Art Galleries – Page 3

Oct

#Rezheartwork Hosts First Artist Retreat

By Meek Watchman

During the summer, amid the pandemic, Navajo communities were faced with a great deal of hardship. A community response was created to combat daily curfews and weekend lockdowns and “Rez heart work” was born.

  The launch of Rezheartwork began with a call for donations to assemble art kits to Navajo youth. Within one week, Rezheartwork successfully raised over $5K in donations. It purchased art supplies and distributed over 350 art kits on July 2, 2020 in Window Rock, Arizona with a drive through pick-up in the parking lot of the Navajo Nation Museum.  

Since the success of its art supply distribution, the need for art and urgency to create spaces for art has become apparent. Because of the generosity from its donors, Rezheartwork has been able to continue its efforts, including summer online art contests, “mini-grants” to support young artists, and most recently art retreats.

On Saturday, September 19, 2020, Rezheartwork hosted its very first “Art Retreat” for female/two-spirit youth artists ages 9-13. To make an Art Retreat possible, Rezheartwork youth artists donated their artwork to help with fundraising. Initially, we set a modest goal of raising $975.00. To our surprise, we raised over $2K within one week. In total, we sold 23 art prints and raised $1.5K in direct donations. We were happy to see the art community in action and help our artists achieve a milestone–selling their artwork for the first time. We even shipped art prints to New York City! We were delighted to receive generous support from Dizzy Magazine, based in Brooklyn, NY. Through Dizzy’s network, we were able to secure over $500. We truly thank Dizzy Magazine for its time and resources.

With $2K we put on a fantastic first Art Retreat. We catered the event, hired additional artists and provided all supplies for the participating artists. Each youth artist also received a small stipend of $50. Additionally, through this project, Rezheartwork was able to support seven Navajo-owned businesses and hire two Navajo instructors. We are so happy our funding created opportunities for our peers and supporters, including: 4Your Plate Only (Navajo-owned catering company), Kaalogii Kisses (Navajo-owned Art Business), Hannah Manuelito Photography (Navajo-owned business), Evonne Yazzie (local Navajo seamstress), and Roy Hubbell (Navajo-owned business).

For our first Art Retreat, we came together early Saturday morning at ART123 Gallery in downtown Gallup. We had the entire gallery to ourselves and opened with breakfast and a wellness workshop. Our artists ate pink pancakes with fresh berries, chocolate and cream, then went right into a wellness workshop lead by Meek Watchman, poet/aerialist.

After several giggles from learning the “pigeon” and “seal” poses, our youth artists were ready for their online acrylic painting workshop with Deon Mitchell of Kaalogii Kisses. Deon was an absolute pleasure to work with. During our retreat, we learned that it was Deon’s 94th paint workshop she hosted. Regardless that Deon was in another city, it felt as if she were right there in person. Deon’s delicate guidance and humor ushered an energy the youth artists could relate to and learn from.

 Then, we went right into lunch and our Artist Talk. While the artists ate lunch, we listened to the incredibly talented Hannah Manuelito, photographer/artist, as shared her journey and how she found herself through art.

We closed the Retreat with a stretching circle and welcomed parents to join. We ate cupcakes and cookies as each artist was presented with gifts, an award and roses for their accomplishments and growth during the retreat.  

Ahe’hee’ everyone involved in this project, especially Jordan Bowman for photographing the entire event. it was an amazing experience for our youth artists.

For more information about Rezheartwork, including how to donate, please visit: www.meekwatchman/rezheartwork

To contact:
rezheartwork@gmail.com

To send art supplies:
Rezheartwork
c/o Meek Watchman
PO Box 10
Window Rock, AZ 86515 

All photos by Jordan Bowman.

Sep

“Art in Isolation” at ART123 Gallery

“Art in Isolation” opens Saturday, September 12 at ART123 Gallery. Organized by local artist Christian Bigwater and featuring new work created by seven artists since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the show is a chance to pause, take stock, and reflect on the current moment.

In many ways the coronavirus pandemic has been a collective undertaking as all of our lives have been largely turned upside down and we have had to adjust to an alternative reality. In other ways, the effects of the pandemic have not been universal as it has taken a physical, social, emotional and economic toll on communities, families, and individuals, in different ways and to different extents. Artists are uniquely adept at processing the human experience as it exists on both the macro and micro levels, and the artists included in the “Art in Isolation” show have done exactly that with regard to our new normal.

Some “Art in Isolation” artists explore the emotional side of the pandemic. Antoinette Thompson is sharing a piece that, in her words, “pulls together the anger, confusion, strength, losses, and gains of this jolt in our lives.” Tasha N. creates a display of personal work—work she mostly made just for herself as a means of coping through this time.

Other artists explore the physical environment the pandemic has created. Ashton Phillips recorded the sights and sounds of Los Angeles at the height of the stay-at-home order, documenting a strange space and time. Nate Nez presents a series of work made during the Navajo Nation weekend lockdowns, reflecting on the meaning of land and home at a time when strict curfews and boundaries have been enforced.

Two artists send a message with their work. Christian Bigwater created a powerful piece which has been used as a flier and poster encouraging people to focus on the wellbeing of their elders and their community. Karl Jim’s painting “Love and Protection” speaks to the motives behind mask-wearing.

“Art in Isolation” runs through October 3. A Virtual Show Opening will be held live on the @gallupARTS Facebook page on Saturday, September 12 at 3pm. ART123 Gallery is open by appointment on Fridays and Saturdays from 12 – 4pm. More information can be found at www.galluparts.org/art123gallery.

Apr

gallupARTS is Ramping up Support for Local Artists in a Time of Crisis

One in four residents of McKinley County make at least part of their living through the arts, and we are now more committed than ever to supporting our community’s creative entrepreneurs.

gallupARTS is leveraging its business model to put more money in artists’ pockets. For the next six months, we are

Waiving dues for our 9 current ART123 Gallery Member Artists, who receive 100% of the income from their artwork sales.
Waiving our below-average 20% commission on all non-Member Artist sales. This means that between from when we re-open in June through September, all ART123 Gallery participating artists (a projected 41+) will receive 100% of their sales.

The gallupARTS Board of Directors is also taking action to fill the gap in emergency relief available to local artists by establishing a Local Artist Support Fund. This fund will make as many rapid-response, unrestricted “mini-grants” (in the $200 – $300 range) as possible to Gallup area artists negatively economically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic over the next six months to help with living costs and to support creative solutions for staying in business.

We need your help!

gallupARTS is donating 100% of the proceeds from its Membership Drive to the Local Artist Support Fund for the next six months. Every gallupARTS Member sign-up/renewal between now and September will be earmarked for 100% contribution to the Local Artist Support Fund.

Join and contribute TODAY!

An added incentive: the recently passed CARES Act contains a one-time, above-the-line deduction for cash contributions of up to $300 made to qualifying charities (a.k.a. gallupARTS). All taxpayers are eligible to take the deduction, even people who use the standard deduction. (The incentive applies to contributions made in 2020 and would be claimed on tax forms next year. Check with your tax advisor to confirm your eligibility.)

Jan

8 x 10 x 20 Artist Challenge

Twenty local artists have accepted gallupARTS’ “8 x 10 x 20” Artist Challenge to create ten (10) 8” x 10” 2D artworks in twenty (20) days this January and February.

Thanks to grant funding from New Mexico Arts, gallupARTS is able to sponsor its second annual artist challenge, following the incredibly successful “15 in 30” Artist Challenge last year. Grant funding is used provide participating artists the basic materials—ten 8” x 10” canvas boards—making this challenge highly accessible.

The 20 artists participating represent the diversity of Gallup’s art scene and broader community. Including three youth participants, the 8 x 10 x 20 Artist Challenge is a chance for emerging artists to flex their creative muscles and for established artists to push their practices. Involving an about equal split between female and male artists and Native and non-Native artists, the Challenge is a celebration of different artistic media, styles, subjects and ideas.

Artist Matthew Bollinger has set out to explore the concept of repetition through digital media. “Repetition prompts investigation, understanding, and artistic inflection,” he says.

Meanwhile, Karen Fischer is hard at work on collages that represent contrast, Dustin Logg is focused on capturing melancholy emotions through portraiture, Jeffrey Begay is creating ten individual images that when displayed together will form a single larger picture, Tasha N. is going a surrealist route and interpreting her dreams, and Mackenzie Cheama is creating a study of the American traditional style of tattoo work.

“The [8 x 10 x 20 Challenge] peaks my interest,” says Logg. “My timid nature refuses to let me do anything outside my comfort zone, but this opportunity is too good to pass up, to gauge how people will receive my work and of course as an experience to learn from.”

Tasha N. is excited about the Challenge because it is allowing her the space and time to try something new. “My work has become recognizable, which is fine, it means I’m beginning to establish myself and my style, but I want people to know that I am much more as an artist and person,” she says. “I want to create something that has some significant value to me and my life experiences.”

The Challenge started January 14 and will culminate in a show of 200 total artworks at ART123 Gallery, opening on Saturday, February 8 from 7 – 9pm. The 8 x 10 x 20 Show will be on view through March 7. All artworks will be sold for between $50 and $75, making it the perfect opportunity for the Gallup community to start or add to their art collections, support local artists and grow our creative economy.

Oct

Meet Diego Medina, LOOM Indigenous Art Gallery’s November Artist.

Meet Diego Medina, LOOM Indigenous Art Gallery’s November artist:

“on san pedro street in las cruces there is an old house built by my great grandfather. it was one of the first houses in the old indian neighborhood, now known as the mesquite district. a neighborhood that once held dances with smoky feet that lifted that good dirt up to be briefly caught and talked to by light. our family home is one of the few original homes left in that area, and on the porch there are these big arches that face west, letting sunset feelings in, and the shadows those arches create move across the porch like a type of old clock throughout the day… that house on the corner of san pedro street tells it’s story with those gentle shadows. a story kept hidden by any other history. where i’m from in southern new mexico, native identity is a little different. there are fewer federally recognized tribes in southern new mexico than in northern new mexico. and el paso del norte, a city just south of las cruces, was exactly that: a passing where people coming through swept through like a broom, tossing culture up into the air like dust and then letting it settle wherever it fell. after the pueblo revolt many native people from the tiwa and piro pueblos moved down to that area and created new pueblo communities, which intertwined with the tribes already living in that area… my family are descendants of native rarámuri slaves that worked in the silver mines in parral. we ended up in that area before new mexico was even a state and built our family

home in that old neighborhood among the pueblo people and people from various other tribes. the originals to that area were knows as tortugeños. my name is diego medina, and as an artist currently living in santa fe, i make art that tells the story of the good love that happened in the shadows of native slavery. the good love that i came from, that put good love in me. i make art to show that as much beauty can be seen in shadow as can be seen in light.”

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#Rezheartwork Hosts First Artist Retreat

“Art in Isolation” at ART123 Gallery

gallupARTS is Ramping up Support for Local Artists in a Time of Crisis

8 x 10 x 20 Artist Challenge

Meet Diego Medina, LOOM Indigenous Art Gallery’s November Artist.

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