New Mexico’s vibrant gallery scene continues at peak levels through the fall, and beyond. New TABLE contributor Natassja Santistevan suggests some key shows to put on your list. Make these visits into nights out as the days get shorter!
What’s on View This Fall at New Mexico Galleries
Santa Fe
Brandon Maldonado: Requiem
Hecho a Mano Gallery, November 1 – December 2
The exhibition coincides with the Día de los Muertos holiday and is titled, Requiem, which means, “a mass for the repose of the souls of the dead.” Maldonado’s pieces are memorials about death, whether it’s a work about an immigrant who dies crossing the border, victims of war, or a portrait of his recently deceased dog. “I aim to create an emotional and thought provoking display that impacts visitors’ hearts and minds,” he says. There will also be lighter, more playful pieces as well, covering all the emotions surrounding life and death.
Carlos Canul
Strata Gallery, November 5 – November 22
Originally from Brownsville, Texas, contemporary abstract oil painter Carlos Canul now lives and works in Splendora, Texas. His work blends figurative and abstract styles and reflects the influences of his Mayan heritage, spiritual experiences, and his natural surroundings.
Jennifer Ling Datchuk
Form and Concept, November 29 – February 1, 2025
Artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk, born in Warren, Ohio and raised in Brooklyn, New York, explores her layered, multi-cultural identity through new works for her upcoming NMSU ’25-’26 exhibition. Trained in ceramics, Datchuk holds an MFA in Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a BFA in Crafts from Kent State Univerity. She employs porcelain and traditional women’s materials like textiles and hair to delve into themes of fragility, beauty, femininity, and intersectionality. Her practice considers domestic objects, and examines the influence of Western beauty standards on the East and the socio-economic struggles of women and girls on a global scale.
Virgil Ortiz: Revolt 1680/2180: Daybreak of the Resistance
Turner Caroll Art Container, August 10-October 27
Known as the originator of Indigenous Futurism, Virgil Ortiz is a descendant of potters from the Cochiti Pueblo and an interdisciplinary artist who brings his vision of the future to life using ceramics, projection mapping, and augmented reality to New Mexico galleries. This year during Indian Market 2024 Ortiz will take over [CONTAINER] with a multidimensional exhibition featuring historic ancestral clay works, augmented reality, new video work, and his own contemporary clay and monumental pieces, offering a new perspective on the Pueblo Revolt.
Erika Wanenmacher: What Time Travel Feels Like, Sometimes
SITE Santa Fe
November 14, 2024 – February 22, 2025
Contemporary artist and practicing witch, Erika Wanenmacher, invites audiences into an immersive experience with her new exhibition. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Wanenmacher has been based in Santa Fe for over forty years. She’s shown at a number of New Mexico galleries over her time in the Southwest. Using concepts like cellular memory and time travel, Wanenmacher’s work explores the relationship between objects, memories, and time. Her sculptures, installations, photographs, paintings, and prints create connections spanning time and space, resonating with universal and personal narratives.
Albuquerque
New Worlds: New Mexico Women to Watch
516 Arts
Through September 28, 2024
This show features five New Mexico-based artists. It’s presented alongside the New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). Artists include Nikesha Breeze, Szu-Han Ho, Eliza Naranjo Morse, Jennifer Nehrbass, and Rose B. Simpson. The artwork looks at the artists’ thought-provoking responses to questions like, “When women [identified] artists envision a different world, how does that look?”
Story by Natassja Santistevan
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