KGB Photography Group at The Gallery ABQ

First Friday’s ARTScrawl brought me to The Gallery ABQ for the December holiday show featuring art by all of the gallery members. In addition, KGB Photography Group: Kozeliski, Gilbert, and Bidewell presented their stunning exhibition of photography in the gallery salon. Art enthusiasts crowded the gallery as we all listened to John Gilbert give the Artist Insight Talk. 

Gilbert, a native of Albuquerque, has always loved art and photography. He has been a professional photographer since 1985. Gilbert says, “When photoshop came out I knew it was for me, to be able to combine art and photography and create unique portraits and art pieces.” His prints are amazingly rich and vibrant, with a subtle three dimensional quality. Gilbert has worked for several big studios but prefers to create photo illustrations and fine art pieces from his home studio now.

Dee Sanchez - Painting the North: Taos and Beyond

The art show for Dee Sanchez opened Friday, November 6th to a standing room only crowd at Sumner & Dene Creations in Art. The gallery buzzed with positive energy as many locals came to meet Sanchez in person and to admire her work. As a special treat, Mezcla Latina provided the background music that welcomed visitors as they entered the gallery. 

Sanchez lives and works in the village of Alameda, New Mexico. After raising a family, she taught herself how to paint and launched her career in 2002. Sanchez is best known as an intuitive colorist and who paints with a palette knife in the alla prima style, completing each of her paintings in one sitting. Her subjects include grand vistas, cloudscapes and skyscapes, huge, chaotic masses of native wildflowers, and the small villages and people of her state. Sanchez likes to challenge herself to paint one painting EVERY day. In pre-paration for this show alone she painted sixty paintings, sharing her progress on her daily blog with followers all over the country.

Sisters Paint and Wine

Art can be found anywhere. Typically, I spend the first Friday of the month cruising Albuquerque eager to attend the ARTScrawl. This month, however, a friend recommended a visit to Sisters Paint and Wine. What a delightful experience! 

A new concept gaining momentum around the country, this premier local paint and wine studio provides individual and group step-by-step art instruction in a fun, engaging and relaxed environment. Their story began quite innocently the day after Christmas 2013 when two sisters, Lisa Wilkes and Vicki Woody, discovered their passion for painting while visiting a paint and wine class in Indiana. They went as a family gathering and fell in love with the concept. The very next day they decided to open a studio of our own. One of the sisters, who lived in Indiana, made the move to New Mexico so the sisters could realize their dream. Less than two years later they opened the doors to Sisters Paint and Wine in Albuquerque.

Turquoise Trail Art Festival

In July, I received a tip from a friend that an art festival was in the works along Highway 14 in the East Mountains. Sure enough on the weekend of August 29th and 30th, the first annual Turquoise Trail Arts Festival was held showcasing a variety of art mediums including printmaking, ceramics, stone carving, mixed media, metal, jewelry, woodwork, painting, gourd carving, and sculptures. Carla Ward, from Tinkertown, said the Turquoise Trail Association decided to put together a progressive art festival along the southern part of the trail because other festivals had already been established on the northern part of the trail near Santa Fe.

A collaboration of 50 local artists and five authors displayed their work at venues including The Church, an Art Sanctuary in El Cedro, Scissors Village Salon spa & boutique in Tijeras, Tom & Jerry’s plaza in Cedar Crest, Tinkertown museum, Contemporary Southwest, the Paako event center, San Pedro Creek in Sandia Park and Henderson’s Trading Post in Golden. The art festival proved to be a success, attracting a steady stream of walk in traffic for the businesses that participated. 

The Three Dimensional Designs of Edward Martinez

What a delight to step into SE-OC Right Brain Gallery last Friday to meet the humble and incredibly talented artist Edward Martinez. His unique, one-of-kind designs are three-dimensional landscapes that incorporate LED lights, and in some cases, microprocessors programmed to create different lighting effects. 

At the age of twelve Martinez, also known as “Viejo,” developed his style and love for art that  keeps changing with time and location, always reflecting his surroundings. As a young boy, he won several awards for his mosaic work and paintings growing up in Chicago. Viejo says, “As a young artist, when this is all you have for your surroundings, people would tell me to look past the rough exterior for inner beauty. What I noticed is that I didn’t have to look past anything at all to find beauty. It was actually on the surface and all around me. This made it easier for me to tell a story and evoke a feeling through my work. Thus, I found mosaic art, drawing and family as my only outlet and form of comfort.” 

Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeded Shoe

Walter Steiger."Unicorn Tayss," Spring 2013. 

Recently, I spent the afternoon at the vast, one-of-kind, eye-opening exhibition Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe. This traveling art show is utterly mesmerizing, sexy, and historically educating all at the same time.

Killer Heels explores fashion’s most provocative accessory. From the high platform chopines of sixteenth-century Italy to the glamorous stilettos gracing today’s runways and red carpets, the exhibition looks at the high-heeled shoe’s rich and varied history and its enduring place in our popular imagination. Deadly sharp stilettos, architecturally inspired wedges and platforms, shoes with fox tails, ruffles, horns, feathers, spikes, horse hooves, even some lined with fur are featured among the more than 160 historical and contemporary heels on loan from designers and from the renowned Brooklyn Museum costume collection, housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Aperial."Geisha Lines," Fall 2013

Designers and design houses represented in the exhibition include Manolo Blahnik, Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tom Ford, Zaha Hadid, Iris van Herpen, Rem D. Koolhass, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen, Andre Perugia, Prada, Elsa Schiaparelli, Noritaka Tatehana, Vivienne Westwood, and Pietro Yantorny. 

The Albuquerque exhibit also includes heels by local designers and artists including Janice Ortiz, Virgil Ortiz, Goldie Garcia, Teri Greeves, and Deana McGuffin, as well as examples of the current Mexican Pointy Boots craze sweeping the United States Southwest and northern Mexico. 

“The high heels featured in this exhibition are more than just fashion. They’re history. They’re sculpture. Truly, they are art.” 

~ Andrew Connors, Curator of Art at the Albuquerque Museum

Christian Louboutin."Metropolis," Fall/Winter 2010-11.

Presented alongside the objects in the exhibition are six specially commissioned risque and daring short films inspired by high heels. The filmmakers are Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh for “Higher Me”, Zach Gold for “Spike”, Steven Klein for “Untitled”, Nick Knight for “La Douleur Exquise”, Marilyn Minter for “Smash”, and Rashaad Newsome for “Knot”.

The exhibition finishes with two hands-on activites, “Design Your Own High Heeled Shoe” using card stock and crayon markers and “Shoe Story - Tell us the story of your favorite shoes!” using lined 4” x 5” paper and pencils, complete with high-heeled chairs to lounge in. Don’t miss the museum store which has been transformed with every imaginable high heeled accessory: cookie cutters, ice cube molds, door stops, jewelry, books, high heeled shoe bags, and slippers to change into after wearing high heeled shoes!

Killer Heels will hang through August 9th at the Albuquerque Museum located at 2000 Mountain Road NW in Old Town, Albuquerque, NM, (505) 243-7255, www.albuquerquemuseum.org. Museum hours are Tuesday - Sunday, 9am - 5pm. Third Thursday of each month until 8:30pm.

Touch/Tone at Matrix Fine Art

 It’s always a joy to return to Matrix Fine Art, the sister gallery of New Grounds Print Workshop and Gallery. Director Regina Held assembles cutting edge art shows that consistently draw the crowds in regardless of the season. When I attend her exhibitions, I often pause for a moment to take in the swirl of gallery activity. This time I realized what sets it apart is the live printing press demonstration that is a welcomed break during the evening show.

Artists William Ruller and Saul Hoffman join Susan Reid in this group exhibition of textured abstract paintings that beg to be touched. Ruller creates large, tangible, subtly colored geometric paintings. He combines oil paint with textures of crumbled brick and concrete to represent the frailties of humanity; and the erosion of lives that once existed. Hoffman’s clay mosaics are diametrically opposed to Ruller’s in that they are bursting with small, colorful and almost candy-like details and pattern.  Middle ground is created by the aboriginal inspired dot paintings of Susan Reid.  Her deliberate geometric pattern have a meditative, yet mesmerizing quality about them that is uniquely her own.

Paa-ko Fine Artist Guild

Under the direction of Dave Daniels, ten exceptional fine artists working in a variety of media presented an impressive third exhibition this past weekend at the Paa-Ko Event Center in Sandia Park, New Mexico. Featured artists included Dorothy McDonough McGeorge, Trish Meyer, Roy Breckenridge, Gloria Casale, Chris Meyer, Anita Daniels, Jane Gaines, Rich Irwin, Jodi Newton, and Joe DiRaddo. 

In addition to the fine arts show, local authors John M. Taylor, Albert Noyer, Josephy Badal, and Jennifer Noyer signed books, gave book readings and spoke about their work.

Love and Hearts at Essence Gallery & Boutique

Last Friday’s ARTScrawl led me to Old Town’s Essence Gallery & Boutique, a very well appointed gallery, featuring a “Love and Hearts” group exhibition just in time for Valentine’s Day. 

This show includes the work of Linda Patrick’s ornaments and wall hangings, Karina Graham’s recycled art, and Jillian Maresco's paintings. This exquisite exhibition focusing on hearts, love and romance is a must-see date with your sweetheart!

Gallery owner Jillian Maresco has always had an interest in art from an early age. Her parents were both art collectors and often took her to galleries, art auctions, art shows and museums as a child. 

She worked in retail most of her life starting in clothing shops and more recently, art galleries learning every step of the way. 

Contemporary Artifacts - works by Chris Meyer and Jenn Noel

Last Friday’s ARTScrawl led me to the Weyrich Gallery featuring Contemporary Artifacts with mixed media artist Chris Meyer and ceramics artist Jenn Noel. Gallery owner Valerie Tibbetts has created a show that combines Meyer’s modern photography, printing, traditional collage and assemblage techniques with Noel’s functional pottery, featuring earthy glazes and traditional symbols such as spirals. Both of their work gives the impression of being archaeological finds while still being recently made, fitting Weyrich's overall theme of "diverse works from dreams, folklore, myth and the earth”.

Jenn Noel grew up in Socorro, New Mexico and earned her BFA in graphic design with a minor in photography and marketing from Eastern New Mexico University. While working as a graphic designer, she had a creative outlet but felt something was missing. Her interest in pottery began when she returned to school at the University of New Mexico to pursue a nursing degree and by chance took a ceramic class on the Arita method of Japanese porcelain. This method continues to influence her art work even though she now works in stoneware. Noel is a ceramic artist who truly believes in art living in a functional space. She validates this by adding, “When you use handmade objects, it allows you to slow down and experience the beauty of the world.”

Chris Meyer is a fan of wabi-sabi - the “beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. He admires the myriad details of natural and handmade objects. His pieces start as photographs of rocks, ruins, petroglyphs, and petrified wood found around the Four

Corners region of the Southwest. Meyer looks for shapes, patterns, and hidden meanings in those images, akin to the way an old-school Zuni carver studies a rock looking for an animal’s spirit to release. From there, he creates collages to emphasize those patterns, and then print his photos on top to unify these real and imaginary worlds. Meyer finishes by adding assemblage elements – including sticks, stones, beads, bones, feathers, fibers, and metals – to add dimension, both to the physical work as well as to its layers of meaning, with many of the items selected specifically to convey a story embodied in the final piece. 

In describing his unique process, Meyer says, “Rather than attempt to create a perfect print of my photos, I see the shapes they contain as a starting point. I study these images for patterns, then build collages out of various papers, symbols, and texts to emphasize the shapes, texture and mood of an individual photo.” Meyer has exhibited his one-of-kind art with many groups including Collage Artists of America, Los Angeles Experimental Artists, and The Society of Layerists in Multi-Media.

There will be a second reception for Contemporary Artifacts on Saturday, January 10th, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Weyrich Gallery. At this reception, Chris Meyer will give an artist talk that will be videotaped for later posting on Facebook and YouTube. Contemporary Artifacts will hang through January 30th at Weyrich Gallery, 2935-D Louisiana Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM, (505) 883.7410, www.weyrichgallery.com.