Santa Fe, NM, Margarita Paz Pedro: foundations: land and sky, Hecho A Mano.
By Kateri Smith (Blackfoot/Métis/Anatolian Greek descent)
Hecho A Mano has become a magnet for Santa Fe’s younger art crowd, a place where established and emerging artists meet, with a strong emphasis on printmaking. It’s one of the few spots where you might find a $35 Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo) print near original ledger art by Terran Last Gun (Piikani) at a still-reasonable price.
In the front of the gallery is Daniel McCoy: Scenes Along the Rio Grande featuring Daniel McCoy Jr. (Muscogee/Potawatomi) filled with the artist’s landscape paintings, but also a few glimpses showing the artist’s love for Allsup’s, which will be up until September 1.
The center of the gallery includes prints of varying price points, many under $1,000, with a focus on Native American and Mexican artwork. There is beadwork by Hollis Chitto (Mississippi Choctaw/Laguna/Isleta Pueblos) that shares the walls with prints, along with other handmade pieces.
Next is one small room with utilitarian ceramics and an assortment of pieces with a certain amount of style, not the centerpiece of the gallery, but quietly charming in their own right.
The back room is where the exhibition Margarita Paz-Pedro: foundations: land and sky is featured. Paz-Pedro (Mexican-American/Laguna/Santa Clara Pueblo descent) uses ceramics, photographs, and adobe to explore her identity and the history of this region. The installation plays with light and wall painting to create movement, while adobe bricks act as both plinths and part of the narrative.
Many of the more ambitious works, with deceivingly banal titles like Adobe Bowl With Sky (large), conceal surprising intricacy. Many incorporate photo transfers and gold accents. On the wall hang sculptures made primarily out of adobe, formed into bowls. Photo transfers juxtapose against the near pure-white base of the other ceramics, reinforcing the show’s dialogue between land, craft, and memory.
The exhibition, which has already become a local favorite, continues through September 1, 2025.
