SANTA FE, NM.- Peters Projects presents Temporal Domain, work by six acclaimed contemporary artists who were influenced by living and working in the Santa Fe area. The exhibition will include Lynda Benglis, James Lee Byars, Harmony Hammond, Agnes Martin, John McCracken, and Roxy Paine in the contemporary galleries of the Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
New Mexico began developing as a unique art destination even before it became a state in 1913. When train service arrived in 1880, it brought visual artists from the cities of the East Coast and Mid- West to live and create their art. The spectacular landscape, limitless sky, and varied cultures were just a few of the reasons why northern New Mexico became an artists’ sanctuary.
Lynda Benglis has spent the past 45 years exploring textures manifested by a variety of materials, including poured latex, polyurethane foam, ceramic, wire mesh, aluminum, bronze and gold leaf. Benglis’ abstract forms are as diverse as her choice of materials; however there is a unifying organic quality present throughout. Benglis came to Santa Fe in 1993, and continues to reside here part-time.
James Lee Byars was known for conceptual, performative, and reductive object-based work. Beginning in 1955, for his thesis show at Wayne State University, Byars, himself, was the project. Between 1958 and1967, Byars spent most of his time in Japan which greatly influenced his approach. His later “Perfect” body of work employed circular and spherical forms, which were often golden. Byars lived in Santa Fe from 1993 until his death in 1997. He died in Cairo, Egypt while working on a project.
Harmony Hammond moved to Galisteo, NM from New York in 1984 after establishing herself as a pioneer of the feminist art movement. She co-founded A.I.R., the Manhattan-based, first women’s cooperative art gallery in 1972. Hammond’s abstract works are mostly monochromatic – but not minimal. They are richly layered, textured, bold, gutsy, mixed media pieces that claim their space. Hammond has had over forty solo exhibitions and is represented in numerous public art collections.
Agnes Martin is most closely associated with Taos, NM, although she had her first one-woman exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, in 1958. Moving to New Mexico in 1967, after her lower Manhattan studio was slated for demolition, Martin did not paint for seven years. In 1973, Martin returned to art making, and produced the portfolio of 30 screen prints, On a Clear Day. We are proud to present this work in Temporal Domain; also in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Her signature style is defined by an emphasis on lines and grids on a field of subtle color. Agnes Martin died in 2004 at the age of 92.
John McCracken was a West Coast artist whose sculpture was affiliated with Minimalist, Finish Fetish, and Light and Space concerns, but not identified by any one movement. His elegant signature sculptures are intensely colored, geometric forms painted in monochrome lacquer. McCracken’s plank pieces lean against the wall and the artist saw these works as existing “between worlds”, not only linking the floor (sculptural) and wall (painting), but also matter and spirit, and body and mind. John McCracken lived in Santa Fe from 1994 until his death in 2011.
Roxy Paine attended The College of Santa Fe in 1986-1987. Paine’s early work involved designing and programming machines to make art; removing the artist’s hand from the creative process. His Dendroid series utilizes mechanical means to replicate natural tree-like forms. In the artist's own words, “I've processed the idea of a tree and created a system for its form. I take this organic majestic being and break it down into components and rules. The branches are translated into pipe and rod.” Paine’s recent works focus on sculptures that are replicas of appliances and life-size dioramas of a fast food restaurant and a control room made of wood, that eerily lack any human presence.
The six artists whose work is represented in Temporal Domain possess uniquely divergent concerns in their practices. However, each of these artists has been described as having a sense of spirituality permeating their works. This singular commonality links them together and to Santa Fe as both a physical place and a metaphysical concept.
