Kathaleen Roberts

The puppets dance, brawl, laugh and tumble, casting dramatic shadows through lacy pinpricks of light.

Known as the wayang kulit of Indonesia, these elaborately painted figures on water buffalo hide commemorate important life cycles, ceremonies and social events, spinning classical tales with shadows and light. Some gleam with gilt or brass, their articulated limbs set in motion by carved water buffalo horn.

“Dancing Shadows, Epic Tales: Wayang Kulit of Indonesia” opens at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Museum of International Folk Art. The show marks the first time the museum collection of about 220 –– purchased in 2007 from a renowned puppeteer –&nda...

Stunned by the avant garde abstraction of Picasso and Braque, American modernists fled to New Mexico to “recharge the battery.”

In 1928, painter John Marin’s combustible metaphor described what many American modernists sought in the Southwest: a spark of creative renewal and revitalization in forging a visual language that was uniquely American.

“Recharging the Battery: American Modernists in New Mexico” showcases works by Marin, Robert Henri, George Bellows, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keeffe. The works depict New Mexico metamorphosed into an American rite of passage and catalyst for aesthetic reinvention. Culled from a private col...

When Edith and Ernest Schwartz began collecting the work of Tony Abeyta, the world-renowned Navajo painter was still a struggling artist.

“We found him on a sidewalk at Indian Market in Santa Fe one year,” Edith Schwartz said in a telephone interview from her home in Scottsdale, Ariz. “We bought one of his first paintings. We paid X dollars and took him to dinner, and you know what happened to him.”

Today, Abeyta’s acrylic on canvas diptych “Father Sky Mother Earth” is part of a gift of artworks valued at nearly $1 million to the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. DCA Secretary Stuart Ashman announced the donation of 171 pieces from the former Santa F...

Beauty lies. Focus a little more closely, and you’ll uncover a disguise for harder truths.

SITE Santa Fe’s upcoming exhibition “Pretty Is As Pretty Does” presents the works of nine artists who push the boundaries of aesthetics into a uniquely twisted beauty. Fur cracks open plaster walls like skin. Delicate silk embroidery swirls into skulls and bones. A gigantic painting of a woman’s foot reveals outrageously expensive stilettos cradling a dirtencrusted heel. Opening Feb. 13, these works gleam with a sinister charm.

“It’s a really intuitive show,” said SITE Phillips Director Laura Heon, who organized the exhibition. “It’s a show curated from my gut.”...

Beginning in the 1920s, a quiet revolution stirred in Indian boarding schools. Native American students who had been forced to learn English through Dickand-Jane primers saw their own stories transformed into lavishly illustrated books brimming with the wildlife, weaving and herd ing scenes integral to their own culture.

“Native American Picture Books of Change: The Art of Historic Children’s Editions” opens at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on Sunday, Feb. 15. The exhibition gathers together original works by Hopi, Navajo, Apache and Pueblo artists who illustrated children’s books from the 1920s through today. Originating in Denver author Rebecca Benes’ book o...