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  • The Wright Contemporary in Taos, New Mexico

ABOUT

The Wright Contemporary is a new venture on the Taos art scene, a set of galleries dedicated to the best in contemporary art of northern New Mexico, as well as a space for lectures, panels, and films (we have state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment and reasonably comfortable chairs and air-conditioning). There is ample parking around the gallery, and we’ve been getting a good turnout for movies and talks, especially for the documentary Agnes Martin: Beyond the Grid and Jason Andrew’s introduction to estate management for artists (see Archived on the main menu). Sign up for our Newsletter in the Gallery News panel box  (it appears to the right of most pages and in the Footer) or use the Contact page, and keep an eye on the Tempo calendar in The Taos News, along with our social media posts on Instagram and Facebook.

The galleries are open every day but Monday and Tuesday, from 2 to 6 p.m. and by appointment. For further information: ann@thewrightcontemporary.

ANN LANDI, Director of The Wright Contemporary

Ann Landi, Director Wright ContemporaryAnn Landi has been an art journalist for nearly 30 years, writing for publications like The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, The New York Times, Sculpture magazine and others.

For more than two decades she was a contributing editor of ARTnews, and for six years the editor and publisher of Vasari21.com, a website for an audience of about 2,500 artists. She is the author of the four-volume Schirmer Encyclopedia of Art, and holds degrees in art history from Princeton and Columbia universities.

IRA WRIGHT, Founder of The Wright Contemporary

Ira Wright, Founder of Wright ContemporaryIra Wright is largely self-taught as an artist, although he studied industrial design at the University of Michigan and design at Cranbrook Academy of Art. At Litton Industries, in the 1950s, he designed the cases for early computers and had the distinction of naming a color “Tahitian Sunrise.” Throughout his long life, he has held various gigs, including art director and graphic designer, foundry worker, and teacher of studio art and art history at local colleges.

Since 2004, when he settled in Santa Fe, NM, Wright has turned his attention to a unique and unsettling iconography that encompasses both benign and savage images of Mickey Mouse (a childhood totem), bare-breasted women, slobbering dogs, out-of-control party games, and self-portraits in many different guises. Words and sentences sometimes march across the surfaces—“sparkle plenty,” “women in gold,” “for a good time call”—but one is reluctant to scrape too hard for literal interpretations.

His most recent show was at Bareiss Gallery in Taos, NM, in February 2021.

MICHELLE COOKE, Curator of The Wright Contemporary

Michelle Cooke, Curator The Wright ContemporaryMichelle Cooke has worked as a curator for museums, private collections, and artists since 1983. Beginning as a preparator for the Orange County Museum of Fine Art she went on to organize exhibitions for the Ettinger Gallery at the Southern California Institute of Art, Scripps College Williamson Gallery, and the Montgomery Gallery, Pomona College, as well as United Cerebral Palsy of New York. In 2006 she was Exhibition Curator for the Doel Reed exhibit at the Harwood Museum.

In 2003 she opened her own gallery, 1030, in Santa Fe exhibiting artists from northern New Mexico. Cooke’s own work has been shown in numerous museums and solo exhibitions in the United States and Europe. She lives and works in Taos, NM, and New York, NY. She holds a master of fine arts degree from Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, and a BFA from Laguna College of Art and Design, in Laguna, CA.

HANNAH HUGHES, Curator, The Project Space at The Wright Contemporary

Hannah Hughes is an artist based in Gorieta, NM, and Los Angeles. Her performance work frames philosophical questions in an absurd and poetic sculptural manner informed by psychoanalytic theory, comparative religion and the long history of art. She has performed at Track 16, Post Gallery, Libertine and Maiden LA in Los Angeles, Boxo Projects in Joshua Tree, and at the Contemporary Art Center in Santa Fe, NM. Residencies include Mountain School of the Arts LA, Largo das Artes Rio de Janeiro, and The American Academy in Rome.

She has also worked extensively in the contemporary art world, as co-owner of Silo Art, a business serving collectors; gallery assistant for the Lannan Foundation; associate director at James Kelly Contemporary; director of William Shearburn Gallery; and exhibitions and publications coordinator at SITE Santa Fe. She holds a BA in art history from Mills College and an MA in the Philosophy of Media from European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

Ann Landi

The Wright Contemporary Gallery in Taos Ann Landi, gallery director, in conversation with artist Donald Martiny at Madison Gallery, La Jolla, CA.

Read Ann's essays, profiles, and reportage on: Vasari21.com

Gallery News

The Wright Contemporary Art Gallery in Taos
The Wright Contemporary is a gallery in Taos, NM, dedicated to the arts and artists of northern New Mexico.
HOURS
Tuesday through Sunday, 2 to 6 PM

LOCATION
627 Paseo del Pueblo Sur
Taos, New Mexico 87571
(575) 224-0530

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As many of you know, I am undergoing surgery on Tu As many of you know, I am undergoing surgery on Tuesday for a detached retina and will be out of commission for Lord knows how long (for more details on this ordeal, check out “Eat My Memoir” on Substack). But the shows must go on….and we will have a “soft” opening at the Wright for two fabulous artists of very different sensibilities, Madelin Coit and Annie Coe, on October 7th, with an official opening on the 14th, 4 to 6, offering copious libations and good cheer. I’ll be sending out a press release shortly—I hope at the end of the week—and if you would like more details on these two terrific artists, simply give me your email here or at ann@thewrightcontemporary.com. (I’m a little late getting the website up to speed.) Meantime, Olga Brava’s show of brave new ceramics continues in the remodeled Project Space. All will be up and running through November 19, at least. So I hope to see you (with both eyes!) in the gallery very soon. The images, in order here, are Coit’s “Francis Bacon Diptych,” Coe’s “Artifact #6,” and Brava’s “Prince" (regrettably a bit cropped--see better images on the website) #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos #vasari21 #taosartists #santafeartists
In all the hubbub of the last couple of weeks—do In all the hubbub of the last couple of weeks—dog bites, ongoing Covid, and now forthcoming eye surgery (more about that later)—I’ve neglected to mention the fabulous art we’ve seen and are showing or about to show at the Wright. On a quickie trip to Colorado Springs, curator Michelle Cooke and I visited Martha Russo’s show “caesura” at the university’s galleries of contemporary art, and were sufficiently blown away that we are hoping to show her work at the Wright sometime in 2024. I’ve been a fan of Martha’s since I wrote about her for Vasari21 in 2016, and am delighted to see the ways she is amending and expanding her vocabulary. She works mainly in ceramics, but for this exhibition she introduced wall-sized works in clear acrylic and a sweetly sprawling installation realized from wattles, those long stuffed sausage-like tubes used to control flooding and erosion. The show continues through December 3, and I’ll be reviewing it for Sculpture magazine. Do have a look if you’re anywhere in the area (and Colorado Springs looks like quite a nifty town and a fun destination for a day trip—wish we could have stayed longer). #vasari21 #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos #ceramicsart
I was saddened to learn of the death of Barbara Ke I was saddened to learn of the death of Barbara Kemp Cowlin last week from unexpected complications from the cancer therapy she’d been undergoing in the past few weeks. Of all the artists I interviewed for Vasari21, Barbara had one of the toughest and most circuitous paths to an artist’s life. She taught in Australia and in Phoenix, AZ, worked for Planned Parenthood and for a silkscreen printing company, ran an arts center in Scottsdale, and raised two children, one with cerebral palsy, all the while pursuing her dreams as an artist. Fifteen years ago, she settled in the tiny town of Oracle, AZ, and was able to dedicate much of her time to painting, including her “Askew” series, examples of which were in the Project Space during the “Botanicals” show at the Wright early last year (the last two canvases shown here). In a note from her less than a month ago, she sounded optimistic about what she called a new “miracle” drug that might have been a game changer, so I was shocked to hear from her husband and a mutual friend that she didn’t make it. She was a courageous and talented woman, and our condolences go out to James Cowlin and their two sons. Shown here are examples of her paintings from the last eight years. #vasari21 #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos
As some of you may know from the newsletter, we re As some of you may know from the newsletter, we recently installed sculptor Ed Haddaway’s “From a Series of Recurring Dreams” in front of The Wright Contemporary to give us more of a presence on the street (in this case, the Paseo del Pueblo Sur). I just got some new images, courtesy of Samuel Cowart, and so I upload them here. About the sculpture, Ed writes: “The experience I have in making art is essentially dreaming while I am awake. It is as if I have gotten comfortable enough with my subconscious that I can move in for a visit with it and still retain the ability to control the materials that I find in reality.” Come pay us a visit and you’ll see a few more of his small works in the entryway. We’re at 627 Paseo del Pueblo Sur and open Wednesday through Sunday, 2 to 6 p.m. #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos
Last night the Wright held a “soft” opening fo Last night the Wright held a “soft” opening for Olga Brava’s ceramics in the Project Space (we’ll do a bigger whoop-de-doo when we open a survey of Madelin Coit’s work in October). Brava transformed the small space into a jewel box of a gallery, with deep blue walls and strategic spotlights. Her works, all from the last year, are a magical amalgam of the organic and the fanciful, with surfaces that range from rough-hewn to deliciously lustrous. You will be probably see the influence of desert plant life on her imagery—she’s been in Taos since transplanting from Boston four years ago. Come have a look at these gems at the Wright Contemporary, 627 Paseo del Pueblo Sur, Sunday-Wednesday, 2 to 6 and by appointment. I will be bringing you more shots of the work in the weeks ahead. (Photo of Olga and Larry Bell by Kyle Knyazev-Julinski.) #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos #vasari21
Mark your calendars for Labor Day weekend for “F Mark your calendars for Labor Day weekend for “Feeding the Fire,” a film by Kyle Knyazev-Julinski and Olga Brava that documents a community of Taos ceramic artists and potters who get together to wood-fire their work in two giant kilns in the desert. Eleven artists describe the extremely intense process of wood-firing and the camaraderie of working side by side over seven days and nights. The documentary shows stunning ceramic artwork and features music recorded specifically in Taos, including flute played by Blue Lake Eagle and tongue drum by Ru Chao.
A free public screening of the documentary will be held at Taos Center for the Arts at 7 pm, September 3rd, 2023. Wood-fired pottery and sculptures will be on display in the gallery for viewing before and after the movie. Shown here: a sculpture by Olga Brava, part of a group that will be at the Project Space in The Wright Gallery beginning Saturday September 2. #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos
If only.... From an op-ed in "The Atlantic" today If only....

From an op-ed in "The Atlantic" today: "To support Trump is to support sedition and violence, and we must be willing to speak this truth not only to power but to our fellow citizens....[A]fter today, every American citizen who cares about the Constitution should affirm, without hesitation, that any form of association with Trump is reprehensible, that each of us will draw moral conclusions about anyone who continues to support him, and that these conclusions will guide both our political and our personal choices." Amen. The image is Deborah Kass's unforgettable portrait from 2016 #vasari21 #thewrightcontemporary
One of the many pleasures of Isabelle Plat’s “ One of the many pleasures of Isabelle Plat’s “Portraits d’usage in Conversation,” which has been extended through September (Does anybody remember September? What is a September? Is it cooler?), are the “drawings” on delicate fabrics, which are not drawings at all, but cunning assemblages made from hair she has collected from friends and from hair salons. This is “Isabelle’s Mouth with Brussels Hair," 91 by 59 inches, and from even a near distance it closely resembles a composition of extremely fine pen or pencil strokes on paper. But it’s not. Come see for yourself, along with all the other wonderful work at the Wright Contemporary, 627 Paseo del Pueblo Sur, Taos, NM (Wednesday through Sunday, 2 to 6 pm). #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos
“Isabelle Plat: Portraits d’Usage in Conversat “Isabelle Plat: Portraits d’Usage in Conversation” is not the only show extended at the Wright. We also have an unusual installation called “Felled: Artist Unknown” in the Project Space through Labor Day. The video and “sculptural elements,” in the form of chunks of a tree on the gallery floor, document an unusual find in the woods near Pecos, NM, where our curator Hannah Hughes discovered a magical staircase carved out of a fallen Douglas fir. “The tree was more than 100 feet tall and four feet in diameter and had been cut by a chainsaw and left up on the felling hinge and lower limbs so that it skims the steep terrain, leaving space between tree and earth. The limbs on the upper surface were removed and stairs carved in with the excised chunks left fallen along the hill. The stairs allow one to slightly hover above the wilds, to traverse and view them with ease from a paradigmatic human perspective.” Come get out of the heat and pay a visit! It’s a sweetly meditative space redolent of a cool deep forest. #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos #vasari21
I am delighted to announce that we will be extendi I am delighted to announce that we will be extending Isabelle Plat’s “Portraits d’usage in Conversation” through September 24 (it was originally scheduled to close this weekend). There has been some interest from collectors and journalists, and a French writer from “Artpress” is visiting in August to write about Isabelle and Bruce Nauman (what they have in common is not immediately evident to me, but I’m happy to see her in good company). We will be opening a couple of new shows in the Wright Office and the Project Space over Labor Day weekend, so please stay tuned for announcements about those. It’s been truly gratifying to give Isabelle her first show in the U.S. and I hope this proves a launching pad to even bigger and better things. Meantime, if you haven’t seen “Portraits,” come for a visit: Wednesday-Sunday, 2 to 6, or by appointment. #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos
There are only about 10 days left to catch Isabell There are only about 10 days left to catch Isabelle Plat's fabulous "sculptures d'usage" at the Wright (through July 23, Wed-Sun, 2 to 6, and by appointment). You have seen many images from the show on Instagram, but there is still nothing like an intimate encounter in the gallery. I'm going to miss this show hugely when it leaves a week from Monday. #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos
It’s always a bit of a shock to encounter this “gentleman” every time I come out of the ladies room at the gallery, but there he is: pants down, jacket mysteriously riddled with holes. The jacket part can travel up and down via a pulley. The “drawing” behind him is made from human hair on silk. This is Isabelle Plat’s “Portrait of an Exhibitionist” from the show of her works at The Wright Contemporary in Taos, NM. Plat describes her work as offering “the possibility of seeing the world from the body of someone else….That’s when your imagination takes over.” Come see for yourself, through July 23. We are open this weekend, but hours are slightly curtailed, 3 to 6 pm. The show is up through July 23. #thewrightcontemporary #thewrightcontemporarytaos #vasari21
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