EXHIBITIONS

The New Mexico Art League offers occasional exhibitions of fine art. Some exhibitions
are juried or curated group exhibitions, while others may be exhibitions by
one or more artists. Contact the League for more information
about special exhibitions and scheduling.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS      PAST EXHIBITIONS

Focus on Food & Flowers • June 1-30 2012 • Opening Events June 3, 3:00-7:00 p.m.

Small paintings created and donated by instructors, students, members and supporters of the New Mexico Art League will be on display June 1-30. On June 3, during the Opening Reception, there will be a silent auction of these paintings. Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to acquire beautiful paintings by some of New Mexico's finest and emerging artists. (Paintings will remain on exhibit throughout the month; buyers may pick them up at the close of the show.) For details about how to submit paintings, download the information form.

There will be artist's demonstrations of paintings in progress in the garden outside the League on June 3, from 3:00-5:30 p.m., and those paintings will be auctioned off between 6:00-7:00 p.m.

A special exhibition, “Botanicals,” by artist and NMAL instructor Vasili Katakis will hang through the month.

GOING PLACES: An Exhibition of Paintings from Other Countries; August, 2012

NMAL instructor Maggie Price and her husband, artist Bill Canright, will exhibit paintings from across Europe, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand during the month of August, 2012. Their travels usually involve teaching painting workshops in these locations, and result in many paintings, both plein air work done on location and studio work created once they return home. An opening reception will be held on Sunday, August 12; further information will be posted as it becomes available.

OCTOBER 2012 • PORTRAIT MONTH

The New Mexico Art League will join with the Portrait Society of America in sponsoring a Portrait and Figurative Month at the New Mexico Art League in October of 2012. The event will promote, enhance and foster an understanding of the practice, techniques and applications of traditional fine art portraiture and figurative work. The Facing the Muse Exhibition will include work in two categories, Aspiring and Professional.

The exhibition will be juried by Brian O'Conner and judged by Ned Bittinger.

Juror of selection Brian O'Connor has painted and shown professionally in galleries and museums across the country, receiving a Western States NEA Fellowship in 1990. He has had solo shows in Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami and New York. He has lectured at universities as a visiting guest artist, conducted painting workshops from San Diego to Santa Fe and teaches regularly at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque.

Judge of Awards Ned Bittinger is a internationally recognized portrait and figure painter. He has shown his work in such prestigious venues as the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown Ohio, The Society of Illustrators, New York and Tretykov Gallery in Moscow, Russia. He has painted some of our most distinguished citizens including Secretary of State James A. Baker, Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger and U.S. Negotiator for Trade with China, Debora Lehr. He now lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Download the entry prospectus here.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

August 10 Deadline for receipt of completed application and digital images.

September 2 Notices of Juror’s decisions mailed.

September 24 Deadline for receipt of artwork shipped by commercial currier.

September 26 Deadline for hand-delivered artwork at New Mexico Art League, 12:00pm – 2:00pm.

September 28 Judging.

October 5 Opening Reception for Exhibition, 5:00pm – 8:30pm.

October 2 – 26 Exhibition Open to the Public, Tues. – Sat. 10:00am - 4:00pm.

October 12 Portrait Artists Faceoff, 6pm - Marilyn Drake, Frank Fuchs, Robert Kuester, Pietro Palladini, Roberta Remy and Cynthia Rowland.

October 27 Artwork pick-up at NMAL, 10:00am – 12:00pm.

PAST EXHIBITIONS

The New Mexico Art League participated in celebrations marking the Chinese New Year of the Dragon. The Dragon is the fifth sign of the Chinese zodiac and is considered to be the strongest among all the signs. In ancient China, the celestial Dragon represented an emperor and power. Today, it is the ultimate auspicious symbol signifying success and happiness.

NMAL sponsored an art show from April 4th – April 27, Dancing with Dragons. It exhibited works by several prominent artists, teachers, and students. Art League instructor Ming Franz, a native of Taiwan and a well-known Asian art painter coordinated the show. The event, which included refreshments, demonstrations of calligraphy, ikebana, fine tea sampling, advice on Feng Shui, and a raffle, was very successful.

 

 

An exhibition of paintings in pastel and oil by Maggie Price will hang from April 6 to May 20, 2011. The opening reception will be April 8, from 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. Copies of the artists' books and DVDs will be available, and a painting will be raffled during the reception.

The artist has worked in oils, acrylic and watercolor, but has focused primary on the medium of soft pastel for nearly 20 years. Recently, however, she has returned to working in oils as well, particularly for small studies and plein air pieces. She divides her time now between the two mediums, and enjoys them both.

Maggie Price was a co-founder and the former editor of The Pastel Journal, a national magazine for pastel artists (now owned by F&W Media), and has written over a hundred articles about pastel art and artists. She continues to write occasional articles for that magazine and for The Artist’s Magazine. She is the author of the books Painting with Pastels, and Painting Sunlight & Shadow with Pastels (both published by North Light Books). She has recently completed two instructional DVDs on painting with pastels.

Her paintings often reflect her fascination with light and shadow. In addition to painting subjects in the natural landscape, she likes to paint interiors where natural light illuminates objects indoors. Water and reflections, as well as shadows crossing water, are other favorite subject.

She is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, Signature Member and Distinguished Pastelist of the Pastel Society of New Mexico, Signature Member, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, a member of the Master Circle of the International Association of Pastel Societies and a member of the Salmagundi Club of New York City. She is the President and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Pastel Societies, and serves as contributing editor and on the editorial advisory boards of The Pastel Journal and The Artist’s Magazine. She joined the Board of the New Mexico Art League in January, 2011.

Her work has been included in numerous juried exhibitions, magazine articles and books. She teaches US and foreign workshops in pastel each year; the schedule can be found on her web site. For more information and examples of her art, please visit www.MaggiePriceArt.com.

Paintings: top left, Aspen Road, pastel, 9x11 (detail in banner); above left, Il Refugio, pastel, 24x18; top right, Summer's End, pastel, 18x24; above right, Across the Street, oil, 4x6; all ©Maggie Price.

NMAL instructor and board member Ming Franz exhibited a collection of her watercolor and Splash Ink paintings during the month of February.

Splash Ink is a blending of Asian black ink and primary Chinese stone-ground ink colors, adding finishing touches from Eastern tradition. Blending black ink and colored inks produces an abstract that can be variously interpreted. Often the artist must look at the abstract for a while to let the colors speak. The creativity is in the mind of the artist who adds finishing touches for a unique new expression.

When the splashed ink tradition began in the early centuries of Asian brush painting, only black ink and varying tones of black ink were used. Later Asian artists began to add stone-ground colors from ink stones. Ming Franz's unique contribution is that she combined Asian black ink with Western watercolors and watercolor techniques. For many years, Ming has studied and experimented with Western watercolor and has mastered the technique. The finishing touches that Ming uses are rocks, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, trees, and birds instead of ancient men or old pagoda-roofed houses. Her innovative style of painting expresses an exceptional and contemporary view of nature. These unique techniques dramatize her Splash Ink paintings and make them contemporary, lively, and part of the 21st century progression in art.

Ming's new book, Splash Ink with Watercolor, Looking East Painting West, is an illustrated, step-by-step instructional book, and the accompanying DVD shows Ming Franz in a live setting giving a demonstration on how to do splash ink. The DVD was filmed and edited by UNM students from Grow Media Productions.

About Ming Franz

Ming was born in a jungle region of Taiwan, where she had to hike many miles to school; this led her to a love of hiking and a love for nature, especially waterfalls, streams, rivers, trees, and birds. As a result, painting landscapes came naturally to her. She started painting at eight years old, when her next door neighbor, an art teacher, taught her crayon, charcoal drawing, and watercolor. She later studied with masters of traditional Chinese painting, attended the National Art Institute of Taiwan, and continued her art studies in the U.S.

Ming’s work has been included in numerous magazine publications, as well as in her book with accompanying DVD, Splash Ink with Watercolor, Looking East Painting West, which was released in 2007. She lives in Edgewood, New Mexico, and teaches at the League and in many other locations. For more information, see www.mingfranzstudio.com.

Above, top left, Snowy Mountain, 28 x16; top right, Serenity, 19x26; above right, Ice Castle, Carlsbad NM(detail in banner), 9x19;
all ©Ming Franz.

The Wexler-Troyanowski Art Exhibit

January 7-28, 2011

An exhibition of paintings by artists Howard Wexler and Rich Troyanowski opened at the New Mexico Art League on Friday, January 7, 2011 with a reception that evening from 6-8pm. The exhibit ran through January 28, 2011.

The theme of the show, What We Did Over the Past Summers, included plein air paintings done on location in the East Mountains (Edgewood, Sandia Park, Tijeras, La Madera, San Pedro and particularly in Cerrillos) and in parts of old Albuquerque. The mediums included were oil and acrylic (Rich Troyanowski) and watercolor (Howard Wexler).