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In the abstract: Taos exhibit features over 60 artists working across multiple approaches and specialities
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The Taos Abstract Artist Collective鈥檚 second exhibition lured so many applicants that the group divided it in two.
The first show opened in October; the second opens on Friday, April 12, in the Stables Gallery at the Taos Center for the Arts and closes on April 20.
鈥淚t more than doubled our inaugural show鈥� in 2022, said Lauren Dana Smith, collective co-founder.
In the abstract: Taos exhibit features over 60 artists working across multiple approaches and specialities
The spring exhibition features 64 abstract artists working across multiple approaches and specialities.
鈥淚 noticed we had more three-dimensional work, more new media and more experimental work,鈥� Smith said.
The spring crop also includes video, textiles and mixed-media, she said.
鈥淭his year we had a lot of ceramic work,鈥� Smith added.
Questa artist Peggy Trigg鈥檚 鈥淭opping鈥� reveals her playful side with its scribbles and forms.
鈥淗er work is so abstracted with her color choices,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淚鈥檓 struck by the emotion and juxtaposition of them. She also does landscape work.鈥�
鈥淧laying with art materials has been my life鈥檚 passion,鈥� Trigg wrote in her artist鈥檚 statement. 鈥淐reating for myself or helping others to be creative has been my history.
鈥淲hen in the studio, my love of abstraction takes hold and what results is more about design than anything else,鈥� Trigg continued. 鈥淛ust 鈥榤aking stuff鈥� is my idea of living my best life.鈥�
Las Vegas, New Mexico, artist Henri Preiss created his relief out of cardboard and paper in 鈥淰isual aid for a traveling mind I.鈥�
鈥淗e鈥檚 lived abroad; he talks about the Bauhaus (the legendary German art school shuttered by Adolf Hitler), Russia; he鈥檚 lived in London,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淗is background is in stage design.鈥�
Its geometric forms offer a panoply of viewing entry points.
Preiss wrote in his statement: 鈥淭he desert areas of the Western U.S. had given me a new outlook at how to combine landscapes and visual communication symbols of many cultures to a universal language of geometric shapes and color.鈥�
Taos technical artist Michael Forte created an abstracted digital print titled 鈥淔low 661.鈥� He began working digitally in 2000.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a shift we鈥檙e seeing more and more,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a print of his digital painting. What I was struck by was the atmosphere in this piece. He gets a lot of texture. He also reveals a depth of emotion; he鈥檚 very painterly.鈥�
Forte wrote: 鈥淭hese art works are different from the digital art that is usually seen, in that my images are based on the esthetics of traditional art media, but expand the visual possibilities far beyond the capabilities of traditional art鈥� practices.
Albuquerque鈥檚 Robyn Frank is a full-time studio artist who showed her work in the collective鈥檚 inaugural exhibition. Her 鈥淟ook/ see 02鈥� consists of acrylic paint on Baltic birch panel.
The modular shapes almost appear as separate panels. She describes her work as a celebration of change.
鈥淪he has many layers of paint and hand sanding,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淪he creates an almost perfect gradient with her work.鈥�
Frank wrote in her statement: 鈥淩epeating or reflecting shapes represent the duality of self 鈥� the innate up and down of all things 鈥� or to symbolize change across time or context.鈥�
Also from Albuquerque, Anna Rotty recently completed her Master of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico. Her piece 鈥淥asis (for Emma)鈥� consists of a hand built wooden frame, a photograph on transparency film and acrylic.
The frame juts out cantilevered from the wall. Light reflects through it and casts a projection, producing the illusion of looking up from beneath the surface of reflecting water.
Rotty wrote: 鈥淟ast summer, the Rio Grande dried up in Albuquerque for the first time since the 1980s. I think about what a river is without water. I think about the forms images take and how they change with their environment.鈥�
This summer, TAAC and the Couse-Sharp Historic Site will co-produce an exhibition with co-curators/jurors Alexandra Terry, curator of contemporary art at the New Mexico Museum of Art Vladem Contemporary, and Davison Packard Koenig, executive director of the Couse-Sharp Historic Site.
