PREVIEW
SITE 疯客直播 Fe鈥檚 Slate of International Artists
If you missed the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 and think you will never see that type of high art 鈥 and on that scale 鈥 here鈥檚 some good news: 疯客直播 Fe hosts its own art biennial.
This year will be the SITE 疯客直播 Fe 12th International (formerly known as the SITE 疯客直播 Fe Biennial), back after a seven-year hiatus. The exhibits and events that will sprawl across 疯客直播 Fe open June 27, with the theme Once Within a Time, a nod to 疯客直播 Fe experimental filmmaker Godfrey Reggio鈥檚 latest film of the same name.
鈥淏ecause of the pandemic and the administration change at SITE 疯客直播 Fe, we鈥檝e missed the rhythm of the biennial,鈥 says Louis Grachos, who was appointed the Phillips Executive Director of SITE 疯客直播 Fe in 2021. 鈥淪o, this is an important step back into that world.鈥
On February 18, SITE announced the list of 71 international or internationally renown artists who will participate in the International, along with more than 20 鈥渇igures of interest鈥 鈥 some real, some fictional, some contemporary, and some historical 鈥 who are related in one way to the Southwest, New Mexico, or 疯客直播 Fe itself. The 12th International will encompass a century鈥檚 worth of artworks, more than 300 of them created between 1926 and the present.
Among the 71 artists represented will be legendary experimental filmmaker Reggio 鈥 originally from New Orleans but a 疯客直播 Fe resident since the 1960s 鈥 as well as Guillermo Galindo (Mexico), David Horvitz (California), Dominique Knowles (Bahamas), Simone Leigh (Illinois), and Nora Naranjo Morse (New Mexico), who created works specifically for the International.
New Mexico-based artists will include Autumn Chacon (Din茅/Chicana), Diego Medina (Piro-Manso-Tiwa), Mexican-American and IAIA鈥檚 Daisy Quezada Ure帽a, Bosnian-American artist Maja Ruznic, and Chicano sculptor Luis Tapia.; International artists will include Ali Cherri (Lebanon) Ximena Garrido-Lecca (Peru), Saodat Ismailova (Uzbekistan), Franco-Austrian artist and choreographer Gis猫le Vienne, and Zhang Xu Zhan (Taiwan).
As for figures of interest, visitors will encounter references to D.H. Lawrence, desert transcendentalist Agnes Pelton, Pop Chalee (aka Merina Lujan), photographer Eliot Porter, and Rebecca Salsbury James, a friend of Georgia O鈥橩eeffe whose style was not so removed from O鈥橩eeffe鈥檚 own. Visitors will also hear of Willa Cather and Vladimir Nabokov, as well as of Rudolfo Anaya鈥檚 fictional character, curandera (healer) 脷ltima
鈥淭he heart of the exhibition will be at SITE 疯客直播 Fe,鈥 Grachos says. SITE offers 18,000 square feet of space, where 12th International curator Cecilia Alemani decided to focus the exhibits. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where the heart of the show will be, or some of the focus that she has organized,鈥 Grachos continues. 鈥淭hen, Cecilia was also able to collaborate and work with many curators and directors here in New Mexico. She really embraced all of our museums and was able to find interesting ways to invite artists to respond to those particular institutions.鈥
The International will extend to more than 12 other locations, including several major institutions: the Palace of Governors and the St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Museum of International Folk Art, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and the New Mexico Military Museum.
Some of the artists and their works will engage with less traditional spaces, like an old movie theater, empty storefronts, and even part of a cannabis shop, and hopefully the former Shidoni Foundry in Tesuque, where artists like Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache) worked.
鈥淲e really were so thrilled that Cecilia accepted,鈥 Grachos says. 鈥淪he鈥檚 the curator for the High Line in New York and does all of the outdoor commissions for the High Line.鈥
She most notably organized and was the architect and artistic director of the Venice Biennale number 59 in 2022, Grachos says. 鈥淗er show, The Milk of Dreams, captured all of our imagination,鈥 he adds.
For the 12th International theme, Once Within a Time, filmmaker Reggio summed it up best when he described his movie of the same title in a short video.
鈥淭his is an effort to be at once linear and non-linear at exactly the same time,鈥 Reggio says. 鈥淐lear and ambiguous exactly at the same time. In a language that every creature on the planet 鈥 human animals, and other animals 鈥 all understand.鈥 鈥 Ania Hull
SING OUT, LOUISE!
SFO Seeks a Few Good Singers (18, to be Exact)
If you鈥檙e a local resident who has always wanted to sing with the 疯客直播 Fe Opera, your chance is coming soon: The company will be holding auditions in April and May for a project that starts in August.
There are just two catches. You won鈥檛 get paid, and you have to be a student entering the ninth through 12th grade in August 2025.
Other than that, it鈥檚 a pretty sweet gig. The opera鈥檚聽Young Voices聽training program is free to everyone who鈥檚 accepted, and it includes voice lessons and musical coaching, along with training in diction, music theory, and basic acting. Participants also take part in master classes taught by guest artists and perform in community engagement events and public concerts.
Up to 18 students will be selected for the 2025-2026聽program, which is under the direction of professional soprano and former 疯客直播 Fe apprentice singer Amy Owens. Applicants should be highly motivated and have a demonstrated interest in studying classical singing.
The application deadline is March 30. For more information and an application, visit sfnm.co/youngvoices. 鈥 Mark Tiarks
OUTINGS
Lesser-Heard History
When she presents聽The Pre-Civil War Complicated Lives of People of African Descent聽at 疯客直播 Fe Library, Sherri Burr won鈥檛 lack for credibility.
The law professor and writer鈥檚 related book聽Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865, was published in 2019 and was nominated for a Nobel Prize in history. In 2017, the graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University, and Yale Law School switched from working full time as a law professor at the University of New Mexico to writing.
Burr鈥檚 talk will focus on how the arrival of Africans changed the Virginia colony and the country into a multi-racial community where legal rights were advanced and restricted.
Registration is required; visit sfnm.co/LibraryTalk聽. 鈥 Brian Sandford
CAST CHANGES
Leadership Shifts At Playhouse, Chiaroscuro
疯客直播 Fe Playhouse has hired a managing director and shuffled its leadership team following the summer 2024 departures of two of its three co-artistic directors.
Jessica Morrow (clockwise from left), Anna Hogan, and Cov Jordan
Jessica Morrow聽starts in March, handling daily operations and business strategy. Executive director Colin Hovde is moving into the new role of director of advancement, focusing on community engagement and development strategy, while Anna Hogan remains producing artistic director.
Morrow previously was the associate general manager with the Broadway general management firm ShowTown Theatricals. She has a master鈥檚 degree in performing arts management from Brooklyn College and a bachelor鈥檚 degree in theater from West Texas A&M University.
Hogan joined the Playhouse in January 2024 to form the third leg of a three-person creative team. Fellow co-artistic directors David Stallings and Antonio Mini帽o left the company unexpectedly that summer. Their departures came a little more than a year after Robyn Rikoon stepped down as sole artistic director in July 2023 following a 3陆-year tenure.
At Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art,聽John Addison聽is departing after 17 years as director.聽Cov Jordan, the director of the affiliated Gebert Contemporary, will lead both galleries.
The galleries share space at 558 Canyon Road, and Gebert has a sister gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. Chiaroscuro opened in 2000.
Addison will operate Addison Art Advisors for collectors and artists. 鈥淚鈥檒l specialize in building and managing private collections, including acquisition/deaccession services, artist management, and art appraisal services,鈥 he says via email. 鈥 B.S.