The ELEVEN show is a kaleidoscope of creativity. Each person has a distinct point of view, recognizable and divergent. This show will anoint the expanded space at Chimayo Trading with the energy of newness, a frisson created by showing a body of work that has truly never been seen or felt before.
Expanding our gallery with a large extension into two new spaces, we have invited eleven esteemed contemporary Taos artists to contribute to an exciting show opening Fall Arts weekend.
The eleven artists featured in our upcoming exhibition have lived in Taos for a total of centuries! You may very well recognize the names, you may think you know the work, but you will be surprised by the sheer force created by juxtaposing these ELEVEN artists:
Nicki Marx – exquisite Eilee Argus Pheasant feather series.
Nicki transforms a natural phenomenon such as this stunning Argus Pheasant feather into an art piece that multiplies the natural effect through dynamic composition. Her appreciation for the natural world, her instinct for beauty and eye for design create new work that is its own phenomenon. Nicki describes it as “magic beyond intention”.
Gretchen Ewert – painting from an expansive mind.
Gretchen employs wide ranging materials and techniques, often layering them to create the complex, nuanced and detailed. They call the viewer closer, revealing surprises the closer you get. What may appear as shading from a distance may actually be thousands of dots that conjoin for an intended effect. Gretchen is a consummate artist with mad design skills and patience beyond the pale.
Annell Livingston – visual poems.
Eye dazzling geometric patterns in electric color combinations signify the work of Annell Livingston. Commanding attention and exuding energy, the interlocking triangles move your eyes through the painting like the words of a poem, line by line, never to be completely contained.
Margaret Nes – color saturated abstractions from life.
Margaret’s paintings are saturated with color and personal references. You sense a life lived in vibrant hues as she responds to what most of us take for granted: a roofline in shadow, a plateau or a color field that breaks into and divides down the middle like a river gorge. Her images reflect New Mexico life in surprising color combinations.
Mimi Chen Ting – free floating abstractions.
The clarity of her painting is like a note sounding, reverberating like a “ting”!
The colors float weightlessly in a harmonious surround. Her paintings sing with simplicity and reflect the artist. Recognized by her peers and collected worldwide, Mimi Chen Ting represents the best of contemporary art.
Sandra Lerner – mysterious subtleties in paint.
Sandra’s dramatic paintings are moody and interpretive fields of color. What may look like the scalloped edge of a flower in the morning, may by evening remind you of a flamingo dancer’s flourish with her skirt.
These three gems are small but mighty, emboldening the space with the vibrant movement of color and the accomplished brushstrokes of Sandra Lerner.
Ann Huston – elegant fine pastel painting.
Ann Huston’s pastel paintings are recognized for the softness of her forms, the harmony of colors and edges that almost dissolve into the landscape. Warm and evocative, they invite you to share one perfect golden moment with the artist when you are one with the land, sky and time stands still.
TJ Mabrey – marble and bronze sculpture of natural forms.
TJ carves in marble with hammer and chisel making permanent the flowing forms of long necked gourds entwined. She calls her work “Universal Constructivism”. In the light, her sculptures glow with an otherworldly translucence, a lasting monument to the natural world and to her consummate skill with a hammer and chisel. She returns again and again to her themes of seeds, gourds and the ocean in her work, in collections worldwide.
Ginger Mongiello – ethereal abstract painting.
The encaustic wax paintings of Ginger Mongiello reverberate like a sound wave in color. The wax adds dimensional overlays and subtle undertones as light travels into the image and reflects back to the viewer the intentions in the mind of the artist. Like portals to a realm beyond this one, they draw you in to a new world.
Paula Verona – minimalist painting with an edge.
Paula walks the narrow edge between 2 dimensions and something more—a horizon that reaches toward you in her work is a challenge that you want to meet. Black and white with little in between creates a stark simplicity that holds your attention, like the thin edge between today and tomorrow.
Christine Taylor Patten – soft, evocative drawings.
Christine’s drawings are like a breath of fresh mountain air. They almost assemble before your eyes, like some hidden magnetism moving particles, a swirl of atoms that assemble themselves into a visual sensation. Known for “passionate minimalism” her work speaks with her personal vocabulary of serenely resolved transitions.
“It is the invisible power of time and repetition, the tracks of my being, a membrane that catches and makes visible the movement that passes through it. What I discover has been discovered before, but not by me.”
The evocative marble sculpture of TJ Mabrey and the ethereal drawings of Christine Taylor Patton will be shown, along with the dreamlike landscapes of Ann Huston and precise color palette that characterizes the painting of Gretchen Ewert. Pieces from Nicki Marx’s mesmerizing Argus Feather series “Eilee” will share the wall with the clean edges and clear vision of Mimi Chen Ting. Sandra Lerner and Margaret Nes along with Ginger Mongiello are contributing their freshly divergent perspectives in paintings that vibrate beyond the picture plane. Paula Verona brings something almost austere, while Annell Livingston’s paintings pulse with the rhythm of color.
For 18 years, we have been a platform for historic and contemplative art at our Chimayo Trading gallery. With the acquisition of this historic building, its courtyards and charming adobe interiors, we have opened the door to a fresh perspective that becomes a platform for the high quality of contemporary art of today and tomorrow.
Enjoy exploring the far flung and vast ranging sensibilities of the exciting artists invited for the show: ELEVEN.
The doors open to the newly restored and expanded gallery with a celebration from 4:00 to 7:00 on Saturday, September 25, in conjunction with Southside Arts.