A City’s Art Pride
World Sculpture News
Summer 2016

The inaugural edition of The Santa Fe Art Project showcases the most cutting-edge artwork of the Southwest's cultural capital. Eight Santa Fe curators Fea­ture over 50 established and emerging artists representing the best of the city’s art scene.

The Santa Fe Art Project is a multi-faceted presentation of visual arts creativity in The City Different. Over an eight­ week period, a series of ro­tating exhibitions of painting, sculpture, drawing, photogra­phy, video, and digital media are accompanied by gallery talks, panel discussions, and other public events.

The first of a series of three exhibitions for The Santa Fe Art Project was September 9 through 24, 2016. Part I featured artists Craig Duncan, Marina Eskeets, Matt King, Phát Lê, Heather McGill, Dylan Pommer, and Kade Twist. A separate presentation by guest curator John McKissick included Nicholas Chiarella, Caley Dennis, Amelia Fugee, Christian Michael Filardo, Jamie Hamilton, Angelo Harmsworth, Lindsey Kennedy, Drew Lenihan, and Lara Nickel.

The second exhibition will be September 30 through October 15, 2016, with an opening reception on September 30 at David Richard Gallery. This pre­sentation will feature artists Chris Collins, Anne Farrell, Caity Kennedy, Garrett Koch, Daisy Quezada, Martin Rixe, Nico Salazar, and Chase Stafford. A separate presenta­tion, Women’s Work, by guest curators Jennifer Joseph and Chris Collins of the Santa Fe Collective, will include Sydney Cooper, Jennifer Joseph, Thais Mather, Terri Rolland, and Lucrecia Troncoso.

The third and final part will be October 21 through November 6 with an open­ing reception on October 21 at David Richard Gallery. This presentation will Feature artists Scott Anderson, Erik Hubert Gellert, Katherine Lee, Daniel McCoy, Ryan Robertson, Cara Romero, and Jack Randall Slentz. A separate presentation by guest curators Crockett Bodelson and Sandra Wong of SCUBA will include Susan Begy, Andrew Cimelli, Derek Chan, Cheri Ibes, Parker Jennings, Jessamyn Lovell, Ric Lum, Kristen Roles, and SCUBA Collective.

"The cultural history of Santa Fe for the past 100 years is closely entwined with modern art history," notes the project's director David Eichholtz. "The city has long been home to many of the world's renowned artists and The Santa Fe Art Project aims to continue this amazing story of visual creativity . ... The partici­pation by several of the city’s collectives and independent curators brings a fresh perspec­tive to the Santa Fe art scene."

David Eichholtz and Richard Barger jointly manage and run David Richard Gallery, LLC. Since its incep­tion the gallery has produced museum-quality exhibitions of Post-War abstraction and in 2015 launched DR Projects to provide a platform For young­er artists from Santa Fe and beyond working in a brood spectrum of imagery and media. Eichholtz and Barger, principals, co-directors and co-curators of The Santa Fe Art Project, founded this project to showcase the large number of talented emerging artists, cre­ative curators, and artist col­lectives in Santa Fe.

Howard Rutkowski has over 35 years experience in the international art industry, organizing and curating major exhibitions for museums and galleries across Asia, the US, Europe, and the Middle East. He is currently assisting with curatorial projects For The Santa Fe Art Project as well as assisting David Richard Gallery and DR Projects with select programming and cura­torial initiatives.

Jennifer Joseph and Chris Collins are the co-Found­ers of the Santa Fe Collective, providing an exhibition and selling platform For artists living and working in the city. A resident of Santa Fe since 1991, Joseph is also the found­er of the Trinket Company, featuring jewelry and design. Sculptor Collins received his BFA from the University of Montevallo and an MFA from the Memphis College of Art. He is currently an instructor at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

The guiding light behind the Santa Fe collective Radical Abacus is independent cura­tor John McKissick, whose industrial building hosts a constant stream of installation, music, and performance work. McKissick is also a SITE Santa Fe Guide in the Education Deportment and archival assistant For the Nancy Holt-Robert Smithson Foundation.

Sandra Wong and Crockett Bodelson are a col­laborative pair of artists who established Caldera in Santa Fe in 2011 and later took their collective efforts to New York and bock as SCUBA.

Founded in 1610, Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the oldest state capitol in the United States. Visual arts culture and cultural tourism hove been port of the city's Fabric since the early days of the 20th century, even before New Mexico was admitted as the 47th State in the Union in 1912. Indeed, the Museum of New Mexico was Founded in 1909. Individual artists have always been part of the vibrant and forward­ thinking art community.

From the time in 1904 when Carlos Vierra arrived from New York, later joined by such important and in­fluential artists as Marsden Hartley, George Bellows, John Sloon, and Randall Dovey (all of whom exhibited at the seminal 1913 Armory Show in New York,) Santa Fe has been home to many local and trans­planted artists who contribut­ed and continue to contribute to the visual arts landscape. The latter port of the 20th cen­tury has seen the community expand with creative luminar­ies such as John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Lucy Lippard, Harmony Hammond, Lorry Bell, Ken Price, Lynda Benglis, Deborah Butterfield, Judy Chicago, Richard Tuttle, Terry Winter, and Woody and Steina Vasulka, among others.

These trends and tradi­tions continue today with a new generation of artists, both those from Santa Fe as well as others drawn to the city's creative vibe. Independent curatorial projects such as Santa Fe Collective, SCUBA, Radical Abacus, Strangers Collective, and the ambitious artists group, Meow Wolf, are providing platforms For emerg­ing talent that hos begun to receive critical attention from around the world.

In recognition of Santa Fe’s historic role in nurtur­ing creative talent, UNESCO awarded it the honor of a global 'Creative City' in 2005.

Partial funding was granted from the City of Santa Fe Lodgers Tax.
For more in­formation please contact The Santa Fe Art Project, 1570 Pacheco Street, A 1, Santa Fe, NM 87505; tel: (1-505) 780 8542; website: www.thesantafeortproject.com.