Cake at Evoke Contemporary; Paintings by Lee Price

 

Self Portrait Eating a Hostess Cupcake, oil on linen

We enjoyed a mini Beacon, NY reunion at the opening of Lee Price's exhibit, Cake, at Evoke Contemporary in Santa Fe on Friday night.  We briefly said hi to Lee, and caught up for a while Fritz, Lee's husband, and ran into Mei Ying So, owner of Artisan Wine Shop who came out West for the opening. I spent a month in 2011 imposing on the hospitality of the Artisan Wine Shop and Beacon Pilates working through my ]twenty-six Paces[ project for the Windows On Main St. exhibit that year. 

The works Lee is exhibiting here are suffused with rich patterns, both those of textiles, and those of living, represented by the symmetrical place settings of prepared tables. Those temporal patterns of the tabletop remain stolid, even as their elements are pushed and pulled by the indulgences they play host to. 

 

There are two basic viewpoints presented in the works here. The viewer standing in front, in close proximity looking directly at Lee as she consume her emotively frosted confections, and the overhead, "god's view" of table tops populated by the artist alone, her with companions, or simply by the leavings of the subjects after they've pushed away from their places.

Looking over the exhibition thumbnails on the Evoke website just now, the repeated central circle of table tops festooned with the signs of communion, my mind goes to Malevich, and more broadly, the use of the circle in Russian Constructivism.  

Spring, oil on linen

This is a stretch, but the mind does what it does. 

The presence of the circle in Malevich's work is a more rarified punctuation to the straight edged, corner wielding forms that predominate his works. 

Winter, oil on linen

Kasimir Malevich, Black Circle (motive 1915), 1924

Outside Evoke - A poster image of Summer

Kasimir Malevich, Mystic Suprematism (Red Cross on Black Circle),  1920-1922

Ali's Meal, oil on linen

All things in Harmony

Helen Molesworth, in her conversation with Harmony Hammond at Site Santa Fe on March 15th mixed up her approach to the two talking heads on a stage format with what she called Harmony Hammond in 3 Ways. 

Way #1 was a PowerPoint slideshow set to a Joan Armatrading song that illustrated Molesworth's experience alone in the gallery, highlighting the the exhibition elements that drew her in and the flights of recollection and affinity that they inspired. 

Way #2 was Harmony Hammond seen through the reviewers lens of Molesworth, special New Yorker reviewer.

Finally, Way #3 reverted to the conversational Q&A format between the Curator and the Artist. This is true entertainment for some of us. You can watch the event for yourself below. 

This talk followed talks that were held on the opening weekend of the exhibits by Hammond (Fringe) and Dakota Mace (Dahodiynii - Sacred Places) on March 1. Hammond was in conversation with writer/artist Jarrett Earnest and Mace was conversing with artist Porfirio Gutierrez. Heck. I'll just paste them in here too. 

Fringe is a great overview of Harmony Hammond's work. A great opportunity for me personally to see a significant amount of work by this artist I only really learned about after moving to New Mexico, and who has been having an elevated moment in these past few years. I'm just now remembering this was now my third time attending a talk by Hammond within a year. Last fall the Albuquerque Museum hosted a Tamarind talk with Hammond at the completion of her most recent residency at the Tamarind Institute.

A surprise perk I received in the mail a couple of weeks ago was a package from Tamarind that held a lovely publication documenting her collaboration with them. I've been now been several times over Hammond blessed recently. 

DESIRE - HARMONY HAMMOND, a publication of Tamarind Press

A few details from Fringe that drew me in:

Parked at the entrance of the museum that day was Axle Contemporary with a view into an exhibit of sculptures by Inga Hendrickson called These Cracks Weep.

 

In the Studio Today

Works in progress under the painting pavilion.

A new work in progress below and an old work in progress since 2014 above.

 

Hands off ABQ

 A milestone was reached last weekend. I attended my first political protest in earnest. Congregating en masse is not a typical yearning that I hold in my heart. However, my motivation to do so now is rooted in the need to show up and be present for those around me that are fearful, impacted and searching in this American moment of chaos and executively mandated cruelty and stupidity.

In fact there was such a sense of community and care, and cheer in seeing work colleagues and friends that just the act of gathering - and venting has much to offer. 

It is a way of holding space. An ever helpful and hopeful act. 

A few views of the scene at Albuquerque's Civic Plaza on April 5. 

This was my fav sign of the day. 

Here are Angelika and me with our signs. 

My Slum Lord sign features a still from a short video I made in 2019.