Opening on April 11, King Galleries celebrates the work of Santa Clara pottery artist Susan Folwell in the exhibition Roads Well Travelled: Route 66. Folwell created 11 new pieces that will show the historic highway and some of the roadside attractions that call it home. She explains that “[it’s] a very fun way to interpret attractions and funky kitsch I’ve seen and wondered about since I was a kid taking road trips with the family.”

Susan Folwell (Santa Clara Pueblo), Native Bordertown: Gallup, native clay, 13"

“Susan Folwell uses the clay in a personal and dramatic manner to speak about the world around her,” says King Galleries owner Charles S. King.  “This iconic highway, especially in New Mexico and Arizona, is not just a remnant of the past, but part of daily life in travelling around the states. Folwell has travelled along the road, taking Polaroids of her adventures, documenting her unique Native perspective of this part of the American West.”  

For Folwell, there is so much fodder along Route 66, particularly in the West. “Much of it already lends itself to my natural interest and delight in the unusual and obscure,” she says. “Neon signs erected in the middle of the last century that still serve purpose and have been kept in good working order. Curio shops that are alive and well, and who doesn’t love a cement teepee?”

The artist has been building objects out of clay to enhance the overall story of a particular idea like beer cans, magazines or ashtrays with a lit cigar. For this new series of work, Folwell uses much of those same concepts but thinks about the West, the desert and what is produced in that landscape. For pieces like Native Bordertown: Gallup, depicting a smattering of signage and Western iconography, she shares, “When my husband and I are passing through Gallup we make it a point of staying at the El Rancho Hotel. So much fun! When I imagine neon signage at its best, I think of El Rancho at night.”

Susan Folwell (Santa Clara Pueblo), Passing Through: Holbrook, native clay, 18"

Folwell continues, “Richardson’s is our first stop in the morning after a hearty breakfast at El Rancho and have cleaned out their gift shop. Standing under these gigantic signs leaves me nostalgic for my childhood, remembering what road trips to Scottsdale from the pueblo meant. An adventure and the possibility of new things, however, seeing those signs gave me comfort as I always knew how far we’d come on the trip and how much further we had to go just by their permanence as centurions along the desert highway.”

In show piece Passing Through: Holbrook, we see one piece of several that features the town of Holbrook. This larger, unique piece shows cars parked at teepees for an evening. “The cement teepees are always surreal against the desert background, almost like they were placed on the moon,” Folwell says. “The shape and size of this pot was meant to convey the open space that Holbrook has, sitting quietly until you happen upon it.”

Susan Folwell (Santa Clara Pueblo), It’s a Good Time to be Home, native clay, 15"

Join King Galleries and Folwell for an opening recepetion during Art Walk from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, April 11. “There will be many iconic images included, that we all know and love,” Folwell adds. “Hopefully I can inspire reflection for some of us who have had inspiring journeys on Route 66.” 

King Galleries
Opens April 11, 2024
130 Lincoln Avenue, #D, Santa Fe, NM 87501 (480) 440-3912, www.kinggalleries.com

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