The exhibition, Perspectives: Three Artists, Three Weeks, Three Perspectives, presents the work of three distinctive Native painters at King Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 10 through 24. Mateo Romero (Cochiti Pueblo), Marla Allison (Laguna Pueblo), and Derek No-Sun Brown (Shoshone-Bannock/Klamath/ Anishinabe) will show new work and will present artist demonstrations at the gallery.
Derek No-Sun Brown (Shoshone-Bannock/Klamath/Anishinabe), Golden Future, Indian ink on canvas, 30 x 48”
Romero comes from a family of artists at Cochiti Pueblo, and was born and grew up in a different artistic environment in California’s Bay Area and, in 2019, was named, along with his brother Diego, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Living Treasures. He describes his painting as combining “timeless, archaic elements of Pueblo culture” with “contemporary abstract expressionist palette knife and brush work.” His paintings of the Northern New Mexico landscape in Perspectives, capture the ageless vitality of the region in rich, complex painted surfaces that embody not only the artist’s energy but the energy of the environment. “Painting and drawing for me have always been urgent, compelling and necessary. I make marks out of a need to communicate, to contextualize, to form meaning in the world around me.”
Marla Allison (Laguna Pueblo), In the Fog, Brown Deer, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 26”
Brown is comfortably rooted in the traditions of his people which he expresses in flowing contemporary images using India and Sumi ink and water. He says, “Being exposed to different cultures at an early age made me appreciate and love all my people because we are connected to the same source, we all fight the same war and share the same struggle. The Source is our ceremony, and the struggle that is shared between all Native people are issues of identity, poverty, degradation of Indigenous culture and land. The war is how Native people fight against these issues; today we fight using education, legislation, music, art and many other facets other than non-physical solutions.”
Mateo Romero (Cochiti Pueblo), Kwan Okhuwa, Rainclouds, oil on canvas, 30 x 40”
Allison’s In the Fog, Brown Deer recalls her family’s participation in the deer dance at Laguna Pueblo. “The deer is the animal I associated with the most when I was growing up,” she explains. “In the dance, we were taking part in the essence of the animal.” In her painting, the brown deer is silhouetted against a design from traditional Laguna pottery.
Mateo Romero (Cochiti Pueblo), Ogapohgeh Series, oil on canvas, 10 x 10”
“I’m a slave to the paint and the process,” she says. “The paint tells me where it wants to be and the brush directs me.” She develops soft, monochromatic canvases into which she puts positive emotions and thoughts that she hopes will bring a sense of peace to her collector’s homes. “When we’re doing prayers at the pueblo, we offer cornmeal which was once our most valuable commodity. We breathe onto it and from it. When I’m painting, sitting next to the canvas and becoming one with it, there’s a sharing back and forth.”
King Galleries
July 10-24, 2021
130 Lincoln Ave, Suite D, Santa Fe, NM 87501
(480) 440-3912, www.kinggalleries.com
Powered by Froala Editor
