Backstory: “Prey to the Pursuit” by Reyes Padilla
Reyes Padilla is a painter of sound. In short, because of his synesthesia, he can experience sounds visually. He listens to music and paints the music he sees. The paintings he creates are possible because of this remarkable and unique ability. His new exhibit Synful Norteño at the Lapis Room in Old Town is an evolution and maturing of this approach to painting developed through personal work. The results are astounding, if you have the sense to see them.
Thoughts on the Untitled Work by Daisy Quezada Ureña
For last in our four-part series covering the Albuquerque exhibition of Son de Alla’ y Son de Aca’, we highlight the untitled work by Daisy Quezada Ureña on display at Exhibit/208. As with the other pieces we have reviewed, “Alien Species” by Eric J. Garcia at El Chante: Casa De Cultura; “Santa Librada” by Brandon Maldonado at the South Broadway Cultural Center and Elena Baca’s “Whirl(wind)”at Tortuga Gallery, we are sticking with the “Here” portion of artists in this show with New Mexican artist Daisy Quezada Ureña. I will keep my thoughts on this piece brief.
Backstory: "Love of Mine" by Paul Hunton
Paul Hunton is a singer and songwriter in Albuquerque. With his band Dust City Opera, he has crafted songs that have a bit of a dark side to them, masked often by a musical current that doesn’t linger long. You may be reminded that sometimes bad things happen at the circus, but soon enough the elephants and acrobats are back in the center ring showing off their stuff.
Thoughts on “Alien Species” by Eric J. Garcia
For the third part of our four-part series on the exhibit Son de Alla’ y Son de Aca’ we stay with a New Mexico artist, Eric j. Garcia, and spend some time with a work that is very much a product of New Mexico, “Alien Species,” currently on exhibit at El Chante: Casa De Cultura.
Much has been written about Garcia lately in local publications and deservingly so. I see no need to rehash what they have said, but clearly his body of work is both thoughtful and accessible, a rare combination. In “Alien Species” we again see these qualities. The point is made plain; cows are the aliens here in the Southwest.
Thoughts on Eyeshine by Adrian Pijoan
Adrian Pijoan is not an apologist ufologist. He’s been at this kind of stuff for a while as host of the YouTube series Alien Hour, in character as paranormal researcher Dr. Howard. In his exhibit at the Harwood Art Center, Pijoan uses the paranormal palette – Aliens, Bigfoot, Mothman – to tell personal stories much like a retablo painter renders the saints and for many of the same reasons. They all form the characters in stories we tell each other here in New Mexico. The truth is, after all, out here.
Thoughts on “Santa Librada” by Brandon Maldonado
For the second part of our four-part series on the exhibit Son de Alla’ y Son de Aca’ we again stay with an Albuquerque artist Brandon Maldonado and take a look at his “Santa Librada” at the South Broadway Cultural Center.
Much has been said about this venerated, bearded woman here in New Mexico making this piece an excellent choice for inclusion in this exhibit. I don’t want to dive too far into Santa Librada’s story here because, like the stories of all saints, it is filled with so many diverging origins and ever-evolving interpretations (as well as the fact she is not an actual saint according to the Catholic Church) that this particular work could be easily swamped.
I Speak Through My Cello by Keely Mackey
Keely Mackey is a cellist who performs under the name Celloquacious. Her new album I Speak Through My Cello debuts this Friday with an interdisciplinary (read: aerialists, dancers and yoginis) performance at Fusion. It centers on the elements and it is meant to be healing. It is meant to be healing in a way that we all need now more than ever she says.
Thoughts on Elena Baca’s “Whirl(wind)”
I’ve always thought that Pema Chodron’s suggestion to start where you are could be applied to just about anything, if for no other reason than it requires no travel time. When it comes to the ambitious 60-artist, four-venue exhibit Son de Alla’ y Son de Aca’, starting with a work from here also makes sense. Artists from Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas have efforts to show here in Albuquerque at Exhibit/208, the South Broadway Cultural Center, El Chante and where we begin our four-part look at this exhibit at Tortuga Gallery, with Albuquerque-native Elena Baca’s “Whirl(wind)”.
Anna Martinez Has Nothing Nice to Say
Anna Martinez made it plain in the first poem she read after being named Albuquerque’s new poet laureate — “Take nice and shove it.”
Martinez has lived her life speaking out, speaking her truth and speaking to defend the truths of others. Now that she is the city's poet, she has no plans to change. Not two months into her tenure she is already getting hate mail. Imagine a poet getting hate mail about her words. Those must be some extraordinarily powerful words.
Thoughts on Legacies by Sam Elkind
Contemporary landscape photography is often plagued by the type of photographer that heads out into the American West to find the exact spot where Ansel Adams or some other such person made a famous photograph. They will seek out the exact tripod holes in the ground (sometimes even finding them there in the dirt left by some previous photo-geocacher with a similar goal) in order to recreate the same photo. Don’t think for a moment that it is like Hunter S. Thompson retyping The Great Gatsby to get the feel of the words. It is lamer.
Thoughts on the Photography of Lee Marmon
The new retrospective exhibit of photographer Lee Marmon’s work, Between Two Worlds, at the Albuquerque Museum is a tribute to a photographer who was pivotal in the shifting of perceptions of Native Americans that began after WWII and continues to this day. While the impact Marmon had on how Native Americans were seen in the mid-20th century is undeniable, the remarkable thing about Marmon’s photography itself may be how unremarkable the photographs actually are. I say that not to run the man down, but to highlight what truly makes Marmon a remarkable photographer.
Thoughts on the Breaking Bad Sculpture
It was a lovefest at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Friday for the unveiling of the Walter White and Jesse Pinkman statue and why not? Breaking Bad was transformative for Albuquerque. It changed the way we saw ourselves and the world saw us. It made the film industry in this town. People bought houses with the money they made working on the show. Locals flocked to be background actors so they could point themselves out to their friends on the TV. While there are critics of the statue, in a city where a guy got shot two years ago over a dispute about the kind of statues we should have here, things could be more controversial.
“Marzipan” by Reika McNish
Reika McNish is a dancer and choreographer in Albuquerque this week to take part in the 10-day Keshet Makers Space residency program at the Keshet Center for the Arts. The pace to create is breakneck, culminating in a performance of fresh work by the end of the first week. It is clear that the six dancers chosen must be focused, a quality that comes through in McNish’s work. This is thoughtful, contemporary dance. The Nutcracker it is not.
"A Declaration of Sanity" by Jesse Littlebird
Jesse Littlebird is a painter of big paintings. Prolific, contemplative and an unabashed fan of Basquiat, you can see the influence of the New York painter on his work, but Littlebird is clearly from here. His paintings draw from a pallet of symbols recognizable as of this place as do many of his ideas. While describing where he got the idea for the title piece of his current show at the Lapis Room (and the subject of this Backstory), "A Declaration of Sanity," he said he was on the bus when a guy dumped his notebook on the floor and it looked like that. A classic scene that could have been anywhere, but it was in Albuquerque.
“Mizz Biloba” by Jennifer DeSantis
Jennifer DeSantis is a multi-media artist. To hear her describe her work, it is clear that the multiple media that make that a fitting description evolved organically. Her work begins as a two-dimensional collage but then comes the add-ons. First, the augmented reality, then the wearables. The Albuquerque Courier’s editor Clarke Conde spoke with DeSantis at her exhibit at Nob Hill’s Mariposa Gallery about her work for this edition of Backstory. The following is an edited version of the story of “Mizz Biloba.”
Albuquerque Starbucks Organizing
The workers at the Rio Grande and I-40 Starbucks filed their intent to unionize on Monday citing “labor cuts, little to no job security, and a severely high turnover rate leading to understaffed shifts and unlivable pay.” At a time of massive profits, Starbucks has failed to consider the needs of the workers at their Albuquerque store despite public promises by company CEO Howard Schultz to do better. With over 180 Starbucks across the country already petitioning for union representation, the workers at the Rio Grande and I-40 Starbucks are the first in the State of New Mexico to seek to organize a union.
Don’t Call It A First Step
People kept pouring through the doors of the new International District library today for the long-awaited grand opening. It got to the point where I thought for sure the firemen eating popsicles from the food truck stationed outside would intervene and order the mayor to prematurely cut the red ribbon that divided the space in two for the ceremony. The location was the old Caravan East on Central in a neighborhood that continues to put behind it the days when it graced TVs nationwide as Albuquerque’s “War Zone.”
Thoughts on Remnants
Working with found objects, that is objects found in the natural world, or more specifically, dead objects, is a tradition that finds virtue in its ability to directly reconsider the object’s original purpose. The latest exhibit at Albuquerque’s Open Space Visitor Center brings together two veterans of the craft, Carolyn Berry and Margy O’Brien, whose paring was described as two people who “thought it was the most natural thing in the world to examine roadkill and pluck butterflies from car grills in parking lots.”
Thoughts on Surface 2022
The Harwood Art Center’s Surface show this year again focuses on what has been dubbed “emerging” artists in New Mexico. I’ve always found the word “emerging” an awkward description of a time in someone’s career, but the name has found its footing and does the job of conveying the circumstance so I guess we are stuck with it until something else comes along. Let not the name, nor my thoughts on it, cast aspersions on the artists participating in this year’s Surface: Emerging Artists of New Mexico exhibit.
Albuquerque’s New Poet Laureate
Forgoing fumata bianca, the Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program Selection Committee with Mayor Keller’s approval announced Albuquerque’s sixth poet laureate, Anna C. Martinez, during a ceremony this evening at the Albuquerque Museum. Speaking of the city’s poet laureate program, Mayor Keller said, “What a beautiful reflection of the city it is.” Martinez is set to represent the city in all things poetic for a two-year term starting July 1. Her first book of poetry, Pura Puta, A Poetic Memoir, is out now from Casa Urraca Press.