D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
January 2012
Arts Exposure
Arts Scene
The latest area art happenings.
Silver City & Grant County
The Grant County Art Guild will present an "Old Masters Art Exhibit" for the month of January in the conference room at the Silver City Public Library, opening Jan. 4. The show is an exercise in duplicating the art and style of old masters in painting. Barbara Smith, Lois Delong, Roz Springer and other guild members will study an old master painting and copy or replicate it. To give the exhibit an interactive twist, visitors will be given the opportunity to match the artwork with the old master.
Mimbres artist Michael Murphy is the newest featured artist at Ginny Wolf Studio & Gallery. 108 W. Yankie St., 313-5709, www.ginnywolf.wordpress.com.
Twin Sisters Cycling has turned its front corner into a mini-gallery to showcase artists who don't produce enough to warrant a regular gallery showing. Works by Howard Reinert will be featured through the month of February. 303 N. Bullard St., 538-3388.
Las Cruces & Mesilla
The Tombaugh Gallery of the Unitarian Universalist Church presents "Friends-Art-Food," works by Cally Williams and friends, on view through Jan. 27. The theme of friendship is evident in collaborative pieces while the separate pieces show the strength and talent of the individual artists in media including painting, pottery, weaving, silk painting, jewelry, photography and printmaking. Group members are Cally Williams, Michelle Arterburn, Kathryn Holmes, Jessica Kurtz, Steve Hornung and Elaine Querry. 2000 S. Solano, 522-7281.
Appropriately, the final show at the Preston Contemporary Art Center in Mesilla will be "The Last Picture Show," a juried regional exhibition of the works of 64 artists from the Southern New Mexico/El Paso region. The show will open Friday, Jan. 13, with a reception from 6:30-8:30 p.m. and run concurrently with the center's November Exhibition through Feb. 17. The center and the Mesilla Valley Film Society will partner to screen Peter Bogdanovich's film, The Last Picture Show, at the Fountain Theatre in Mesilla on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 3:45 p.m.
Artists from Las Cruces in the exhibition include Jacob Albers, Barbara Armstrong, Julie Basile, Mary Beagle, Shelley Black, Carl Coker, Yanick D'hooge, Aubrey de Cheubell, Bob Diven, Penny Duncklee, Myles Erwin, Meg Freyermuth, Bill Gardner, Linda Gendall, William Giles, Peter Goodman, Michael C. Gutierrez, Glenn Holgersen, Lynn Insolia, Will Keener, Tomi LaPierre, Joyce Macrorie, Katie McLane, Bob Mitchell, Paul Neff, John Northcutt, Louis Ocepek, Or-Dima, Martha Randall Brown, Frank Rimbach, Susan Rivera, Jim Rodgers, Joshua Rose, Annika Rundberg, Jill Somoza, Jacklyn St. Aubyn, Mel Stone, Ouida Touchon, Roy van der Aa, Scott Weaver, Jean Wilkey and Danielle Wood.
Also included are Silver City artists Jean-Robert Be'ffort, Victoria Chick, Lois Duffy, Rebecca Rands Eisenhauer, Rod Rees, John Rogers and Zoe Wolfe; Mesilla artists Verna Dawson and Tony Lazorko; Mesilla Park artists Linda Hagen and Bree Lamb; Truth or Consequences artists Katharine Kreisher and Olin West; and El Paso artists Ginny Fischer, César Iván and Gildalorena Martinez. Other New Mexico artists included are Ricardo Chavarria, Anthony; Iva Morris, Vaguita; Laura Jean Schneider, Luna; Douglas Stanton, Carrizozo; Deborah Welch, Alamogordo; and Nolan Winkler, Hillsboro. 1755 Avenida de Mercado, 523-8713, www.prestoncontemporaryart.com.
A group show, "Mixed Nutz" will be featured through Feb. 4 at Rokoko Gallery, with a reception Jan. 13, 6-9 p.m. 1785 Avenida de Mercado, 405-8877, www.rokokoart.com.
Snoopy's role in the space race will be featured at the Las Cruces Museum of Natural History, in a new exhibit, "To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA," Jan. 14-May 6. Just before the first man landed on the moon, Charlie Brown and Snoopy soared through space with NASA's Apollo 10 mission in May 1969. The exhibit examines the history of Apollo 10 and the Peanuts characters' role in that flight, including Charles Schulz's artwork for the strip.
Schulz's involvement with NASA started in 1968 when he was approached by NASA with a request to use Snoopy as their safety mascot. The Silver Snoopy Award program was instituted to improve the safety record of NASA employees and contractors. Snoopy has been on the job for 40-plus years and continues to this day in his role as NASA's safety mascot.
The crew of Apollo 10 chose to nickname their command and lunar modules "Charlie Brown" and "Snoopy." The flight of Apollo 10 in May 1969 was the "dress rehearsal" for the lunar landing. Astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan piloted "Snoopy" within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface as they scouted the landing area for Apollo 11, while John Young orbited the moon in the command module "Charlie Brown."
The exhibit, organized by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, Calif., also features NASA's Silver Snoopy Award program, a Silver Snoopy pin that was flown to the moon, and a children's creative play space. 700 S. Telshor Blvd. in the Mesilla Valley Mall, 522-3120, www.las-cruces.org.
The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum will feature "The World Around Us: The Artwork of Linda Hagen" in its Arts Corridor through April 1, with a reception Jan. 19, 6-8 p.m. The Las Cruces artist's 33 paintings, mostly oil, reflect her love of horses and the outdoors. This exhibition demonstrates the connection between the land, the people and the animals that are part of the landscape. Originally from Ohio, Hagen captures the tough and enduring agricultural lifestyle in her work, as well as the beauty of the American Southwest. 4100 Dripping Springs Road, 522-4100, www.nmfarmandranchmuseum.org.
Featured artists this month at the Mesilla Valley Fine Arts Gallery are Ruth Ann Sugarman and Yvonne Postelle, with a reception on Saturday, Jan. 21, 1-3 p.m. 2470-A Calle de Guadalupe, 522-2933, www.mesillavalleyfinearts.com.
Members of "Meow Wolf" will give a talk about their "Glitteropolis" exhibit on Jan. 25 at 5:30 p.m. in NMSU's Health and Social Sciences Auditorium. The interactive installation continues on display at the NMSU Art Gallery through Feb. 18. 646-2545.
Except as noted, all phone numbers are area code 575.
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