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Jennifer Schlessinger Hanson, Winter Solstice 2005

Two New Pop-Ups and a “Project Space” Enliven Local Arts in Santa Fe

Sam McBride's 365 drawings of toast made daily in 2013 were part of a two-person show, with Clayton Porter, that Cyndi Conn curated at Offroad Productions this spring

Sam McBride’s 365 drawings of toast shared a two-person show, with Clayton Porter, at Offroad Productions this spring

Pop-ups are a phenomenon for contemporary art and contemporary design across the U.S. and around the world. In Santa Fe, whether popping up happens in a temporary vehicle or an established space with periodic exhibitions, the style is especially welcome after — beginning in 2011 — the losses of Linda Durham Gallery, then Dwight Hackett Projects and Box Gallery, created a vacuum for emerging and established New Mexico artists to exhibit.

Sarah Spengler, Eyelight 2

Sarah Spengler, Eyelight 2

What I’m really looking forward to this July are three new contemporary shows organized by longtime local artists and curators in Santa Fe.

Stephen Auger opened Cloud5Project in 2013, in the former Cloud Cliff Bakery and Cafe alongside Second Street Studios (1807 Second Street). “Lucent,” an exhibition that Nancy Sutor has co-curated with Auger, opens July 11.  Sutor is an artist and curator whose curated exhibit “The History of the Future” has been a Lannan Foundation Traveling Exhibition. As artists who care about and/or work in light-based, photo-sensitive creating, Sutor and Auger chose works across disciplines in “Lucent,” all relating to light and perception. This exhibit includes their own moody works plus others by Jennifer Schlesinger Hanson, Sarah Spengler, Romy Eijckmans and still three others, each capturing the subtleties of light and dark.

Off Siler Road, Michael Freed donates his studio space to the pop-up called Offroad Productions (2891-B Trades West Road). This spring curator Cyndi Conn organized a two-person show for artists Sam McBride and Clayton Porter, called “Toast and Cowboys” after the respective subjects of each artist’s serial works. Now Freed has curated “Heart & Soul/Hard & Sole,” opening July 19, about LOVE.  Familiar names from the Santa Fe art world take part; and while from the press release one can infer that the theme is meant to be sincere, I am eager to see how the artists will captivate on a subject that can easily veer into cliché.

Moving into new turf in the established gallery scene, Gerald Peters Gallery has begun Peters Projects, a new contemporary art program headed by Ylise Kessler. “Temporal Domain,” the Peters Projects premiere show, opens July 18 and will include work by Lynda Benglis, James Lee Byars (whose work currently installed at MoMA PS1 has generated critical talk), Harmony Hammond, Agnes Martin, John McCracken and Roxy Paine — international names, all of whom have lived or worked in New Mexico.