Kathryn M. Davis

The A.F.I., Mexico’s Federal Agency of Investigations, was modeled after the F.B.I. with the aim of halting, or at least reducing, drug cartel activities throughout our neighbor country but especially along the Mexican border with los Estados Unidos, and specifically the Ciudad de Juárez just over the line from El Paso, Texas. These cartels have become exceptionally powerful through the highly effective tool of terrorism, mostly in the form of torture and murder, supported by huge amounts of cash, plus the addictive nature of the goodies they traffic in.

If you’ve seen the 1999 video The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, narrated by Robert Redford, you’ve heard Michael Stearns’s music. The score for Chaco Canyon was an enormously significant factor in the success of this legendary account of Anna Sofaer’s discovery of an ancient spiraling petroglyph known as the Sun Dagger. The narrative—through its stunning visuals and remarkable sound track—engulfs viewers in the thoroughly believable sensation of having slipped through a wormhole nearly 1,000 years into the past.

When it comes to jewelry by Hollie Ambrose, say adiós to the linear and hola to the sculptural. Bid adieu to precious gems and bon jour to vintage French buttons, recycled watch dials, and flea-market glass. Truly, with Ambrose at the designing helm, you really can’t count anything out with finality. For this artist, everything “has a compelling history, a certain energy—I like to think about who could have worn” the items she recycles into her work.

Like many Mexican-born Catholics, the young mother crossed the border into the United States without the proper papers. Traveling up the arduous and historic Camino Real from Mexico City, she arrived in Santa Fe on August 15, 2008, the Feast Day of the Assumption of the Blessed VirginMary. Known as Guadalupe, she had been scheduled to arrive in this country earlier in the summer, but torturous red tape halted her journey temporarily in July, despite several sponsors who vouched for her good character.

Curator Lance M. Fung’s biennial is “about community,” because that’s a “stronger message than simply filling an exhibition with ‘the best [artists from the biennial circuit],’” he told us at the press preview for Lucky Number Seven. He continued with this cheery assurance: his show is “about hope, collaboration, and community.” Somehow nearly everything La Fung says reminds me of Barack Obama’s campaign speeches. I’m an Obama mama, but “Yes We Can” does not an art exhibition make.

Three days later, after an undoubtedly exhausting weekend for Fung and the whole global crew of institutional directors, artists, staff, and art sycophants, the fey c...