
Axle Contemporary
a mobile artspace based in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Upcoming
FLOW
remembering our way to a livable future
An unfolding of human/water relations in Santa Fe
June 10, 2023, 9:30 – 11:30
Axle will be near Plaza Mercado-Galisteo Street
A Participatory Procession and Public Celebration
Gathering @ Alameda & Paseo de Peralta, moving down Water St to Guadalupe and De Vargas Park
In Preparation: FREE Community Art Workshops: May 27 and June 3
11am to 3pm @ Wise Fool NM - 1131 Siler Rd - drop in for all or part
FLOW is an awakening to what was, what is, and what could be, marking the Rio Chiquito’s path (now Water Street), which was once a major water source for the city’s flora, fauna, and agriculture. FLOW is a procession of giant puppets, street theatre, music, poetry, dance and ceremony running from the source Spring at the northwest corner of Paseo de Peralta and Alameda, following the Rio Chiquito (now Water Street) to its confluence with the Santa Fe River near the Guadalupe Church. FLOW offers free public arts workshops May 27 and June 3 at Wise Fool NM, to engage, educate and inspire all community members about Santa Fe’s water and water history. At these workshops, after learning about the Rio Chiquito and the Santa Fe River, participants will create art, puppets, banners, and poetry about water and the Rio Chiquito. These artworks will come to life in the procession as community members wear, carry, speak and sing their relationship to the waters.
FLOW is organized by Jo Christian and Bobbe Besold, with many community partners (Axle is one of those).
More info here: https://wisefoolnewmexico.org/flow2023/
Friends of the Orphan Signs
Project Interchange
June 16, 2023, 9-11pm
Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque and CURRENTS Festival at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds
Project Interchange is an event that brings together poets from Albuquerque and Santa Fe in a performative, creative dialogue about connection and community and will occur simultaneously in both cities. This project is organized by Friends of the Orphan Signs in collaboration with Axle Contemporary.
Poets in each city will text each other via a live group message which will be projected onto large-scale outdoor walls. The conversations will expand from guiding questions about our relationship to one another. Albuquerque poets include Sara Rivera, Valerie Martinez, Beca Alderete Baca, and Amaris Ketcham. Santa Fe poets include Edie Tsong, Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, and Loretta Trujillo.
Though only separated by 56 miles, Santa Fe and Albuquerque are divided by socio-economic and cultural factors which inform our experiences of each place. Project Interchange seeks to explore this gap and to offer expansive dialog about those factors that separate us and those that connects us. This project offers a space that seeks to expand how we understand and connect to each other and ourselves.
Friends of the Orphan Signs (FOS) is a collaborative public art organization of artist-educators that creatively revitalizes abandoned or unused road signs with artwork, with a particular focus along historic Route 66 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. FOS facilitates innovative collaborations and educational workshops with local communities with the aim of designing new imagery to install in the signs as public art pieces. We work to revitalize the visual landscape of underserved urban neighborhoods while centering the voices of its residents. Our signs are public, accessible on foot and in car, and are on major thoroughfares throughout Albuquerque.
NANOGRANTS
Fibrous Otherworlds
July 28 - August 27
.a group exhibition showing work by six New Mexico artists who engage with fiber, envisioning altered realities through their artwork. Works by Kaitlin Bryson, Steiner Cody, Sienna Sullivan-Ginn, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Merce Mitchell, and Gina Telcocci. Curated by Carol Cooper
Pandemic Chalkboard
Miranda and Bruce Gray
September and October
The Grays will exhibit large prints of their pandemic-time collaborative chalkboard drawings in a BROADSIDES exhibition on the exterior of Axle.