CURRENT EXHIBITION
BOTANICALS
January 20-February 25, 2023
Opening Friday, December 20, 2023. 5 to 7 pm
Madison Cawein, Michelle Cooke, Ward Estes, Carol Farmer, Sandra Filippucci, Sheila Miles, Robbie Steinbach
Right after the holidays, as the reality of January sets in, we grit our teeth for the forthcoming cold hard winter months. And so this seems the perfect time to offer up a show called “Botanicals,” originally slated to be an exhibition entirely of flowers until we realized how many artists focused on other interesting aspects of the plant world—like shoots and leaves and even imaginary blooms dedicated to the children of Ukraine.
Two photographers, Robbie Steinbach and Carol Farmer, revel in the sensual particulars of exotic plants, proving that the erotic potential pioneered by Georgia O’Keeffe lives on in contemporary interpretations. Confronted with the lushness of summer, Sheila Miles takes a childlike delight in nature’s plenitude, while Ward Estes brings a Matissean touch to simplified shapes and primary colors. Madison Cawein, the lone photorealist in the group, zeroes in on grasses touched with frost in early spring, and Michelle Cooke presents an archive of plant materials from New Mexico embossed on sheets of foil and gampi paper. Inspired by the Soviet invasion a year ago, Sandra Filippucci produced a series of explosive canvases called “Flowers for Ukraine,” two of which occupy the main galleries at the Wright.
January – February 25, 2023
Opening Friday, December 22, 5 to 7PM
The Wright Contemporary Gallery
627 Paseo del Pueblo Sur, Taos, New Mexico 87571
(575) 224-0530
