Sep 07 Sunday
The Language of Place is a group exhibition featuring mixed media painting by Heidi Brandow (Diné & Kānaka Maoli); photography by Shaarbek Amankul (Indigenous Kyrgyz); beadwork and photography by Thomas Jones (Ho-Chunk); Indigenous Kyrgyzstani textiles designed by Amankul and Brandow and made by Kyrgyzstani artisans; and a pair of moccasins handmade by Clementine Bordeaux (Sičáŋǧu Lakótapi [Rosebud Sioux Tribe]). Co-curated by Amankul and Brandow, this exhibition examines how land, history, and cultural knowledge inform and shape the creative processes of four artists whose practices are intricately embedded in their relationships with land and environment.
In the display case in August and September, VGPL features John Segell, a Santa Fe potter and member of the Eldorado Arts and Crafts Association. Segell crafts decorative and functional high-temperature stoneware fired to cone 10 (2350 degrees) in his own hand-built sprung arch kiln. Segell received a BFA in Ceramics from University of Wisconsin, studying for four years under Don Reitz. After moving to Santa Fe in 1980 and raising a family, John continued his enthusiasm for ceramics continuing to throw pots -- to the benefit of friends and family, while working in the hospitality industry. Now retired, he is focused on renewing his love of clay and working full time in his studio (#46 on the Eldorado Studio Tour). Visit the artist’s website to see more of his work.
Sep 08 Monday
Markings from Fire is an exhibition of wood-fired ceramics, charcoal drawings, 3-D printed flasks, and a sound installation by multimedia artist and former United States Forest Service firefighter Avi Farber. In this exhibition, Farber brings his experience of working in the burn scar of the most devastating fire in New Mexico’s history, the 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, and its aftermath, to form & concept to better understand humanity’s role within the natural world. Through ceramic works made from prehistoric minerals, ruins, locally sourced clays, and wood preserved using a burning technique similar to the Japanese practice of shou sugi ban, Farber creates a portrait of fire’s direct and obtuse impacts on public land, private residences, and natural and man-made landscapes. Together, these works invite viewers to reflect on themes of impermanence and existential meaning on various scales of time, from a single human’s experience of a tragic event to Earth’s genesis and its eons of environmental transformation that impact us all and call for deep collective reflection.
Sep 09 Tuesday
Sep 10 Wednesday