Explore Archives: Must See Art

Indian Market August 23 and 24th on the Plaza!

Indian Market is Santa Fe’s biggest event of the year. Approximately 100,000 people come from around the world to see more than 1,200 artists from a hundred or so tribes. The rules for entry are strict and the quality, especially among the traditional arts, is high. The best quillwork, jewelry, pottery, baskets and other media are presented directly to the public by the artists.

It’s also a blast. The Plaza is packed starting at six am on Saturday, the mutton and frybread are cooking and participants, buyers and those just looking are dressed to the nines.

And that’s just the official scene. Around town, exhibits...

Fauve, Invigorated: The Paintings of Jason Berger

Jason Berger is one of the last painter’s painter. On a lovely afternoon this July, I had the chance to speak with this charming, intense eighty-three-year-old while he smoked an old and elegant Meerschaum pipe. As we sat under a tree on the patio of Ernesto Mayans Gallery at 601 Canyon Road (currently featuring Jason Berger – The Master at 80), Berger looked at me quizzically as he decided whether my questions and comments were well-founded or simply silly.

Berger was born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1924. A clever student, he became known early on for his puns and wickedly funny use of language. Wh...

July 18, Fritz Scholder at IAIA

Nearly one hundred works of art by the late Fritz Scholder are included in Fritz Scholder: An Intimate Look at the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, (108 Cathedral Place, July 18, Reception for Indian Market, August 20, 4 – 6 pm). “As one of IAIA’s most illustrious professors from its founding decade, the 1960s,” writes Curator Joseph Sanchez, “Scholder is known for deconstructing the myth of the American Indian, and constantly examining the concept of identity. Considered controversial at first because of his realist take on Indian life, his contribution to the success of contemporary Indian Art and his influence...

Forrest Moses and Joe Ramiro Garcia at LewAllen Contemporary
129 West Palace Avenue
Reception, July 4, 5:30 – 7:30 pm

On July 4, be sure to go by LewAllen Contemporary before going to a barbeque, to the fireworks or to The Marriage of Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera. Two very different exhibits at the gallery there provide tasty fare for the eyes.

Forrest Moses’ monotypes push the artist’s explorations of nature’s forms and rhythms to the forefront of the image. Moses’ series Forest Impressions distills his marvellously naturalistic renderings of landscape into the sensations that underlie them. Like John Henry Twachtman, and other American I...

Lucky Number Seven opens at Site Santa Fe (1606 Paseo de Peralta, Sunday, June 22, 12-5 pm)

Ah! Biennials! Since the creation of the Venice Biennial in 1895, the art world and the Beau Monde have been on a circuit through an increasingly large number of venues. During the 1980s and 90s, the biennial format boomed; all of a sudden, there were biennials not just in Europe and New York but throughout Latin America, in Istanbul, in Taipei, in Shanghai, in Dakkar and, not least in Santa Fe. But, came various arguments from the left, the right and the curatorial classes: Who is shown at these venues? And why? Should we really pat ourselves on the back for our post-colon...