Exhibitionism
Pop, minimalism, California funk at UNM Art Museum
More than 50 artworks in the museum’s permanent holdings are featured in the exhibition Hindsight/Insight: Reflecting on the Collection.
Wintertime conjures certain fragrances: cinnamon and cloves, smoke from burning pine and cedar, the crisp sharpness of clean air after a snowfall. But what greets a weary traveler who stumbles on the lonely hut of an old, wizened figure in a cold dark forest at night? The smell of herbs and boiling potions? The smell of death and decay?
The Santa Fe Symphony presents an American-themed concert with clever programming and an intriguing choice of soloists — including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — on Sunday, Jan. 19, at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.
Sean McConnell, 34, is already entering his third decade of songwriting — with a collection of A-list pop and country clients that includes Tim McGraw, Meat Loaf, and Brad Paisley. On Wednesday, Jan. 15, at Gig Performance Space, fans of McConnell can see the artist perform twice — as both a headliner and as one-third of the opening act My Sister, My Brother with Garrison Starr and Peter Groenwald.
Amuse-Bouche
Cozy places & comfort foods
A warm hearth and hearty foods: those two things can feel like manna from heaven on a wintry day. But it’s not always easy to find eateries that satisfy both needs. Here are a few that have menus to stoke the appetite — and well-stoked fireplaces, to boot.
The winter weather may make you dream of summer, but that season brings its own challenges: tourist crowds, among them. So why not invade someone else’s home territory this summer? Here are three road trip possibilities for culture lovers — an overview followed by a recommended week — to help get your travel plans going.
Upstart Crows of Santa Fe brings the enduring characters of the controversial Elizabethan play — Portia, Antonio, Bassanio, and the vengeful merchant Shylock, among others — to vigorous life.
Book Review
"Thomas Jefferson's Education" by Alan Taylor
Alan Taylor’s latest book, Thomas Jefferson’s Education, addresses the connection between slavery and the University of Virginia (UVa), where he has served as a professor of history since 2014.
Movie Review
A final film from an irreplaceable icon
Admirers of famed filmmaker Agnès Varda, who died in March at 90, may be looking for a fitting remembrance. But those who are unfamiliar with Varda’s work may be wondering where to begin. Her final film, Varda by Agnès, answers both needs. It’s a perfect introduction and a lovely valediction.
Random Acts
Wait a minute, Mr. Postman! "Il Postino"
There is a letter in his bag for you — an invitation to take part in three workshops at the National Hispanic Cultural Center relating to Opera Southwest’s February staging of Il Postino (The Postman) by composer Daniel Catán.
During the late ’60s and ’70s, Joan Didion lived in and wrote about climes of shimmering heat where apathy, violence, and paranoia jostle. These are the settings for Didion’s novels (Run River, Play It as It Lays, and A Book of Common Prayer) as well as the majority of the essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album. All of these works are gathered in Joan Didion: The 1960s & 70s, the first of several planned volumes of her work from the Library of America.
Cormac O’Malley talks about his father’s relationship with Dorothy Stewart in “Dorothy Stewart and Ernie O’Malley: Santa Fe’s 1930s Residents — An Artist and A Poet,” at Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s El Zaguán.
What was set in motion over the last few weeks still echoes and calls for action. But with less major action you may have less excitement this week; instead of more being heaped upon our plates, we get a chance to work on what is already here.
Random Acts
Regal relics: "Canes of Power"
During the American Civil War President Abraham Lincoln bestowed sovereignty on New Mexico’s 19 Pueblo nations, an act commemorated through the gifting of ornamental, silver-tipped canes to each of them. In this Emmy Award-winning documentary, Wes Studi (Cherokee) narrates the story of how the canes came to represent symbols of tribal authority.
Exhibitionism
Bill Sayler at Vivo Contemporary
Former Pratt Institute instructor Bill Sayler, who taught at the noted art school for 43 years, has been a working artist and photographer since the 1960s. His solo exhibition showcases works that reflect his recent interest in exploring combinations of color and form.
The Zia Singers celebrate 100 years of women’s voting rights in the United States with a concert highlighting the fighting spirit of feminist pioneers, Nevertheless, She Persisted.
Exhibitionism
Beatrice Mandelman at The Harwood Museum of Art
The exhibition’s focus is on the period between 1938 and 1943, when Mandelman, a Taos Modernist, participated in the Federal Art Project of the Works Project Administration.
Exhibitionism
Turner Avery Mark-Jacobs at Jean Cocteau Cinema
The local artist uses animals as stand-ins for people in his latest graphic novel The Big Bitch.
Exhibitionism
Exhibit of 2019 honorees at the Governor's Gallery
Since 1974, the governor of New Mexico has been honoring artists and contributors to the arts with the annual awards for excellence. Head up to the fourth floor of the Roundhouse for an exhibit showcasing the latest honorees.
Random Acts
We'll tumble for you: Peking Acrobats
Training from childhood, the troupe members perform wildly colorful acts of strength, precision, and pageantry. Catch them at the Lensic.
The museum, which houses the world’s largest collection of works by O’Keeffe, plans to put the funds toward an expansion project in downtown Santa Fe.
Fiber Art
A tapestry of violence
From Combat to Carpet: The Art of Afghan War Rugs is a traveling exhibition coming to the Museum of International Folk Art, opening Jan. 12.
About 50 photographs will be shown in the retrospective Paul Caponigro: Sixty Years, which opens Friday, Jan. 10, and runs through February at Obscura Gallery.
In November, Sze, 69, won the National Book Award for Sight Lines, his 10th book of poetry. This writer of national and international acclaim has been a staple of the Santa Fe poetry community since the 1970s. He is often referred to as an experimental or avant-garde writer, and, though he doesn’t chafe at such labels, he doesn't find them especially useful. He writes the poems that come from deep inside of him. Many of the signature aspects of Sze’s writing are rooted in his study of ancient Chinese poetry and translations of Chinese characters.
The vocal recital ain’t what it used to be — at least, judging from the latest offering in Serenata of Santa Fe’s invigorating concert series.
Amuse-Bouche
Plates with a taste of childhood: Cocina Azul
The standard for the New Mexican food that I’ve come to expect in Albuquerque follows a classic pattern of red and green chile sauce; salsa; tortillas; small amounts of chicken, beef, or pork; and a lot of cheese. There’s all of that on the plate at Cocina Azul, but there are also surprises, which makes me curious. I have never seen such attention to the preparation of the meat, nor seen the large amount included in the dishes that I ate at Cocina Azul. I’ve never seen the range of inventiveness, either.
The Plot to Betray America: How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It, by Malcolm Nance, Hachette, 358 pages, $28
Golda Meir was elected prime minister of Israel in 1969, when American women were just beginning to wake up to feminism. Today, Israeli women perform military service alongside their male peers, while in the United States, we’ve never had a female president and women are not conscripted, even during times of war. From the outside, it’s easy to assume that gender equality must be fundamental to Israeli society — but that is not the case, says Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, an Israeli legal scholar and feminist.
From the time we’re kids, we’re told to respect our elders. But in many ways, America falls short in heeding that advice.
The year is 1959, and Dr. Alan Stone (Richard Gere) is bringing his forward-looking, humane approach to an institution still mired, under the direction of smug administrator Dr. Orbus (Kevin Pollak), in the Dark Ages of psychiatric treatment.
In India, tree stumps and rocks are sometimes transformed into pindis, shrines that evolve over time as they are adorned with flower garlands, candles, fruit, and othe…
Random Acts
The animals will thank you: Dana Cooper
Singer-songwriter Dana Cooper plays a fundraiser for the Santa Fe Animal Shelter at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 12, at Tumbleroot Brewery on Agua Fria Street.
Random Acts
Pop with a political edge: Dar Williams
Dar Williams plays with guest Seth Glier at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 15, at James A. Little Theater. Doors to the all-ages show open at 7 p.m.
The Madrid Film Festival Tour starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan 16, at the Jean Cocteau Cinema. Local guitar slinger Joe West and members of his band provide musical introductions to some of the shorts.
Here is a look at some of local and state music group offerings through June. Consult organization websites or call for complete information on programming, ticket prices and discounts, and performance venues and times.
Movie Reviews
Ticking time bomb: "1917"
Sam Mendes’ characters go through scenes that carry the unmistakable whiff of screenwriting, even if they may have been extrapolated from granddad’s wartime tales. But what is truly magnificent about this movie is Roger Deakins’ stunning cinematography.
Movie Review
Will you still need me when I'm 63: "63 Up"
The 1964 documentary Seven Up, and its successive, periodic check-ins with young British children from different backgrounds as they grow up culminates in the latest iteration, 63 Up.
If your brain is in a musically induced coma from all those high-carb holiday tunes, the Pacifica String Quartet has the aural antidote. Its concert on Sunday, Jan. 12, at 3 p.m., St. Francis Auditorium, features nourishing works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Shulamit Ran. An open rehearsal takes place at 10 a.m., no charge.
New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, 1801 Mountain Road NW, Albuquerque, 505-841-2800, nmnaturalhistory.org
Ellsworth Gallery, 215 E. Palace Ave., 505-989-7900, ellsworthgallery.com
Exhibitionism
Elliot Norquist at Charlotte Jackson Fine Art
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, 554 S. Guadalupe St., 505-989-8688, charlottejackson.com
Exhibitionism
José Sierra at Gerald Peters Contemporary
Gerald Peters Contemporary, 1011 Paseo de Peralta, 505-954-5800, petersprojects.com
Plan B Arts, 1807 2nd St., Unit 41, 805-223-5411, planbarts.com
Star Codes
Star Codes: Jan. 10-16
The planets start a new 38-year cycle as Saturn and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn on Sunday, as the sun and moon do every new moon. What we begin now will set up the rhythm for our work, structures, and power dynamics — which are all Saturn and Pluto issues — for the next 38-year cycle.
As we do every year at this time, we honor the builders, visionaries, and everyday heroes in a series we’re calling Taking a Bow.
“So you’re a vegetarian? How do you even have enough energy to walk?” A new acquaintance issued this query as dinner party conversation a few years ago.
Movie Review
Descent into the maelstrom: "A Hidden Life"
Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life marks a return to narrative form for the auteur director, aided, as is typical of Malick, by the world of nature — so reverently evoked as to become almost a character in its own right.
TripAdvisor users gave Santa Fe’s Geronimo a tip of the hat in the review platform’s 2019 Travelers’ Choice Restaurant Awards. They named it the No. 5 U.S. restaurant …
By challenging almost every norm in an industry that sometimes focuses on safe repertoire and conventional marketing, Albuquerque-based chamber music group Chatter has gotten ahead of the curve.
Even as a little boy in the village of Chamisal in Taos County, Cipriano Vigil was desperate to learn guitar.
Taking a Bow
Taking a bow: Poet and publisher John Macker
There’s something about John Macker’s poetry that invites you in. As poet Donald Levering put it, his poetry is accessible and yet transcendental.
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Movie show times
Culinary Arts
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Amuse-BoucheCozy places & comfort foods
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Amuse-BouchePlates with a taste of childhood: Cocina Azul
- Amuse: Tasty Morsels
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RestaurantsTaking a bow: Chocolatier Hayward Simoneaux
- Happy Vegetarian New Year: The OMD Diet
- Best Bites: Favorite discoveries of 2019
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Amuse-BoucheNobody beats the biz: New Mexico's glorious state cookie
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Amuse-BoucheMacarons: Bizco's French cousin
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Amuse-boucheStuff stockings and faces: Holiday gifts with a culinary bent
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Mixed MediaTime for cake: Santa Fe School of Cooking celebrates 30 years
- Culinary paths to follow: New books for at-home chefs
- We came, we ate, we wrote about it
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Amuse-BoucheThe wisdom of elders: Steakhouse secrets, hot off the coals
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Amuse-BoucheBowled over: Mampuku Ramen
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Amuse-BoucheHearty Central American fare, with coffee to boot: Sagche's Coffee House