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Larry Bell’s Rare “Teeth in Orange Juice” Series to Exhibit in Taos.

Opening on Saturday July 5, 2014 at David Anthony Fine Art in Taos, Larry Bell will exhibit a rarely shown series of collages on canvas created in the aftermath of September 11th.

If you’ve studied art history anytime since the early 70’s, you know of Larry Bell. In Taos, we know Larry as one of our own internationally acclaimed artists. Earlier this year, Larry returned home from London after a sold-out exhibition at the White Cube. Shortly afterward, he was in São Paulo, Brazil with another very successful show. After over 50 years of art making, Larry is at the top of his game. Now, DAFA welcomes Mr. Bell back to the Taos gallery scene after a long absence.

The series, which began with a different intention prior to that event, according to Mr. Bell, “became the color of the fireballs, and the fragments of the papers and collage elements became the strange imagery that is seen in the works. The acrid greenish color of the dust and detritus in the air became part of the imagery also. My work became totally driven by the imagery and emotion of the incident and was totally emotional and intuitive . . . in the 30 days after the event I had made about 30 canvases with this kind of imagery on it.”

The Collages are paired with the Time Machine, an installation of a reclaimed experiment from Los Alamos Laboratories, that compresses reflected and transmitted light so a reflected image is superimposed on whatever is transmitted through the glass of the sculpture. To Mr. Bell it suggests “the compression of the materials of the buildings on the casualties inside the structures as if the people had become parts of a flat collage.”

The Time Machine, paired with the canvasses, creates the emotional and the intuitive surreal images of witnessing that event. Mr. Bell adds, “I like these works only because they are so totally honest. The only title I could think of for these odd images was “Teeth in Orange Juice”.” So “Teeth in Orange Juice” they are named, and on exhibit only for the second time in more than a decade.

Concurrently showing during Bell’s summer exhibition will be abstract works by Cody Riddle. Another Taos artist, Cody has exhibited several times at the Harwood Museum of Art and was part of a 50-year retrospective of abstract expressionism at Hulse-Warmen gallery in 2010. Not only will new painted works by Riddle be available, but also sculptural wall mounted works of vibrantly painted, ingeniously sliced branches of Pinõn. At first look one is struck with the beauty of the organic sculptures, followed immediately by wonderment at how the work was accomplished. Stay tuned for a separate reception for Cody Riddle later this summer.

Larry Bell’s “9/11 and The Time Machine” opens at David Anthony Fine Art on Saturday, July 5, 2014, 4:00-7:00pm at 132 Kit Carson Road in Taos, New Mexico. Both exhibits continue until September 21.

David Anthony Fine Art, (DAFA), located at 132 Kit Carson Road in Taos, New Mexico, presents the most innovative artworks from Taos and around the world, considering all genres, mediums and artists, in an environment that is accessible and welcoming to all.

This fall, The Paseo will transform the heart of Taos.  

Dedicated to bringing the art of installation, performance and projection to the streets of the Taos Historic District, The Paseo is a brand-new art festival. It opens on Friday, September 26, coinciding with opening night of the 40th Annual Taos Fall Arts Festival.

The Paseo will unite the 2014 Fall Arts venues, curating a public display of art throughout the streets of the Taos Historic District. Introducing the world’s latest expressions of art and culture, The Paseo will bring a completely new dynamic to the art scene in Taos. “What separates Taos from other art venues is the breadth of art and culture in one small ancient place,” says organizer Matt Thomas. “We want to create new shared experiences.”

Art installations, sculptures and performances will be placed along the .7 mile Paseo, inviting all to explore, wonder and be inspired. Workshops and artist presentations in the days surrounding the event will guide participants through the evolution of new art forms involving projection, robotics, responsive new media, and more.

Under the guidance of an outstanding advisory board including Ann Landi of ARTnews, New Mexico Art Commissioner David Hinske, and CERN cultural specialist Ariane Koek, The Paseo creates a platform for art that is experimental, time-based, ephemeral, participatory, and context-responsive. Dozens of artists have already submitted their work for consideration; the advisory board will select ten or more pieces for inclusion in the first annual The Paseo. Taos audiences will recognize work by internationally-known local artists Agnes Chavez, Christina Sporrong, and Christian Ristow, alongside work from artists around the U.S. and the world.

The Paseo’s Kickstarter crowdfunding initiative launched June 18.  Working to raise $20,000 in 45 days, The Paseo team is seeking community support to help launch this innovative new festival. Funding will pay for equipment, installation expenses, travel costs, and creative fees for the artists invited to participate. Funders can receive incentives including shirts, stickers, tickets to event functions and original art.

Support and donations from the community will play an essential role in bringing The Paseo to life.  Please visit paseotaos.org to learn more.

The Paseo Team
J. Matthew Thomas
Agnes Chavez
David Mapes
Janet Webb
Anita McKeown
Molly Robertson
Jennifer Longo

Advisory Board
Mariannah Amster and Frank Ragano, Executive/Artistic Directors of Parallel Studios, which produces CURRENTS: Santa Fe International New Media Festival.
Teresa Buscemi, Program coordinator for 516 Arts.
Josh Comfort is a registered Architect and Arts Advocate based in Denver.
David Hinske, New Mexico Arts Commissioner and painter.
Megan Jacobs, Highlands University, Media Arts
Ariane Koek (UK) is a Clore Fellow and the first cultural specialist appointed by CERN – the world’s largest particle physics laboratory based outside Geneva, in Switzerland.
Ann Landi, contributing editor of ARTnews.
Lucy R. Lippard is a writer, curator, and activist based in New Mexico.
Nancy Zastudil, art curator and writer.

For more information about The Paseo, contact J. Matthew Thomas at (575) 613-0601 or taospaseo@gmail.com. Visit paseotaos.org.

On Friday June 13 at 6pm a free concert will be performed at David Anthony Fine Art as part of the 7th Annual Taos Opera Institute Festival.

Each year in June, the Taos Opera Institute (TOI) conducts a highly intensive program for the serious singer at the Taos Ski Valley. Singers from around the country audition to participate in TOI, which is designed to bridge the gap between academia and opera apprenticeships. Graduates are prepared for various careers in opera.

Enjoy an intimate setting inside the beautifully adorned art gallery that is known as DAFA. “Last year TOI performed briefly at DAFA and it was a wonderful experience for me” says David Mapes, owner of DAFA, “The acoustics were surprisingly great”. “I am honored that our gallery was chosen as a regular venue this year,” adds Mapes.

The Quartet will perform from 6 – 7pm and refreshments will be served. Performing will be Anthony Moreno, Rainelle Krause, Denise Wernley and Joseph Lopez. While the event is free, The Taos Opera Institute, a non-profit organization will be accepting donations for their programs. For more information on the Taos Opera Institute, please visit their website at taosoi.org.

RECEPTION: 6pm – 7pm, Friday, June 13
LOCATION: David Anthony Fine Art
132 Kit Carson Road, Taos, NM

The Exhibit

The experiment that is DAFA’s Spring Experiment is a re-mix of creativity and chaos, and identity and history. Opening May 31, 2014, two Taos artists explore the patterns of space and time, pushing perceptual boundaries with painting, collage, photography and computer visualizations. J. Matthew Thomas and Seamus Mills use the usual, the debris, and the discarded of our lives to push our creative sights toward emergent perspectives.

For J. Matt Thomas the exploration is of the “gray zone’ between chaos and order. Thomas says, “I translate the re-organization of chaos in my work, bringing a sense of order and presentation.”

Please join us to become a part of this creative re-mix in patterns and process which is the DAFA Spring Experiment.
EXHIBITION: May 31 – June 29, 2014
RECEPTION: 4pm – 6pm, Saturday, May 31
LOCATION: David Anthony Fine Art
132 Kit Carson Road, Taos, NM

J Matthew Thomas

J Matthew Thomas became highly trained in constantly re-organizing himself to his environment – treating chaos with a calm sense of order and presentation. Mr. Thomas is a trained architect, and brings this play between architecture and construction into his work. Having studied at Kansas State University and then at Columbia University, his canvases seep with a three-dimensional sense of his architectural work. His process of creating is additive and subtractive, not unlike the practice of architecture and construction. He uses tools and techniques of the architect and builder. He uses existing patterns of things construed as dirty, wasted and non-confirming to “create a piece of work that transcends chaos into a visual rhythm of texture, pattern and material.” The patterns and geometries reflect a diversity of cultural nuances – drawing from historical references, sacred geometry to his own inspired patterning.

Mr. Thomas experiments with pattern and decoration concepts to embody the “remix” ideology of the derivative nature of creativity. Distinct boundaries that are tidy and clean do not exist, but a layered and interwoven set of patterns that conflict with reality or that are reality is at the core. Together something new emerges, a new order from which we can view our identities. He says, “my art is constructed to delineate an order to the mash-up of paper and paint, and these lines become my mask reflecting any number of moods, personalities, and cultural references.”

Seamus Mills

Seamus Mills works are an experiment in re-visioning the normal and the unseen with patterns to form new perceptions. Steeped in history and story, Mr. Mills brings unseen stories of day-to-day into print. His own remarkable histories between Virginia and New Mexico give him context across time and culture that become central themes in his work.

A prolific photographer, Mr. Mills came to his photographic process after a broken hand forced him out of woodworking and wood-carving as a medium. His process includes re-crafting his photographs to create a series of perspectives, insights and histories to his subject. He says, “historical changes in perspective pop up in my work. As I walk around I see something odd or small, and I blow it up as a central figure. That piece becomes the story. It is not what people first notice, but what they don’t notice that becomes my central focus.”