Santa Fe, Group Exhibition, Blue Rain Gallery
By Kateri Smith (Blackfoot/Métis/Anatolian Greek descent)
The Railyard District carries a sense of rustic modernity. A new water tower is meant to evoke the old-time charm of Santa Fe, but it is just made to look rustic while being new. In the midst of this is the Blue Rain Gallery, established in 1993.
Blue Rain’s Group Exhibition shows off a variety of different media. Glass artists like Raven Skyriver (Tlingit) and Dan Friday (Lummi) mix with printmakers and painters like Chris Pappan (Osage/Kaw/Cheyenne River Lakota) and Helen K. Tindel (Santa Clara Pueblo), featured among many others. The artwork represented an almost dizzying array of styles, and, like all shows at Blue Rain, empty walls are not an issue.
As for the 2-D works, standouts were the acrylic-on-canvas works by Starr Hardridge (Muscogee). Thunder Head was an insight into the artist’s pointillism, reminiscent of beadwork but without the constraints of that medium, and a breath of fresh air. The artist’s works are of a particular vibrancy of color, which photographs do little justice.
The glassworks by Native artists featured at Blue Rain are second to none in Santa Fe. Preston Singletary (Tlingit) exhibited Two Ravens, a glass totem representing the artist’s family in a neo-Viking style. Raven Skyriver showed Inked, a glass octopus mottled and colored in a realistic fashion. Then the bold red-and-black Midnight Fire/Dry Lightning by Spooner Marcus (Ohkay Owingeh) completes three distinct forms that these artists have been drawn to.
Like always, this gallery is one not to miss!
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