Axle Contemporary was founded in 2010 by artists Matthew Chase-Daniel and Jerry Wellman, as a collaborative work of art, and an innovative vehicle for arts distribution.  It has since grown beyond the confines of the mobile exhibition space, and also includes forays into book publishing, and alternative venues for expanded and creative art exhibition.  See more here.

Axle Contemporary programming is supported by Axle Projects, Inc.  Axle Projects is supported through individual donations, and grants from the City of Santa Fe's 1% Lodgers' Tax and The FUNd of the Albuquerque Community Foundation. This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts.    Exhibitions in the Santa Fe Railyard are made possible through the support of The Railyard Art Project.  If you are interested in supporting Axle Projects, visit the website here.

 

Upcoming mobile gallery schedule

The Mobile Gallery is closed for now. See info on Axle exhibitions in Hobbs, Roswell, and at the Santa Fe Community gallery on our Current Exhibitions page

E Pluribus Unum:New Mexico Southeast

an Axle Contemporary project

 

 

 

Western Heritage Museum, Hobbs

August 22 – November 3, 2019

 

Artesia, 510 Gallery

(Artesia portraits only)

510 Main Street, Artesia, New Mexico

 

 

Roswell Museum & Art Center

November 16 –  April 22, 2020

Reception and artist talk, December 7

 

The portraits from our 2018 E Pluribus Unum project will exhibited in museum exhibitions this year.

 

E Pluribus Unum is Axle’s free mobile photo portrait studio. People sit for a portrait while holding a small personally significant object. Prints are distributed to the participants and wheat-pasted to the exterior of the studio-gallery. For each project, an image is created by overlaying all the portraits to create one face that includes equal portions of all the participants. Each project is published in its entirety as a book.

 

In October 2018, we spent the month on the road to create E Pluribus Unum: New Mexico Southeast in Roswell, Lovinton, Hobbs, Alamogordo, Tularosa, Carrizozo, Ruidoso, Mescalero, Artesia, Carlsbad, Portales, and Clovis.

 

The E Pluribus Unum: New Mexico Southeast book with all 950 portraits and one image on the cover blending all off the hundreds of portraits into one face, represents the entirety of the community of participants. The book is $20 and is now available at the exhibition venues and through Amazon here.

 

Potato

an Axle Contemporary project

 

We provided potatoes, carving tools, some printing inks made from delicious colorful spices, and paper.  Participants carved potatoes and make block prints. We hung the prints in our mobile gallery and then cut up the potato blocks and add them to our pot of soup, which was shared with everyone.

 

Project partners: Seed Broadcast, Albuquerque Musem, School for Advanced Research, Museums Different conference.

 

 

 A selection of the prints is now at the Santa Fe Community Gallery in the 'Longer Table' exhibition, through Jan 16, 2020.

 

 

What:
We roll up in our Axle Contemporary mobile artspace, and set up inside and out with tables, a hand-washing setup, potatoes, carving tools, paper and our custom blended edible inks made from colorful foods such as turmeric, beet juice, spirulina, and chile. Participants carve the potato like one would for a woodblock. Then they make several prints using our inks. One of each artist’s work is hung in the mobile artspace, and additional prints can be taken home. As each potato block is finished being used, we chop it up and add it to a boiling pot of potato soup. Soup is served to all people present. The entire activity is provided for free.
 
Why:
It’s an engaged experience, a physically embodied creative process that reaches out to people in unexpected ways. Our aim is to enhance playfulness, ease tensions, connect people with their neighbors at the table, and spark conversation and connection. This is important in today’s world. . The juxtaposition of the humble potato and act of art-making also breaks down barriers between high culture and human culture, and increases  people’s engagement in thinking and reflection in all parts of their lives.
 
The fleet, flexible, and mobile nature of our Axle Contemporary artspace breaks with the traditional physical and social space of the art gallery. It enhances a creative adaptable approach. POTATO encourages improvisation in art making. The playful act of carving potato blocks and printing with food-inks (playing with your food) is not “self-conscious” and encourages improvised art making for all. Improvisation works best when a defined set of parameters are laid out, and creators can explore creative and tangential thinking. POTATO provides a structure and allows the participants to freely improvise.

We invite Contemporary Artists from/in New Mexico to submit proposals for art installations and performance art to take place in our mobile gallery for this coming Winter and Spring.

Installation Art projects are generally made to be seen from the exterior of the gallery through a sheet of glass or screen in the back doorway.  Installation Art should make use of the space inside to hold one work of art that uses the entire space. This is not an opportunity for an exhibition of paintings or drawings. These exhibitions generally last for one month, and are accompanied by a $100 honorarium to help defray artist expenses.

Performance Art projects generally take place in May or June. These are one-day or one-weekend engagements and take place in or adjacent to the mobile gallery, often in the Santa Fe Railyard. Honoraria are $100.

One New Media project will take place in the mobile gallery during the 2020 Currents New Media Festival.  June 12-21, 2020. More info here:

All of these calls-for entries are open to New Mexico artists only.

 

You can download a floor plan with dimensions of the gallery here.

Send proposals as e-mail with drawings, sketches, written descriptions, weblinks, and/or photographs to:
submissions@axleart.com.

Call for Proposals

Installation Art
Performance Art
New Media Art

for the
AXLE CONTEMPORARY MOBILE GALLERY
January 2020 through June 2020