Axle Contemporary
a mobile artspace based in Santa Fe, New Mexico
small worlds
New Mexico School for the Arts
11th and 12th grade students
working with
Curtis Talwst Santiago
Exhibition: December 15-19
Curtis Talwst Santiago is in Santa Fe, spending the week in afternoon diorama workshops with NMSA's 11th and 12th grade students to conceive of and create small worlds, an exhibition of miniature, condensed dioramas that reflect a self-proposed narrative by each student. small worlds will be on view in the Axle Contemporary gallery from December 15 through December 19. The educational partnership between SITE Santa Fe and New Mexico School for the Arts offers New Mexico youth learning experiences and exposure to professional artists and creative problem solving that impacts students lives for years to come.
Santiago's work is included in the current SITE Santa Fe SITElines biennial, Casa tomada. He will be speaking at SITE at 2pm on December 15th, before the opening of the student work.
Curtis Talwst Santiago (b. 1979 Toronto, Canada; lives in Lisbon)
Over the last several years, Santiago has been creating dioramas inside of ring boxes. Inside of these small spaces, Santiago constructs environments that are intimate and performative; the artist has carried them around to show visitors one on one, opening up a scene in the space of his hand. These mobile enclosures are a way of transporting carefully constructed scenes that include specific people, places, and histories. For Casa tomada, one gallery contains a glass house in which a selection of 51 dioramas appear together in a singular installation.
From a recent article in The Santa Fe New Mexican's Pasatiempo by Grace Parazzoli:
To create his art, Santiago uses a wide array of media — everything from plastic to hair. On his use of varied media, but also perhaps speaking implicitly to his works as a whole, he said, “Anything has the potential to be something larger than it is when you bring it down to that scale.”
Wilderness Acts 2018
Art-in-Nature
Cannupa Hanska Luger & Ian Kuali’i
Frederick Spaulding
Dana Chodzko
Munson Hunt
Rick Yoshimoto & Chrissie Orr
Susan Bruneni
Susannah Abbey
Paula Castillo
Brian Fleetwood
Gina Telcocci
Kathleen McCloud
with The Santa Fe Botanical Garden's
Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve
September 1 – 23 in Axle
All of September and October at the wetlands preserve
Opening for both shows: at the wetlands preserve, Saturday, Sept.1 , 1- 4 pm
This pair of exhibitions explores the relationship between art and nature, creates awareness of our local natural resources, and promotes wetland and ecological conservation. The artists will create ephemeral sculptural artworks using natural materials in sites in the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve in La Cienega. Works will be on view at the preserve throughout the months of September and October. A companion exhibition of related works by the same artists will open in the Axle Contemporary mobile gallery on September 1 and continue through September 23. This is the third iteration of the Wilderness Acts Biennial, which began in 2014. Works in this exhibition include a small shelter constructed from "invasive" saplings, a day-long performance ritual of seed distribution, and beavers sculpted from mud.
The Santa Fe Botanical Garden's Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve is a 35-acre nature preserve and home to a rare natural cienega (marsh) and hosts a bountiful diversity of plants and wildlife.
presented by Axle Contemporary and the Santa Fe Botanical Garden
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DIRECTIONS: The preserve is located on the I-25 West Frontage Road south of Santa Fe. From I-25 take Exit 271 for “La Cienega” and turn right onto West Frontage Road heading north. The parking lot entrance is 1½ miles north after turning onto West Frontage Road. From New Mexico State Road 599 (NM-599), turn south onto West Frontage Road heading toward the Downs at Santa Fe Race Track. The parking lot entrance is two miles south of the Downs at Santa Fe Race Track.