What: 

When: December 6 at6:30 PM

Of Note:

Harry Pollitt, a self-taught artist,
began his art journey in 1968, after happening upon a sailor whittling a piece
of wood outside his home. Immediately fascinated, Harry went into the woods,
found a downed tree, broke off a piece, and attempted his first sculpture with
a 6-inch hunting knife. Thus began a 40-year passion with woodcarving, first
forming small animals, jewelry and ornate gunstocks, and eventually evolving
into purely abstract sculptural work.

In 2010 Harry undertook an
unanticipated medium change, moving into glass sculpting. “I am enthralled with
the color and luminosity. Plus I am amazed at the greater artistic freedom I’ve
gained by applying my years of experimentation with sculptural forms in wood,
coupled with my knowledge of structural engineering.

Others were enthralled as well, by
Pollitt’s glacially slow and psychologically daunting advancement from simple
carvings to becoming a notable artist on the international art scene, then to
abandon that recognition and stature in one medium to begin anew. Happily,
Pollitt’s rise in stature with his glass sculpture was at a meteoric pace.
Throughout, Pollitt’s journey has been driven by the need to create, to feed
his soul. On Thursday evening’s Art Talk, Pollitt will have a special
conversation focused on the courage involved in the creative process. This is a free event but space is limited.
Please call the gallery to reserve your seat.

Destiny Allison Fine Art,7 Caliente Road, Suite A-1, in Eldorado. (505)428-0024

Peter will present photographs made during a trip to China in April 2012. His interest in China’s architectural heritage took him briefly to Beijing, The Forbidden City, and a section of the Great Wall, and then to China’s best-preserved ancient walled town Pingyao in Shanxi province, built around 1370, which retains its layout from the Ming and Qing eras. He also visited several rural villages in Guangxi province where the indigenous architecture has remained untouched since the demise of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), including Ping’an and Longji, with their timber buildings perched in the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces north of Guilin, and Liugong on the Li River, built of locally made brick with its temple dedicated to the god of fishermen.

Landscape photography in two magnificent national parks was his next objective. The sandstone and limestone towers of Zhangjiajie in northwestern Hunan province, jagged, fragmented, and often shrouded in low-hanging clouds and mist, are magical and were used as the basis for the landscapes of the movie Avatar. The Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) range in Anhui province is similarly iconic to the Chinese, because of its spectacular sunrises, pine trees twisted as they survive on strangely jutting granite peaks, and views of the so-called “Sea of Clouds” touching the mountainsides.

Thursday, October 25 at 6:30 pm

Talk is free but seats are limited.  Please call the gallery at 505-428-0024 to make a reservation. 

On October 11 at 6:00 pm, (PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE) Francisco Benitez will do a talk on the history of the ancient encaustic method, as it was developed in Greece and Egypt, followed by a demo where he will present both original and modern versions of the ancient tools, pigments, and materials. He will also discuss the origins and development of the famous Fayum portraits, which are the most vivid testimony we have today of the ancient encaustic tradition.

On October 25, at 6:30 pm, photographer Peter Lloyd will present a powerpoint presentation on China and his fine art prints. Stay tuned for details.

We are proud to present “Vulnerabilities” works by Francisco Benitez and Emila Faro.

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 6

Show runs through November 3

There is probably nothing else that can trigger an emotional resonance in us more readily than looking into the face of a fellow human being. For centuries artists have been trying to capture the ineffable quality that a face has to move us. The face has been rendered by artists in thousands of ways through the centuries, exploring the emotions we are capable of eliciting with our facial expressions. Destiny Allison Fine Art is hosting a group show, “Vulnerabilities”, in which three artists, each in their unique style, use the face as a conveyance to interpret their own musings about what being human entails.

In his latest series of encaustic portraits, Santa Fe-based painter Francisco Benitez seeks to have the contemporary viewer reflect upon the past’s presence in our psyches. His figures have an almost sculptural mass to them, and their countenances seem like distant cousins to those shown in the encaustic funeral portraits done during the first century in Egypt’s Fayum Basin area. His subjects seem to have a knowing of the world they’re looking out at, from a distance devoid of time. Benitez actually uses the same technique as the ancient artists of the Fayum period, working with a tetrachromy (four-color palette) of waxes and heated tools, to create his contemporary “historicized” portraits.

Benitez’ work in the show is opposed beautifully by the ephemeral and delicate quality of the work of Sicilian artist Emilia Faro, who Benitez met during his solo show in Syracuse, Italy in 2006. Impressed by her work, Benitez contacted the Kaudia Marr Gallery, and Faro was subsequently invited to have a solo exhibition in Santa Fe in 2007.

Faro has created a series of masterful watercolor portraits of ethereally lovely females and young girls, whose faces seem to be either gently dissolving away or coming into form. What is highly resolved in each is an introspective moment of thought that mostly comes through the subject’s eyes. The models are in certain instances based on fashion magazine images, others are personal acquaintances. The images as a group carry a certain message as well, rendered in the pales of watercolor, an art form once considered a “lady’s activity”. Using that particular medium and her particular subject matter, Faro’s paintings both occupy and critique themselves, nudging the viewer to understand that some gender-related notions could and should segue into a more enlightened view.

Barbarians at the Gate

Stravinsky, Diaghilev & the Ballets Russes

On Thursday, April 5^th, 2012 at 6:00 p.m., a multimedia presentation entitled Barbarians at the Gate – Stravinsky, Diaghilev & the Ballets Russes, narrated by Tom Maguire, will be offered free to the general public at the Performance Space at La Tienda at 7 Caliente Road in Eldorado. This event is presented by Destiny Allison Fine Art as part of the salon series: Art in the 21^st Century.

This presentation will offer a detailed look at the time between the first season of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1909 and Diaghilev’s death in Venice two decades later.  Mr. Maguire will examine the artistic forces and personalities that forged a reinvigoration of the art of ballet.  The presentation will also explore the effect that the visual artists, composers, librettists, choreographers, dancers and designers associated with the Ballets Russes had, not only on that organization, but also on their own art forms and the cultural life of Europe in general.  The presentation will concentrate on the work of composers Stravinsky, Ravel, Milhaud, Satie, Debussy and Prokofiev; visual artists Benois, Picasso, Rouault, Gris, Picabia, Bakst and Braque and choreographers Fokine, Massine, Nijinsky, Nijinska and Balanchine.  These artists and their influence on the artistic life of Europe, in general, and Paris, in particular, will be chronicled; along with the aristocrats, members of high society and the business class, donors and sponsors who made their work possible.

Mr. Maguire augments the research he has done on the Ballets Russes with material gleaned from the most recent publications on the subject.  Visual and musical materials are selected from several sources including Mr. Maguire’s extensive collection. Barbarians at the Gate dramatically explores the artistic explosion that Serge Diaghilev unleashed on Western Europe as he brought; first visual arts, then opera and finally ballet from mother Russia to the salons and theatres of Paris.  In stunning visuals accompanied by music clips, Barbarians at the Gate traces not only the history of the company, but also its effect on all of the arts in the early 20^th century.

In partnership with The Woman’s Tree, we are hosting a free screening of the film, “Who Does She Think She Is?

Join us Sunday, March 25 at 3:30 pm for this very special event.  The event is free and open to the public.  It will be held at The Performance Space, immediately adjacent to Destiny Allison Fine Art.

Five women whose stories will outrage and ultimately inspire you to do the things that bring you joy.

“A compelling documentary film on women artists – it explores the barriers to the creative process and how art ultimately transforms women’s lives and those around them.” (Cathy Malchiodi, Psychology Today)

A panel discussion and Q&A will follow the film, featuring local artists Destiny Allison, Judy Goldberg, Joan Logghe, and Maye Torres.

"Our Lady" -- Alma Lopez

Join us on Thursday, March 1 at 6 om for the next talk in our ongoing series, Art in the 21st Century.  The talk is free but reservations are required.  To reserve your seat, please call the gallery at (505) 428-0024.

On February 25, 2001, the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, held a reception and opening for its new exhibit, “Cyber Arte: Tradition Meets Technology.”  The exhibit was a collaborative effort of four Hispanic women contemporary artists using modern technologies to express traditional themes.  The opening was well attended and deemed a success by the local community.  And . . . it went downhill from there!

Jack McCarthy will present an in-depth account of a museum and a controversial piece of art.  Deemed an inappropriate depiction of a religious icon, both local and national groups assailed the museum exhibit as blasphemous and demanded the removal of a specific work of art, a public apology, resignations of both the director of the Museum of New Mexico (MNM) and the director of The Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA), the return of all religious artifacts to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and return all monies gained from this exhibit to the community.  The controversy continued for nine months when the exhibit was taken down voluntarily four months ahead of schedule.

BIO:  

Jack McCarthy is an artist/historian and resides in Eldorado. During the “Our Lady” controversy at the International Museum of Folk Art, he was Chief of Security for the Museum of New Mexico and was responsible for the security and safety of the art, the museum, staff and visitors.  He was integrally involved in the events that made up the “Our Lady” controversy in 2001. As a historian, he has studied and met with other museums involved in religious controversies and is presently writing a book “The Third Rail: Religious Controversy in Museums”.

Destiny Allison Fine Art is pleased to welcome author and artist, Lindsay Ahl for on Thursday, February 2 at 6 pm.  The talk is free but reservations are strongly recommended.  Please call the gallery at (505) 428-0024 to reserve a seat.

Lindsay’s talk will track an idea … that of being in time or being outside of time … in relation to various modes of artistic expression and/or the creative experience. She will reference Lorca’s In Search of Duende, Nietszche’s The Birth of Tragedy, and Mallarme’s Abyss, all in the service of discussing the “lyric” (timelessness) and “narrative” (in time) in relation to poetry and fiction, and in relation to our own lives and creative processes.

Lindsay Ahl’s novel Desire was a finalist for the Ruth Lilly Prize and a Discover New Writer’s Award. Lindsay was a Breadloaf Fellow in 2004. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in BOMB Magazine, Fiction Magazine, Drunken Boat, Vellum, The Brooklyn Rail, The Patterson Review, RHINO, and in the anthology From the Fishouse, among others. She currently teaches at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

We’ve been a bit quiet lately and remiss on regular postings.  That’s because both Destiny and Margaret are finishing up new books.  Destiny’s book is entitled Shaping Destiny: A quest for meaning in art and life.  The book is a journey through the creative process that shows us new ways of looking at and talking about art, and demonstrates that making art is the process through which we discover our humanity and create our lives.  It is scheduled for release in late February of 2012.  For more information about Shaping Destiny, click here.

Margaret’s book is entitled The Way I Saw Things.  It is a retrospective of the illustration career of Margaret’s husband, Braldt Bralds and will be published by UNM press next year.  We’ll post more details about The Way I Saw Things as the book gets a little further down the pipeline.

Please stay tuned for upcoming events.  The art talks in the coming months are going to be quite spectacular and we may have a very special guest artist in March.  We’ll let you know all the details as soon as they are finalized.