James Drake included in “Visualizing Albuquerque” exhibition
James Drake will have work included in “Visualizing Albuquerque” at the Albuquerque Museum, January 31 – May 3, 2015
At the heart of this collaboration, the Albuquerque Museum’ s exhibition titled Visualizing Albuquerque, curated by Joseph Traugott, will investigate the unique history and present of central New Mexico art and serve as an umbrella for institutional partners. Traugott says, “Albuquerque artists found their own artistic voice after World War II and transformed a western boom town into a thriving art center. This exhibition demonstrates how an influx of modern-minded Californians moved to Albuquerque and changed the city by unleashing the creativity of local artists. The resulting abstract works broke with traditional New Mexico scenes. By including women and their concerns, ethnic perspectives, popular culture subjects, and political content after 1980, Albuquerque artists synthesized an aesthetic that shunned commercial trends. Visualizing Albuquerque revels in the region’s diverse artists and reveals how their distinctive fusions have bridged aesthetic divides and cultural rifts.â€
An accompanying book, featuring essays by Traugott, will address various subjects including cycles of cultural domination, art of the region as a spiritual force, and how art acts as a healing antidote to specific challenges Albuquerqueans face.
Cathy Wright, Director of the Albuquerque Museum, states, “The Museum is honored to be hosting Joe Traugott’s ground-breaking reinterpretation of the creative narrative of the city and region. We’re also thrilled to act as hub helping perpetuate the Albuquerque art scene’s tradition of inclusion and collaboration, linking with so many other luminary arts organizations and leaders.â€
Congratulations to Matt Magee
Artist Matt Magee has been awarded a residency grant next fall at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, CT.
The Foundation has become a pilgrimage point, and is so respected today that Sir Nicholas Serota, director of Tate in London, has called it “the cream of artist’s foundations: the standard bearer.†The Albers Foundation serves as a unique center for the understanding and appreciation of the arts and of all visual experience—with the combined legacies of Josef and Anni Albers at its heart. It carries out its mission by working on exhibitions and publications—primarily focused on the art of Josef and Anni Albers— assisting with research, and sponsoring scholarships. It conserves the Alberses’ art and archives, and is open by appointment.
Fresh praise for James Drake
James Drake’s exhibition “Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash)” has travelled from it’s original venue in San Diego and is now on view at the Blanton Museum, where it continues to receive enthusiastic reviews. Click here to read the 2014-Austin Chronicle Blanton review.
Pard Morrison: Some Ghost
On Friday evening from 5 to 7 we will host an opening reception for a show of new work by the Colorado Springs artist Pard Morrison. The show, entitled “Some Ghost”, features new work in Pard’s typical media of fired pigment on aluminum in both free-standing and wall hung variations, and also works on paper. The show will run through February 21st.