Curator Peter Held contacts me in the Fall of 2014. He is organizing an exhibition that will travel to four Chinese colleges and universities in the Spring and Summer of 2015. The plan includes work from a dozen Southwest artists focusing on contemporary art from the region. He explains it will include works on paper only: photography, prints and drawings.
We hope this exhibition will give the Chinese audience a sense of what the Southwest is: place, landscape, people and culture. We would love to consider including 1-2 of your works that are smaller in scale.
I meet with Peter and based on our discussion I decide on animal studies. My main focus is human anatomy but I have an interest in anatomy in general. After a bit of thought, I come up with the idea to paint a creature to represent the states I’ve resided in. I’ve lived in the Southwest all my life. Born and raised in El Paso, Texas – I spend five years in Las Cruces, New Mexico before moving to Phoenix, AZ. I plan to research each state and find an exotic creature, preferably one I’ve crossed paths with.
Each artist has 1-2 or 3 works, all in China now, in their second venue.
Peter sends a note saying the exhibit is well received. I was pleasantly surprised how engaged and interested the students were, he says, spending an hour or more to look at the art closely. It was a great opportunity to converse on a wide range of topics which the subject matter in the art provided.
Last week I receive the catalogue. In this post I share one work from each artist and include the front and back cover. I am so pleased to see the quality and variety of the artwork. All the artist live and work in the Southwestern United States and each one brings a unique sensibility to the exhibit.
Alice Leora Briggs, The Listener falls to sleep, Woodcut
Binh Danh, #2 Saguaro National Park, digital print of daguerreotype
Claudio Dichocea, de Amore Prohibido y el Anarquista, el Emsee 2.0, photolithograph
Jason Garcia, Tewa Tales of Suspense #4 Behold…Po’pay!, serigraph
Mark Klett, Slight Track and Red Clouds, Copper Mountains, digital photograph from gelatin silver print
Michael Lundgren, Parasitic Weight, archival pigment print
Carrie Marill, Nature-T:Monument Valley, gouache on paper
Monica Aissa Martinez, Armadillo: Texas, mixed media on paper
Leigh Merrill, Denizens, pigment print
Matthew Moore, Rotations: Moore Estates-Sorghum (homes) Wheat (roads), 35 acres, digital photogra
Rose Bean Simpson, Know Thyself, ink on paper
Will Wilson, Edward S Curtis, The Northern American Indian, Norwood, MA, The Plimpton Press
Between Earth and Sky, Contemporary Art from the American Southwest will travel to 4 locations:
Sichuan University 四川大学
March 11, 2015 – March 31, 2015: Exhibit at Sichuan University
Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications 南京邮电大学
April 6, 2015 – April 26, 2015: Exhibit at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications
University of Shanghai Science and Technology 上海理工大学
May 11, 2015 to May 29, 2015: Exhibit at USST
Xi’an International University 西安外事学院
June 8, 2015 – June 22 , 2015: Exhibit at Xi’an International University
Cover: Mark Klett, Contemplating the View at Muley Point, Utah, digital photograph from gelatin silver print
Backcover: Michael Lundgren, New Form, archival pigment print
The exhibition is a partnership between ACCEX – American Centers for Cultural Exchange and Arizona State University Art Museum.
Monica Aissa Martinez 