In Our Own Backyard Exhibition Brochure

In Our Own Backyard An exhibition of New Mexico artists inspired by the collection of Ray Graham and the history of CAFE

516 ARTS March 23 – June 1, 2019 Albuquerque, New Mexico

In Our Own Backyard: Then and Now

By Lauren Tresp

Globally, visual culture is being generated on a scale that is difficult to fathom. The tools of the artist are now readily available, and images spill out at us on every platform.

We are bombarded, from the proliferation of art fairs and biennials, to the soul-deadening advent of the “Instagram museum,” to more social media channels than we can keep up with, with more imagery than ever. And while not all of this is art, some of it actually is. Easy access to creative expression and mark-making is generally a positive, but it means that the task of discerning and holding space for what is genuinely artful, what is progressive, and what is truly worthy of our attention, is more important than ever.

The exhibition In Our Own Backyard is an opportunity to look at the significance and lasting impact of some of the mechanisms that carve out space in our communities and our minds for art and artists that seek to follow ever-expanding artistic lines of inquiry. In Our Own Backyard stems from the private collection of Ray Graham, a longtime arts supporter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It features artists whose work is in his collection and/or was exhibited in CAFE, Graham’s commercial gallery that occupied the 516 ARTS building from 1990 to 1995 and was a pivotal gathering space for local and regional contemporary artists during that time.

CAFE (Contemporary Art For Everyone, a tagline carried forth by 516 ARTS under the same roof), represented some of the best ideals we can hold up to commercial galleries: commitment to underrepresented regional artists, risk-taking in service of adventurous, progressive arts, and dedication to place and community. Albuquerque has long felt like a place where there is room for artists to spread their wings, to create alternative spaces, and to fail and to keep on trying. According to Graham, CAFE was founded to address “the changing dynamics of Downtown Albuquerque and what could be done to revitalize it. CAFE was to be a

gathering space for the arts – to try to fill a culture gap in the area.” Bonnie Putnam Verardo and Sally Jackson, who directed the gallery, selected the artists and organized the exhibitions and programs. Together, the team exhibited visual art that spanned genres, tying in public programs at nearby venues, like the KiMo Theatre. Graham’s vision was to provide a platform to New Mexico contemporary artists who didn’t have gallery representation.

A similar sentiment led to the founding of Artspace magazine 14 years earlier in 1976, a publication that fortified the work of CAFE and shared its artists with a national audience. Bill Peterson, one of the founders of Artspace, said in an interview with Shawn Turung of the publication’s beginnings, “The chief motivation was that something extraordinary was happening in the New Mexico art world at the time, and nobody was paying any attention. There was no informed criticism or commentary in the local media, and the national art magazines rarely looked beyond New York. But, for those of us on the scene, it was obvious that a new spirit was awakening in Santa Fe and Taos and shaking up the sleepy stasis of those once flourishing art colonies, taking things in a whole new direction. And here in Albuquerque, largely because of the ambitious program at the University of New Mexico’s Art Department, a new generation was defining itself in the light of international trends and electing to stay on and tough it out.”

Cover: David Koch, Twisted Soul 39, 2016 • Left: Photo of Ray Graham by Barbara Graham, 1972 • Right: CAFE foyer, photo by Bonnie Putnam Verardo, 1990

The circumstances Peterson calls out still remained in 1990, and are again relevant today. New Mexico still feels like it exists “out here” on the fringes, frequently overlooked or over-stereotyped by the broader art world. And, once again in recent years, New Mexico’s arts communities are palpably re-awakening, riding another new wave of creative energy.

And while avenues for the consumption of art continue to rapidly shift and grow, art journalism and art buying remain critical elements of any arts ecosystem. Looking at the history of CAFE highlights ongoing questions about the desire for urban revitalization to coalesce around the arts.

A contemporary art space, whether it’s a commercial gallery or a non-collecting museum like 516 ARTS, can and should be a vessel that holds space for artists to experiment, put forth the unexpected, and to see what resonates with communities of viewers. Contemporary art spaces and publications that create environments of risk, radicality, and adventure are critical to encouraging current and future generations of artists to push our collective boundaries and likewise encourage their community members to be empowered, open-minded thinkers.

Contemporary art spaces and publications that create environments of risk, radicality, and adventure are critical to encouraging current and future generations of artists to push our collective boundaries and likewise encourage their community members to be empowered, open-minded thinkers.

During this difficult, sea-change moment for the commercial art market and gallery model, In Our Own Backyard is a timely glance back at the cultural significance that the commercial gallery and art collector have as stewards, advocates, and purveyors of artists’ work, especially while larger arts institutions frequently struggle to keep pace with current issues and questions. It is also a special opportunity to see a group of artists’ work from different periods of their careers, and examine the trajectories in their work over time.

Lauren Tresp is the publisher of The Magazine, New Mexico's leading contemporary arts magazine since 1992. She has been writing professionally about contemporary art since 2013. She has a Master of Arts in Humanities from the University of Chicago, where she studied Medieval and Renaissance Art History, and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and History from UCLA. Above: Jaune Quick-To-See-Smith, Sky People and Earth People, 2011, Courtesy of Tamarind Institute • Right: Kim Arthun, Gotta Be, 1994

The Continuum of Contemporary Art

By Suzanne Sbarge

In Our Own Backyard was born out of conversations Ray Graham and I had about time passing, and what ultimately becomes of art. Pondering the fate of his collection and how to find new context for artwork that was largely collected out of friendships, travels and adventures, I offered to host an exhibition and he welcomed the opportunity. Our discussions went back and forth, expanding and contracting the ideas for the scope of the exhibition. Ray stressed that he wanted to see what inspired someone else about the collection, so I was fortunate to be that someone, with a lot of help from my colleagues Claude Smith and Mackensie Lewis at 516 ARTS and Ray’s office manager Stephanie McCloud.

The exhibition parameters were arrived at through a process that involved repeated shifts, a practice I find happens a lot while making art. We eventually settled on the focus of New Mexico artists who were in Graham’s collection and/or showed at CAFE, and who are still working today.

The focus of this particular timeline begins a little over 30 years ago in the 1980s, leading up to Ray Graham’s launch of CAFE at 516 Central Avenue SW. Following years of study of Southwestern art and material culture, and after 20 years as a developer of projects such as La Luz on Albuquerque’s West Side, Graham says “I idealistically wanted to participate in what was hoped to be the revival of our Downtown…My interest was in the question, ‘Where is Albuquerque? Is it Old Town, Downtown, Nob Hill, Uptown?” He thinks back to, “when you had to come Downtown to get anything done, before things dispersed and it lost its identity, like many American cities.” Graham realized that Downtown Albuquerque was in the throes of a crisis that was happening to Downtowns all over the country. Local banks were bought

up by national corporations during the 1980s as a result of Ronald Reagan’s monetary policies. The anchoring big businesses here were no longer locally owned and businesses were leaving the Central Avenue corridor.

He purchased the building at the northeast corner of 6th and Central to reintroduce a place for small businesses. When some of these storefronts were empty, he used the spaces for galleries, and in 1987 started Graham Gallery (run by Kathleen Shields and then Merry Scully) and shortly after opened Raw Space next door. These became cornerstones of the local contemporary art scene, which at the time included the Jonson Gallery at the University of New Mexico (UNM), Motel Gallery on North 4th Street, and Downtown spaces such as Albuquerque United Artists Gallery, Hoshour Gallery, Meridian Gallery and Kron-Rec Gallery. Across the street on the southwest corner of 6th and Central, there were artists’ studios in the building owned by the artist Bob

1987

1989

1991

1995

1996

1998

1999

2004

2006

Graham Gallery & Raw Space open around the corner

Ray Graham purchases 516 Central

CAFE opens

CAFE closes

UNM Art Museums Downtown opens

UNM Art Museums Downtown closes

516 Magnífico Artspace opens

516 Magnífico Artspace closes

516 ARTS opens

Ellis, and Richard Levy Gallery was moving into 514 Central SW. Graham bought the 516 building in 1989 and began a massive renovation to transform it into a contemporary art space, which was designed by architect Lawrence Garcia.

“Contact with art that one loves

Today, we see the same impulse is carried forward in artistrun spaces such as Exhibit 208 (run by Kim Arthun), the Sanitary Tortilla Factory (run by Sheri Crider), Relic (run by Thomas Christopher Haag and David Kappy) and Vitrine (run by Jaime Tillotson, Scott Williams and Anna Reser).

Like CAFE, many of these current efforts were spawned by artists who studied at UNM, as most of the artists in In Our Own Backyard studied and/or taught at UNM, mentoring subsequent generations of artists.

daily necessity for some people

In the exhibition catalog for The Collection of Ray Graham, or a Sampling Thereof at the Albuquerque Museum in 2000, then director Jim Moore noted that Graham is “a patron who prefers the role of a catalyst to that of an acquisitor.”

There is a story and a history between Ray and each one of the artists featured in In Our Own Backyard. We have just scratched the surface, examining a fraction of the wealth of content available. For this show we wanted to go in a new direction, approaching the collection in terms of “revitalization” and bringing it up to the present moment.

The inclusion of both current and past work by each artist becomes a tool for exploring the ever-changing process of making art, and of the role of art in a place. Moore also wrote that “contact with art that one loves provides a little hedge against the death of the soul, and becomes a daily necessity for some people as eating.” And it is that approach to art as essential nourishment that brought forth CAFE as a place for feeding the soul, gathering, community, and is an ongoing inspiration for 516 ARTS today.

provides a little hedge against the death of the soul, and becomes a as eating.”

—Jim Moore

What Ray Graham did with CAFE and his aspirational thinking about Downtown are part of an ongoing story that I myself have been caught up in for the past 20 years of exhibiting contemporary art in this beautiful space.

Suzanne Sbarge is the Founding Executive Director of 516 ARTS, a non-collecting contemporary art museum. She has an MA in Art Education from the University of New Mexico (1991) and BA in Art History from Barnard College (1987). She is also a visual artist working in collage and painting.

Ray A. Graham, III Ray A. Graham, III was born in 1940 in Cleveland, Ohio. He grew up in Virginia and originally came to the Southwest in the 1960s to study at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and then went to Mexico City College. When circumstances required him to come back to the United States, he knew he wanted to stay in the Southwest and chose to resume his studies in Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. His interest in contemporary art grew out of his work in Anthropology examining the rugs, pottery and jewelry and culture of the peoples of the Southwest. He viewed the objects people made as inseparable from culture and place, and he always felt it was important to be aware of artists who were creating in the now. In 1965, he met Barbara Furbush when they were both VISTA volunteers in Montana. They were married in Des Moines, Iowa in 1967 and began the La Luz development in 1968. In 1972 they had their son Gregory.

Left page: CAFE renovation, photo by Bonnie Putnam Verardo, 1990 • Left: Photo of Ray & Barbara Graham by Dorothy Mattox, 1971 Right: Margarete Bagshaw, Untitled, 2014

About the Artists JANE ABRAMS (b.1940) has lived and worked in Los Ranchos Village in the North Valley of Albuquerque for the past forty years. Her travels to Mexico, Central America, Spain, and Asia have introduced exotic subjects into her pulsing, colorful canvases. She believes that a landscape painting is “as much a revelation of the facets of the mind, as it is an exploration of the wonders of the natural world.”

KIM ARTHUN (b.1953) is a constructivist and collage artist born and raised in Albuquerque. Using magazine advertisements as his primary material, he seeks to, “find the beauty in the mundane, the elegance in the ordinary.” He studied art at the University of New Mexico in the 1970s and went on to found the gallery Exhibit 208, where he carries forth the spirit of CAFE by drawing on the pool of talent of Albuquerque artists working in divergent styles.

MARGARETE BAGSHAW (1964-2015), a Modernist painter, honored the work of her mother and grandmother (Helen Hardin and Pablita Valarde). Her paintings are grounded in the traditional themes of Native American art while breaking boundaries.

VIRGINIA BAICH (b. 1959) is a painter and teacher based in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Her earlier abstract still life oil paintings depict coil and rope-like objects, while her current encaustic paintings are of dark seascapes and clouds emerging from the layers of wax. She says, “Long before global communication, nature was our common connective force, and in this work I want to revisit and reawaken our sense of that.”

STEVE BARRY (b. 1956) creates sculptures that are mechanical assemblages of metal and wood. His work is influenced by epic poetry and mythology. His piece The Fifth Horseman draws its title from the final horseman of Revelation’s apocalypse, Providence, and implicates the viewer in the artwork’s completion. In doing so, the work suggests that Providence and renewal are only achievable through will and risk.

WANDA BECKER (b.1950) has evolved from making collages about the natural environment to delicate trompe l’oeil drawings of twigs. Though her work has shifted over time, her overarching themes speak to the absence and memory of nature as it is synthesized and reproduced in our daily lives.

ANN DUNBAR (b.1947), a longtime art teacher, works in many different media. In her earlier assemblages she arranged collections of monochromatic found objects in symmetrical compositions that reference totemic or religious forms. While her newer two-dimensional works venture into colorful narratives. By separating figures from one another and embellishing them with gold, Dunbar retains the aspect of assemblage and collecting while laying out a formal narrative for her viewer.

BARBARA GROTHUS (b. 1953) identifies as a conceptual artistactivist. She grew up in Los Alamos with a politically engaged family, and feels that “political content is often unavoidable.”

For decades she has returned to the archetypal image of the home in her work. Using sculpted and re-purposed materials, her work speak to loss and absence.

MICHAEL HART (b. 1941) has consistently evolved in his practice of creating unique, dream-like worlds of strange creatures and narratives from the unconscious. Dipping into the grotesque and uneasy, his compositions follow an inner logic that draws the eye toward tableau’s of humor and ominous forces.

DAVID KOCH (b. 1960) is painter and sculptor with an existential drive to make art. A collage aesthetic is carried throughout his work, expressing “how we cut and paste our lives together.” In his disciplined studio practice, he delves into the formal elements of geometry, line, shape and pure color. The arc of his career has led him toward the open-endedness of pure abstraction and increasingly reductive subject matter.

Barbara Grothus, Tree/House, 1995, collection of Ray Graham • Michael Hart, Couple Posing, 2005, collection of Ray Graham Jeff Krueger, American Home Furnishings, 2015, collection of Ray Graham • Delilah Montoya, Sagrado Corazon, 1993

JEFF KRUEGER (b. 1964), originally from Queens, New York, received his MFA from The University of New Mexico and recently completing a residency at the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program. He considers himself an “abstract social realist considering the signs and shifting codes of modernity.” He works in a wide variety of media, including ceramic sculpture, watercolor paintings and installation art.

SANTIAGO PÉREZ (b. 1950) had a career serving in the US Air Force and has been a lifelong artist. His allegorical paintings evoke myth, folklore, and fairy tales, with influences stretching from Hieronymus Bosch and François Rabelais to 20th century playwrights Alfred Jarry and Antonin Artaud. His recent works reveal a tighter, though no less expansive, cast of characters and range of illustrative styles.

FELICE LUCERO (b. 1946) has been visually narrating for over fifty years. A San Felipe Pueblo native, her work draws upon the Pueblo’s deep-rooted traditions and cultural values as well as her long-standing identity as a citizen of two worlds. Her hybrid style evokes the geometry of the grid while incorporating Pueblo customs and motifs.

TOM WALDRON (b. 1953) has dedicated his career to creating monolithic, abstract sculptures in steel, stone, wood and concrete, exploring the possibilities for geometric angles and the organic curves that they contain. Out of this reiterative practice have emerged curved shapes that hold tension between spacious forms and sharp lines.

DELILAH MONTOYA (b. 1955), is a photographic artist working with portraiture grounded in the Mestizo/a experience of the Southwest and borderlands. Her approach in the 1990s focused on staged portraits, while her current work features a more natural, documentary style that calls upon the values of Spanish colonial Casta Paintings. These newer photographs explore the cultural identities of diverse contemporary families in the intimate spaces of the home.

JOHN WENGER (b. 1940), a recipient of a Rome Prize Fellowship in his youth where he studied with Philip Guston, went on to found the University of New Mexico’s Wilderness Studio in the 1970s and led generations of art students into remote landscapes to create art. He continues to be prolific in the studio, creating deeply layered paintings, and works collaboratively with young artists on “video paintings” that emerge from playful, tactile activities in nature.

JAUNE QUICK-TO-SEE SMITH (b. 1940) grew up on the Flathead Reservation in Montana and traveled around the Pacific Northwest and California with her father, who was a horse trader.

She moved to Albuquerque in the 1970s, where she studied at The University of New Mexico and founded the Grey Canyon group of contemporary Native American artists. Through her paintings and lithographs, she consistently tackles strong socio-political commentary, building bridges across her Native worldview and formal innovation.

JERRY WEST (b.1933), son of Work Progress Administration (WPA) artist Hal West, spent his youth on a remote ranch near Santa Fe’s Japanese internment camp and at Santa Clara Pueblo’s Puye Cliffs. He paints zoomed-out narratives that unfold across the New Mexico landscape, revealing his dreams in a surreal style that blend Roswell, Cerrillos, and Las Vegas, New Mexico where he has lived. His recent work includes more intimate portraits of his fellow New Mexico Artists Steina and Woody Vasulka.

Santiago Pérez, And, There Shalt Be a New Pinkmobile Classic!, 2017 • Tom Waldron, Clasp, 1990, colection of Ray Graham • John Wenger, Wicked Trimmer, 2018 • Jerry West, A Bad Night at Fritz Reeder Homesetad, or, Meditation on the Life and Death of a New Mexico Badger, 2018

Speakers Series 516 ARTS and The Magazine present an inter-city series of talks in conjunction with In Our Own Backyard exploring how art journalism and collecting cultivate contemporary art in New Mexico.

Contemporary Art Journalism Then & Now Thursday, April 25, 7pm Bill Peterson, publisher of Artspace Magazine, Albuquerque Lauren Tresp, publisher of The Magazine, Santa Fe At 516 ARTS, Albuquerque

Collectors Collect New Mexico I Thursday, May 9, 7pm Christian Mayeur & Anne Poux, Mayeur Projects Jugnet + Clairet, Artists At The Magazine Project Space, Santa Fe

Collectors Collect New Mexico II Thursday, May 23, 7pm RJ Bailie, Contemporary Art Society of New Mexico (CAS) Diana Gaston, Director, Tamarind Institute Marisa Sage, Director/Curator, University Art Museum, NMSU Nicola López, Emmi Whitehorse, Artists At 516 ARTS, Albuquerque

516 ARTS 516 Central Avenue SW Albuquerque, NM 87102 505-242-1445, 516arts.org Open Tue – Sat, 12-5pm

516 ARTS GOVERNING BOARD Danny López, Chair Rebecca Black Pamela Cheek, PhD Larry Gernon, MD Kevin Hoover Kathleen Metzger Tim Price Mark Rohde Suzanne Sbarge Tonya Turner Carroll

The Magazine Project Space 1415 West Alameda Santa Fe, NM 87501 themagsantafe.com

STAFF & CONSULTANTS

MAJOR FUNDERS

Suzanne Sbarge, Executive Director Claude Smith, Exhibitions & Fulcrum Fund Manager Mackensie Lewis, Development Coordinator Katie Doyle, Education Coordinator Joni Thompson, Bookkeeper Jane Kennedy, Development Associate Ian Jones, Preparator Magdalena Sterling, Intern

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts The City of Albuquerque The FUNd at Albuquerque Community Foundation Lannan Foundation McCune Charitable Foundation The National Endowment for the Arts

Brochure printed by Don Mickey Designs Design by Suzanne Sbarge

Above: Jane Abrams, Bosque Gold (detail), 2016

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

SPECIAL THANKS Slate Street Café, The Magazine, Kim Arthun, Stephanie McCloud, Sally Jackson, Bill Peterson, Bonnie Putnam Verardo