Art Shorts
D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
January 2011
Silver City & Grant County Arts Scene
The newest Yankie-Texas art gallery in downtown Silver City is Tundar Gallery & Studio, at 110 Yankie (597-0011). And the framing part of Molly Ramolla Gallery & Framing, now at 307 N. Texas, will be expanding and moving in just down Yankie Street.
Copper Quail Gallery is adding jewelry designs by G. Gordon this month. 211-A Texas St., 388-2646.
Lois Duffy Art is featuring colorful pillow creations by Susan Szajer, jewelry by Karen Lauseng and Duffy's new "Bisti Bandits" series of paintings. 211C N. Texas, 313-9631.
The Francis McCray Gallery at Western New Mexico University will host an exhibition of new media and paintings by Peter Bill, opening Jan. 21 with a reception from 5-7 p.m. and on display until Feb. 25. Bill will be giving an artist lecture at WNMU on Feb. 10.
Bill grew up in New Haven, Conn., studied at Reed College and then went to Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia, as production manager at the first English-language newspaper in Central Europe, Prognosis. He started making films, including Weekend in Sarajevo and Mirror to History, Confronting War Crimes in Bosnia, which won Best Political Documentary at the New York Film and Video Festival. Returning to the US and New York City, Bill received an artist fellowship and a free studio on Times Square, where he painted a mural on 42nd Street, continued his urban streetscape paintings, and filmed metropolis. That interactive video installation, shown at the FILE festival in Brazil, was composed of a series of panoramic time-lapse videos exploring the length of 42nd Street, from the UN to Hell's Kitchen. The past several years Bill has lived in Los Angeles, exploring the dystopian landscapes of the Los Angeles River. He's recently joined WNMU as a professor teaching new media.
Las Cruces & Mesilla Arts Scene
Original artwork by the members of the Southern Chapter of the New Mexico Watercolor Society is featured in "Vintage Views of Rural Women," continuing on display at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum. Unveiled in mid-December, the show runs through April 3. "Vintage Views of Rural Women" centers on the lives of rural women at the turn of the 19th century. The paintings provide a glimpse into the daily life, tools, possessions, pastimes and the surroundings of women during this period of New Mexico's history. 4100 Dripping Springs Road, 522-4100.
The Mesilla Valley Fine Arts Gallery will feature works by Nina Cobb Walker and Yvonne Postelle during the month of January. Walker utilizes the impasto technique of rich color to create texture in her paintings. Postelle works primarily in oils as a landscape painter. 2470-A Calle de Guadalupe, 522-2933.
A new exhibition at the Branigan Cultural Center celebrates the intimate relationship between tea and friendship. "Tea and Friendship" will open with an artists' reception on Friday, Jan. 7, and will remain on view through Jan. 29. The juried invitational show contains 21 new works in a variety of media by 15 members of the Teacup Garden Studio Group and Friends. 501 N. Main St., 541-2154.
The Tombaugh Gallery of the Unitarian Universalist Church hosts a showing of abstract paintings by J. Carey Crane and Deborah Welch, opening Jan. 9 with an artists' reception and talk from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. The exhibit continues through Feb. 4.
Carey Crane grew up on Pinellas Point in St. Petersburg, Fla., underfoot in his artist-professor father's studio. Crane earned his BFA in painting at the University of Florida. Instead of pursuing painting full-time, Crane became an exhibits fabricator and project manager for museums and a zoo — sculpting, mold-making and painting to create models, dioramas and environments. He has worked and lived in Florida, North Carolina, and Washington, DC, and is currently the Curator of Exhibits for the Las Cruces City Museums.
Crane begins a painting with loosely drawn arabesque figures in flowing acrylic paint or charcoal over washes of color. He often repeats favorite shapes as a foundation, working rapidly and improvising. He then uses collage, impasto paint, drawing and washes methodically to integrate, delineate or obscure forms.
Deborah Welch began taking art classes and painting after retiring eight years ago. Her first major accomplishment was to be juried into Prairie Art Alliance in Springfield, Ill., exhibiting her work around central Illinois for several years. During the summer of 2010 she moved to Las Cruces and became a member of the Society of Layerists in Multi-Media. Welch was introduced to Color Theory in art instruction and found her calling. Her current abstract paintings are full of color, reflecting the theory of hue contrast. 2000 S. Solano, 522-7281.
The Preston Contemporary Art Center in Mesilla will present six new exhibitions annually beginning in 2011, rather than quarterly shows. The first of these will open with a reception on Friday, Jan. 14, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. and will feature the works of Craig Cully, painting; Fernando Delgado, photography; Ed Freeman, photography; Charlotte Segall, drawing; and Leandra Spangler, sculpture. An Artists Dialogue will be held at the gallery on Saturday, Jan. 15.
Craig Cully says, "My approach to painting derives from a great appreciation for the sensuous nature of the medium and an understanding of the communicative possibilities inherent in its many manifestations." His subjects range from intimate portraits and figurative narratives depicting friends and family members that evoke an underlying psychological tension, to sets of Lilliputian paintings that examine "the preciousness of the material minutia from our everyday lives," along with still-life paintings whose imagery "operate as metaphors for loss and healing." Cully is an assistant professor of painting and drawing at New Mexico State University.