Museum of New Mexico Media Center Press Release

Alcoves 20/20 #3 opens Saturday, February 15, 2020 at New Mexico Museum of Art

New Mexico Museum of Art

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 06, 2020

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(Santa Fe, New Mexico) – Alcoves 20/20 #3, the third installment of the New Mexico Museum of Art series of exhibitions – Alcoves 20/20  opens to the public on Saturday, February 15, 2020, and will be on exhibit through April 13, 2020. A public Reception will be held on Friday, March 6, 2020, from 5 p.m.–7 p.m.  A conversation with the artists on Friday, April 3, 2020, starting at 5:30 p.m. Both events will be at the New Mexico Museum of Art, located at 107 W Palace Ave, in Santa Fe.

As always, the Alcoves 20/20 exhibitions provide an eclectic cross-section of work by five contemporary New Mexican artists. Alcoves 20/20 #3 features artwork by Debra Baxter, Amy Ellingson, Munson Hunt, Jonathan Parker, and Todd Ryan White.

Alcove 20/20 #3 artist information

Artist Debra Baxter aptly describes her uncanny work as follows: “My work speaks of power plays, vulnerability, and the body. Informed by a feminist discourse, it merges imagery and materials of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.” Cast bronze, crystals, and reclaimed objects are combined into sculptural forms that are simultaneously fierce and sentimental.  In Baxter’s work, the human-made is combined with natural objects to transcend literal references, bringing us to a place of metaphor and emotion. Baxter’s works are included in a number of public collections including the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Albuquerque Museum.

 Computer-generated imagery is the source material for all of Amy Ellingson’s exquisitely crafted work. Included is Variation: Bridge (white, black, pink), a 50 x 156” encaustic painting on panels and two graphite-on-paper drawings,  Schematic: Variation: Bridge (white, black, pink) No. 1 and No. 2. All three artworks are derived from the same computer data, and all three painstakingly hand executed, affirming the primacy of the artist’s craft and skill in the creation of an artwork.  Amy Ellingson states, “My work is an attempt to confront the enormity of contemporary virtual experience while asserting the humanness of painting.”  Also on view are two recently completed lithographs and a series of small sculptural objects.

Munson Hunt creates spare drawings and sculptural shapes that derive inspiration from natural materials and form.  Burned and burnished wood, cast bronze, and graphite drawings are included in her Alcove installation. The work draws inspiration from the type and source of the wood used, the stories and histories specific to each being significant to the final work. Hunt received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and studied sculpture with Linda Benglis.  Her work is in several private collections as well as the collections of the New Mexico Museum of Art and the New Mexico Arts Commission.

 Deriving his compositions from the physical qualities of his materials Jonathan Parker makes his  “sewn paintings” by cutting, sewing, and stretching painted canvas over wooden forms.  Paying careful attention to the qualities of his materials the fabric and paint act as distilled fields of color while the stitching visually and physically pulls Parker’s discrete compositions together. Both sophisticated and quirky in presentation, the small sewn shapes are a delight for the eye.

The ink-on-paper drawings and wooden “wrong boards” by artist Todd Ryan White could answer the question, “What if Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer was fully enmeshed in the culture of Heavy Metal music?”  His finely rendered drawings are a mashup of references that cross centuries with mythical and the mundane, and the sacred and profane intertwined throughout the compositions. In Ryan’s drawing  A Universal Life, unicorns, goat heads, snakes and dragons occupy the same landscape as smiley faces, camping tents and turtles.

Hear directly from the artists about their work on April 3, 2020, at 5:30 when the Museum of Art hosts an in-gallery conversation with the artists.

Alcoves 20/20 #3 February 15, 2020 – April 12, 2020

Debra Baxter Amy Ellingson Munson Hun Jonathan Parke Todd Ryan White

Opening Reception Alcoves 20/20 #3 Friday, March 6, 2020, 5:30 p.m. Related Programs Conversation with the Alcoves 20/20 #3 Artists

Friday, February 3, 2020, 5:30 p.m.

An informal conversation with the artists exhibiting in the museum alcoves is a combination of exhibition walk-through and dialog with the artists. It is open to all, and all are encouraged to participate in the conversation.

Advance schedule – Alcoves 20/20 #4-6

Alcove 20/20 # 4 April 18, 2020 – June 14, 2020 Public Reception May 1, 2020, 5:00 – 7:00 In gallery conversation with the Alcove 20/20 #4 Artists May 15, 2020, 5:30 – 6:30 PM

Alcove 20/20 #5 June 20, 2020 – August 16, 2020 Public Reception June 19, 2020, 5:00 – 7:00 In gallery conversation with the Alcove 20/20 # 5 June 26, 2020, 5:30 – 6:30 PM

Alcove 20/20 #6 August 22, 2020 – October 18, 2020 Public Reception August 21, 2020, 5:00 – 7:00 PM In gallery conversation with the Alcove 20/20 # 6 September 11, 2020, 5:30 – 6:30 PM More about Alcoves 20/20

The Alcoves Series was relaunched in March of 2012 and has consisted of rotating exhibitions every few years which focus on new work by contemporary New Mexican artists. Since 2012, 90 New Mexican artists have exhibited their work. Alcoves 20/20 will feature work by 30 new artists. The series is curated by Merry Scully, the Museum of Art’s curator of contemporary art, and follows a format which derives from the founding of the New Mexico Museum of Art in 1917.

Alcoves 20/20 will consist of a series of six exhibitions featuring five artists at a time. Curator Merry Scully said of the series, “There are so many excellent artists who have made New Mexico their home. The Alcoves Series gives us a chance to focus on a few of these artists and to generate conversation around their work.” This conversation will be made possible through the inclusion of a public reception and in-gallery conversation with the artists.

Artists from across the state and in all stages of their careers have been included in the series. Such internationally recognized artists as Harmony Hammond and Susan York have exhibited works, as well as emerging artists, including Michael Borowski and Jared Weiss. The fast turnover and focus on what the artists are making at present resulted in many artists trying new things and creating new works and installations specifically for their Alcove. In addition to the artists included in the exhibitions, dozens more were considered, and many visits to galleries and artists’ studios took place over the course of the past two years.

Nearly one hundred years ago, the New Mexico Museum of Art was built as part of a program to encourage artists to come live and work in New Mexico, and to this day the state continues to be a haven for serious working artists.

Alcoves 20/20 is supported in part by the Friends of Contemporary Art + Photography.

 

About the New Mexico Museum of Art

The New Mexico Museum of Art is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, under the leadership of the Museum of New Mexico Board of. Programs and exhibits are supported by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and its generous donors.

Founded in 1917 as the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico, the New Mexico Museum of Art has been presenting innovative arts programming in downtown Santa Fe for more than a century.  At its founding, the museum collected and exhibited artworks by noted artists from New Mexico and elsewhere. This tradition continues today with a wide array of exhibitions and a significant collection featuring work from the world’s leading artists. Today, as at its founding, the Museum of Art strives to bring the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico. Museum exhibitions and programs are supported by donors to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and its Director’s Leadership Fund and Exhibitions Development Fund.

107 West Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico, just off the downtown Plaza in Santa Fe, NM 87501.   24 Hr. Recorded Message: (505) 476-5072; Front desk: (505) 476-5041. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April, closed Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Events, news releases, and images about activities at the History Museum and Palace of the Governors and other in divisions of the Department of Cultural Affairs can be accessed at media.newmexicoculture.org.

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