swirling and beautiful.

Collins has a long history of giving back to the community through contributions to worthwhile causes across the world. During the Dallas exhibition, she is donating 10 percent of the proceeds to America SCORES Dallas to assist in their efforts to provide Dallas elementary school students a safe, healthy and educational after-school experience through soccer and poetry.

“Hotel ZaZa is an art centric hotel. Located only blocks away from the Dallas Arts District, we are committed to sharing our love of art with our guests and the people of Dallas. We discovered Turner Carroll Gallery at Art Basel Miami Beach and saw the talent they represented. The combination of their international experience in the art world, our Art House & Social Gallery and ZaZa’s creativity will be unmatched,” said Charlie Givens, owner of Hotel ZaZa.

“With the growth of the Dallas Arts District and the entire Dallas arts scene, the potential to collaborate with Hotel ZaZa was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down,” said Tonya Turner Carroll.

The Turner Carroll Gallery has been curating art events internationally for the past 20 years. The gallery has featured artists who have works in the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Berkeley Art Museum, the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, the Russian State Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Art, as well as many esteemed private art collections.

The Stay ZaZa Art House & Social Gallery is available for events such as art exhibits, business meetings, social events, and many more. Private events may be scheduled for 16 to 150 guests. Through this venue, Hotel ZaZa is able to showcase its full-service hotel and catering services, while also offering creative freedom to the guest. For more information, or to book a meeting or event, please call (214) 468-8399 or visit hotelzazadallas.com.

About Hotel ZaZa

Hotel ZaZa is a sensory experience that is refined yet relaxed. Its sophisticated and sensual interior design and culinary excellence is completed by a staff that pays impeccable attention to each and every guest, making them feel at home. Whether for business, a romantic weekend, or world-famous celebrities, both hotels blend intimate comfort with Stay ZaZa-style to create inspired accommodations, one-of-a-kind themed suites, and award-winning restaurants and spas.

Nestled in the fashionable Uptown neighborhood and next to downtown, Hotel ZaZa Dallas is a creative mix of warm, Mediterranean elegance and comfortable chic. This exceptional boutique hotel offers 4,500 square feet of function space, 152 rooms, 17 concept suites, the Magnificent Seven Suites, the award-winning Dragonfly Restaurant and Lounge, the enticing Urban Oasis, the relaxing ZaSpa and the Art House & Social Gallery. Reservations may be made at hotelzazadallas.com or by calling 888.880.3244.

Located in the heart of the vibrant Museum District and minutes from the world renowned Texas Medical Center, Hotel ZaZa Houston boasts 17,000 square feet of function space and is the perfect backdrop for any business meeting – not to mention home to some of Houston’s most memorable weddings and galas. Monarch Urban Bistro & Lounge, the Urban Oasis, and the tranquil ZaSpa combine to create the hotel’s breadth of impressive amenities. With more than 300 rooms, including Pool Villas, Concept Suites and The Magnificent Seven Suites, ZaZa exceeds all expectations. Reservations may be made at hotelzazahouston.com or by calling 888.880.3244.

Hotel ZaZa, a member of the Preferred Hotel Group™, was created by Charles S. Givens and Jeff Records and is owned by Givens-Records Developments. Operations management and marketing are provided by Z Resorts, LLC, led by Z Resorts President Benji Homsey.

Undated SX-70 Polaroid by H. Joe Waldrum

A Passionate Light: Polaroids by H. Joe Waldrum
New Mexico History Museum: Palace of the Govenors
January 30 through April 10, 2011

A rush to catch a plane and the convenience of a Safeway grocery store led to noted New Mexico artist H. Joe Waldrum’s long-term love affair with SX-70 Polaroid monoprints, images that Waldrum referred to as “little jewels.” The late artist’s collection of nearly 8,000 images was recently donated to the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives. A selection of them will be displayed in a joint exhibition at the New Mexico History Museum and The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Jan. 30-April 10.

A Passionate Light: Polaroids by H. Joe Waldrum features a total of 1,202 4½” x 3¼” images between the two museums (264 at the New Mexico History Museum; 938 at The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History). For the exhibit, Mary Anne Redding, curator of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, has chosen images that range from Waldrum’s studies of northern New Mexico churches to the delicate transiency of flowers.

Known primarily as a painter and print-maker, Waldrum began working with the Polaroid when he was completing his annual summer painting trip to Taos. Set to return to New York the next day, he didn’t have time to sketch San Jose de Garcia Church in Las Trampas – drawings he would need to guide him on a future painting. Lacking even a camera to take some stills, he sped to a nearby Safeway and bought a Polaroid One-Step and four boxes of film. He managed to barely beat the setting sun in exposing all the film, which developed on the car seat next to him as he drove home to finish packing.

Upon returning to his New York studio, he pulled out his hurriedly snapped images and realized they captured more than shapes and colors; they documented his thinking and looking process.

From the late 1970s until his death in 2003, Waldrum faithfully carried the camera with him and captured images ranging from the spontaneously casual to the carefully composed. Nicholas Chiarella, imaging specialist for the Photo Archives, scanned the images into digital form, realizing along the way, he said, that they “deftly assert the potential …to function dually as historic documents and artistic objects.”

Born in Texas in 1934, Waldrum lived and made art in New Mexico from 1971 until his 2003 death in Truth or Consequences. His collection of SX-70 monoprints was given to the Archives by the Waldrum Estate and Rio Bravo Fine Art in Truth or Consequences. Among Polaroid aficionados, the SX-70 holds special appeal for the stability of its prints. Waldrum’s monoprints, some of them more than 40 years old, are in nearly mint condition with true colors.

The artist himself considered the images an important body of art, not mere documentation for his paintings. When anyone questioned their artistic merit, Waldrum bristled: “One gallery director said to me, `Joe, anyone can point a Polaroid camera and push a button. I will agree with him, if he will agree with me that anyone with a scalpel can cut out your appendix.”

Beyond seeing adobe churches as subject matter for his artwork, Waldrum dedicated himself to their conservation. He made videos, gave lectures, established El Valle Foundation to raise restoration funds, hosted exhibitions and spoke often about the importance of the churches not just as spiritual centers but as a means for maintaining the indigenous history and culture of Spanish New Mexico.

The museums are co-hosting a series of lectures and events during the show’s run. The following events are at The Albuquerque Museum, unless otherwise noted:

Friday, Jan. 28, 5 p.m.: Members-only preview. For media invitations, contact Heather Shore at (505) 338-8730; or (505) 504-2009.

Sunday, Jan. 30

• 1 p.m.: “Passionate Enterprises: Archives, Photography & Collecting,” lecture by Mary Anne Redding, curator, Palace of the Governors Photo Archives.
• 1-3 p.m.: Bring, scan and share your personal Polaroids on the instant online archive
• 3 p.m.: “Polaroid Minutes,” performance by Ecotone Physical Theatre.

Sunday, Feb. 13, 1 p.m.: “Ansel Adams and Polaroid,” lecture by Alan Ross, photographer and assistant to Adams.

Sunday, Feb. 27, 1 p.m.: “How Polaroid Shaped Fine Art Photography,” panel discussion by photographers Tom Barrow, Joyce Neimanas, Chris Enos and Sigfried Halus. Moderated Mary Anne Redding.

Saturday, March 12, 1-4 p.m.: Family Day: Picture It! Explore how photographers see and create through engaging activities. Enjoy family scavenger hunts, art projects and more.

Friday, March 18, 6 p.m. (at the New Mexico History Museum) and Sunday, March 20, 1 p.m. (at The Albuquerque Museum): “Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land,” lecture by Dr. Victor McElheny, a noted science writer.

Saturday, April 9, 8:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.: Churches of Northern New Mexico, bus tour led by Albuquerque Museum Director Cathy Wright and Curator Andrew Connors. Leave from The Albuquerque Museum, see the History Museum’s portion of the exhibit, lunch at Rancho de Chimayó and visit several of the churches Waldrum photographed and painted. Reservations required. Tickets: $55 members of either the Museum of New Mexico Foundation or The Albuquerque Museum; $60 nonmembers.

New Mexico History Museum

The New Mexico History Museum is the newest addition to a campus that includes the Palace of the Governors, the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States; Fray Angélico Chávez History Library; Palace of the Governors Photo Archives; the Press at the Palace of the Governors; and the Native American Artisans Program. A division of the Department of Cultural Affairs.

Undated SX-70 Polaroid by H. Joe Waldrum

Storm at La Bajada by Laura Gilpin, 1946

Cloudscapes: Photographs from the Collection
New Mexico Museum of Art
Opening February 4, 2011

A new exhibition of photographic luminaries at the New Mexico Museum of Art invites visitors to lose themselves in a variety of cloud formations, from fluffy to enticing to intriguing to menacing. Cloudscapes: Photographs from the Collection, opening Feb. 4, features work by some of the masters of the medium, including Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Laura Gilpin, Eliot Porter, and Edward Weston. Also featured are more recent images by Paul Caponigro, William Clift, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, and Jim Stone.

While the landscape of New Mexico holds great attraction for photographers, its skies and their abundance of dramatic cloud formations also draw artists’ eyes. With an emphasis on New Mexico views, the show brings forward more than 25 images of this popular subject while also examining them in the context of Stieglitz’s influential cloud series, Equivalents. Taken during summer visits to his family retreat in Lake George, N.Y., these studies of clouds allowed the artist to explore a more subjective aspect of photography. Photographer Jim Stone, based in Albuquerque, makes humorous reference to the series in his 1976 piece, subtitled Equivalent Alaska Cloud.

Artists have portrayed clouds in their work not only for their interesting and ever-changing shapes, but also as symbols, whether to convey the power and unpredictability of nature or to express human emotions such as loneliness, unrest, freedom, or happiness. An unusual trio of images by Laura Gilpin reflects the time she spent living on a Navajo reservation by depicting the “He” rain, the “She” rain, and a rainbow in between. Eliot Porter used color film to beautiful effect in capturing the sunsets near his studio in Tesuque. The contemporary artistic pair Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison refers to environmental issues in their picture of clouds, Patching the Sky.

“Cloudscapes gives us a wonderful opportunity to remind visitors of the many stellar photographs in the collection,” said exhibition curator Katherine Ware. “Photographs are very light sensitive and cannot remain on long-term view like paintings and sculpture. We hope our guests will see some famous favorites as well as discovering some new images.”

The museum is pleased to present this group of photographs as part of a museum-wide installation of pieces from its permanent collection.

New Mexico Museum of Art

The New Mexico Museum of Art was founded in 1917 as the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico. Housed in a spectacular Pueblo Revival building designed by I. H. and William M. Rapp, it was based on their New Mexico building at the Panama-California Exposition (1915). The museum’s architecture inaugurated what has come to be known as “Santa Fe Style.” For nearly 100 years, the Museum has celebrated the diversity of the visual arts and the legacy of New Mexico as a cultural crossroads by collecting and exhibiting work by leading artists from New Mexico and elsewhere. This tradition continues today with a wide-array of exhibitions with work from the world’s leading artists. The New Mexico Museum of Art brings the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico. The New Mexico Museum of Art is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

Storm at La Bajada by Laura Gilpin, 1946

Ultimate by Brook Reynolds, 2007

Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment
New Mexico Museum of Art
April 8 through August 29, 2011

Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment opens at the New Mexico Museum of Art April 8, 2011 and its online component can now be found on the web at earthnow.nmartmuseum.org.

Fraction Magazine, the on-line magazine of contemporary photography, will partner with the museum in presenting and expanding the exhibition’s web site.

Katherine Ware, exhibition curator and the museum’s Curator of Photography, selected works for Earth Now showing how a range of contemporary landscape photographers are responding to some of the most pressing  environmental issues of our time, such as energy consumption, changing agricultural practices, toxic waste, and the human relationship to animals and the land. Twelve photographers will be highlighted in the Earth Now on-line exhibition.

The museum’s first socially optimized exhibition will showcase some 104 images – from Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter who place the exhibition in historical context to Subhankar Banerjee, Daniel Handal, Brad Temkin, Dornith Doherty and Sharon Stewart. There will also be a blog, a wide range of videos, podcasts of lectures, and links to other sites. The Earth Now site itself will be its own ecosystem remaining an active forum through the run of the gallery exhibition ending August 29, 2011 with frequent additions of fresh content.

One prominent link on the site will take the viewer from Earth Now to Fraction Magazine. The magazine’s participation greatly enlarges the exhibition’s scope – presenting expanded portfolios of the artists in Earth Now; a related exhibition of photographic work selected by Fraction Magazine founder and editor, David Bram; and, an additional selection of works Ware discovered after curating Earth Now, with an emphasis on New Mexico photographers.

This partnership recognizes the evolution toward an on-line presence taking place in traditional media and museum exhibitions. Speaking for the museum, Ware comments that; “We are exploring new territory with this on-line exhibition preceding the gallery opening in April. One of our goals is to give viewers a chance to engage with the photographs over time and to encourage them to comment and respond. We want the museum’s resources to be available to everyone and the site, along with the opportunity to collaborate with David Bram and Fraction Magazine, open up the conversation to a broader audience.”

Bram said of his partnering with the museum on this exhibition; “I am thrilled to be working with the Museum and with Katherine Ware, as I believe this is a monumental show that will once again put New Mexico on the global map for contemporary landscape photography.  I am also excited about the ability to extend the physical show to the on-line world, and to bring more museum quality photography to the growing Fraction audience.” Fraction Magazine can be accessed at www.fractionmagazine.com.

About the Museum

The New Mexico Museum of Art was founded in 1917 as the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico . Housed in a spectacular Pueblo Revival building designed by I. H. and William M. Rapp, it was based on their New Mexico building at the Panama-California Exposition (1915). The museum’s architecture inaugurated what has come to be known as ” Santa Fe Style.” For nearly 100 years, the Museum has celebrated the diversity of the visual arts and the legacy of New Mexico as a cultural crossroads by collecting and exhibiting work by leading artists from New Mexico and elsewhere. This tradition continues today with a wide-array of exhibitions with work from the world’s leading artists. The New Mexico Museum of Art brings the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico.

The New Mexico Museum of Art is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

About the Magazine

Fraction Magazine (www.fractionmagazine.com) features the best of contemporary photography, bringing together diverse bodies of work by established and emerging artists from around the globe. Each monthly on-line issue focuses on a central theme, creating an implicit dialogue between differing photographic perspectives. Fraction also offers in-depth photography book reviews. For his outstanding work, David Bram, Fraction’s editor and publisher, was selected as the 2010 recipient of the Griffin Museum’s Rising Star Award. Bram is also a fine art photographer and juries many competitions. Fraction Magazine is based in Albuquerque, NM

Untitled Ceramic Vessel by Rick Dillingham, 1985-86

Case Studies from the Bureau of Contemporary Art
New Mexico Museum of Art
November 19, 2010 through March 20, 2011

Click here to see a gallery of images for Case Studies.

The New Mexico Museum of Art will present an exhibition of works from its Bureau of Contemporary Art, a fictitious entity created for this exhibition in order to emphasize contemporary art’s prominent place within the museum’s permanent collection. Case Studies from the Bureau of Contemporary Art will be on view November 19, 2010 through March 20, 2011.

As the term “case studies” suggests, the exhibition presents particular lines of inquiry into the contemporary collection. Among these thematic excursions are war and its aftermath; figuration and the human condition; minimalism, monochrome and seriality; and materiality and rawness.

There are nearly forty artists in Case Studies, from New Mexico and beyond, including Dieter Appelt, Erika Blumenfeld, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Charlesworth, Constance DeJong, Tom Joyce, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Larry Poons, Kim Russo, Peter Sarkisian, Peter Voulkos, Erika Wanenmacher and Joel-Peter Witkin. The 60+ artworks on display represent ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, prints, photography, and video. Acupuncture needles, butterflies, martini glasses, and charred books are among the other unconventional materials to be found in the show.

The museum’s contemporary collection consists of over 5,500 works and is defined as holdings dating from 1970 to the present, although some earlier pieces which would have set the stage for artists working in the subsequent decades are also included in this exhibition, including a 1967 ink drawing by Eva Hesse and a 1959 Robert Ryman painting.

“Case Studies is an occasion to show some of the gems of the collection, and to think about the linkages that bridge works from different moments in time, cultures, and mediums,” says Curator of Contemporary Art and Case Studies curator Laura Addison. “Much of the contemporary collection has been largely unseen. This exhibition will reveal some of those surprises.”

Among the unexpected holdings of the New Mexico Museum of Art collection are a series of Cubanborn artist Ana Mendieta’s Silueta photographs; Delilah Montoya’s exploration of Chicano social issues through the vehicle of a home altar; a large-scale display of 158 pieces of ceramic blackware by Eddie Dominguez; a protofeminist wax sculpture by Louise Bourgeois; and Meridel Rubenstein and Ellen Zweig’s multimedia installation about New Mexico’s atomic legacy.

Case Studies opens with a public reception on Friday, November 19, 5:30-7:30pm, hosted by the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico.

The New Mexico Museum of Art

The New Mexico Museum of Art was founded in 1917 as the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico. Housed in a spectacular Pueblo Revival building designed by I. H. and William M. Rapp, it was based on their New Mexico building at the Panama-California Exposition (1915). The museum’s architecture inaugurated what has come to be known as “Santa Fe Style.” For nearly 100 years, the Museum has celebrated the diversity of the visual arts and the legacy of New Mexico as a cultural crossroads by collecting and exhibiting work by leading artists from New Mexico and elsewhere. This tradition continues today with a wide-array of exhibitions with work from the world’s leading artists. The New Mexico Museum of Art brings the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico. The New Mexico Museum of Art is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

Fuel Tanks, Greg Mac Gregor, 2006

Earth Now: American Landscape Photographers and the Environment
New Mexico Museum of Art
April 8 through August 28, 2011

Earth Now: American Landscape Photographers and the Environment offers both a survey and a contemporary view of how artists working in photography have addressed our relationship to the environment, one of the greatest challenges facing us since at least the mid-twentieth century. Using beauty, humor, and horror to engage attention, these photographers provoke questions about the legacy of industry, construction, consumption, and waste disposal while pointing toward new directions such as local farming, new energy source technologies, green roofs, and a renewed connection with the landscapes we inhabit.

Earth Now opens at the New Mexico Museum of Art on April 8, 2011 and will be on view through August 28, 2011. The exhibition opens with suites of images by landscape photographers Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter. As successful artists they also participated in the use of their photographs to promote the establishment and preservation of some of the country’s wilderness areas.

Preceding the April 8, 2011 opening of the Earth Now exhibition in the museum will be an online prologue in fall 2010. The Earth Now site will be designed to invite visitors to join a lively conversation with the twelve contemporary photographers featured in the online exhibition. Other artists, invited commentators, prominent environmental and conservation activists, and the curator will also be contributing, and video podcast interviews will be on the site. Artist interviews, music, reading lists, e-links, and more will also be found on the Earth Now site. The online exhibition – a living ecosystem itself – will remain active through August 28, 2011 (and beyond) as new material from ongoing Earth Now public programming is recorded and added.

The example set by Adams and Porter provoked a range of strong responses by younger landscape photographers, especially in the context of a growing environmental movement beginning in the 1970s. Some followed a similar path to Adams and Porter while others forged a new more activist direction, among them Robert Adams, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Mark Klett, and Richard Misrach. Having set the stage with these important masters, Earth Now continues with a large section of new work from the beginning of the twenty-first century. This selection of photographs by approximately twenty American artists shows how a range of contemporary landscape photographers are responding now to some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time, such as energy consumption, changing agricultural practices, toxic waste, and the human relationship to animals, and to the land. While many of these artists are working in New Mexico and the western United States – including Michael Berman, Joann Brennan, Dornith Doherty, Chris Enos, Greg Mac Gregor, Carlan Tapp, Victor Masayesva, and Sharon Stewart – others represent cities ranging from Seattle to New York and San Francisco to Atlanta. A highlight of the show will be images from brand-new bodies of work by Subhankar Banerjee, Daniel Handal, Brad Temkin, and Phil Underwood.

Commenting on the online preview and upcoming exhibition, New Mexico Museum of Art Curator of Photography Katherine Ware said, “I am interested in exploring how artists and their work function in relation to current events, in helping us make sense of the world around us, reinforcing humanistic values, and provoking questions rather than offering answers. These images require the participation of viewers who are engaged by them and continue the conversation.”

Visitors to the Earth Now online exhibition are invited to view the site www.explore.org, the website of Explore, a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation led by Annenberg Foundation Vice President and Director, Charles Annenberg Weingarten. The Annenberg Foundation is pleased to note that the educational, tax-exempt purposes of Explore align closely with those of the Earth Now online exhibition.

Artists included in the Earth Now online exhibition

• Ansel Adams – Images of Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Park in California; Alaska
• Eliot Porter — Landscapes made on the east coast and at Glen Canyon
• Subhankar Banerjee – Where I Live, I Hope to Know, from a study of his neighborhood outside Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Bremner Benedict – Selections from Gridlines, a series on the power towers that often dominate the American landscape
• Joann Brennan – A trio of images from her extended series Imagining Eden about scientists who are working on how people and animals can better co-exist
• Dornith Doherty – Two large-scale pieces from Archiving Eden, a series of work made with x-rays at master seed banks
• Daniel Handal – Images from his new series From Forest to Field, about young farmers in New York’s Hudson Valley region
• Beth Lilly – Monsters, a view of the resilience and adaptability of urban trees
• Brook Reynolds – Her recent series Light, Sweet Crude examines the American appetite for oil
• Sharon Stewart – Excerpts from the long-term series Agua es Vida: A Village Life Portrait on community life and acequia-based agriculture in El Cerrito, New Mexico
• Carlan Tapp – Part of his body of work Question of Power, about the human costs of coal use in the United States, taken at the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region
• Brad Temkin – Initial work from a new series on greenscaping, Rooftop, showing gardens thriving atop Chicago’s civic buildings

Artists included in the gallery exhibition

• Ansel Adams
• Robert Adams
• Subhankar Banerjee
• Bremner Benedict
• Michael P. Berman
• Joann Brennan
• Suzette Bross
• Sarah Charlesworth
• Christine Chin
• Dornith Doherty
• Chris Enos
• Terry Evans
• Daniel Handal
• Robert Glenn Ketchum
• Mark Klett
• Beth Lilly
• Greg Mac Gregor
• Victor Masayesva Jr.
• Brad Moore
• Matthew Moore
• Richard Misrach
• David Maisel
• Patrick Nagatani
• Bill Owens
• Eliot Porter
• Brook Reynolds
• Laurel Schultz
• Christina Seely
• Sharon Stewart
• Carlan Tapp
• Brad Temkin
• Robert Toedter
• Sonja Thomsen
• Phil Underwood

The New Mexico Museum of Art was founded in 1917 as the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico. Housed in a spectacular Pueblo Revival building designed by I. H. and William M. Rapp, it was based on their New Mexico building at the Panama-California Exposition (1915). The museum’s architecture inaugurated what has come to be known as “Santa Fe Style.” For nearly 100 years, the Museum has celebrated the diversity of the visual arts and the legacy of New Mexico as a cultural crossroads by collecting and exhibiting work by leading artists from New Mexico and elsewhere. This tradition continues today with a wide-array of exhibitions with work from the world’s leading artists. The New Mexico Museum of Art brings the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico.

Fuel Tanks, Greg Mac Gregor, 2006

The cost of the lecture is $15. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Lensic Box Office by calling 505 988 1234. They may also be purchased at the door. Proceeds from the lecture will benefit the New Mexico Museum of Art’s contemporary art programming.

About Karen LaMonte

Karen LaMonte is world-renowned for her monumental cast-glass sculptures of dresses and other drapery studies. Though originally from New York, the artist now lives in the Czech Republic, where there are facilities with the capacity to cast glass of the scale she requires. LaMonte graduated in 1990 from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she first began exploring clothing as a vehicle of portraiture in absentia. “I use clothing as a metaphor for identity and human presence,” she has said of her remarkable sculptures. “I believe we have two skins that outline and define who we are. One of course is our natural skin, but we obscure and conceal it beneath clothing which is a second skin, our social skin.”

In 1999, she received a Fulbright Fellowship to work in Czechoslovakia, where she ultimately moved. LaMonte’s other explorations have included cast glass mirrors with photographic imagery and printmaking. Most recently, LaMonte began investigating the use of ceramic in her sculptures at the European Ceramic Work Centre and was the recipient of the Corning Museum of Glass/Kohler Arts Center Joint Residency for working with ceramic and glass.

Karen LaMonte has received many prestigious awards, including: Corning Museum of Glass/Kohler Arts Center, Joint Artist-in-Residence Program; Jutta Cuny-Franz Memorial Award; Japan-United States Friendship Commission, National Endowment for the Arts Creative Artists ExchangeFellowship; Virginia A. Groot Foundation Recognition Award; UrbanGlass Award for New Talent in Glass; Creative Glass Center of America Fellowship; Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award; Fulbright Grant: Cast Sculpture in the Czech Republic.

Her work is included in many museum collections, including the Corning Museum of Glass, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, the deYoung Memorial Museum, Palm Springs Art Museum, Musée des arts décoratifs, National Gallery of Australia, Chrysler Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, and Museum of American Glass.

The timing could not have been better, just in advance of the opening on July 4, 2010 of the exhibition Empowering Women and the world-famous annual International Folk Art Market which takes over Milner Plaza.

The Girard Wing is open regular Museum hours; 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day until Labor Day weekend.