Abstracting Nature

Abstracting Nature foregrounds the works of ten local artists, past and contemporary, whose individual bodies of work share a kindred and enduring relationship with the New Mexico landscape. Each of these artists has nurtured a unique and long-standing relationship with a specific material, and has deeply explored how that material informs their interactions with the natural world. With works ranging from glass to adobe to silk and pastels, the artists on display include Richard Diebenkorn, Joanna Keane Lopez, Marietta Patricia Leis, Lydia Madrid, Agnes Martin, Yoshiko Shimano, Judy Tuwaletstiwa, Joan Weissman, Emmi Whitehorse, and Karen Yank.

Each of these New Mexico-based fine artists utilizes abstraction to reflect on the stories, memories, and passage of time that is carried in the land and in their personal connections to it. Together they demonstrate the interrelationship between humans and the natural world in order to invite us to reconnect, appreciate, and build a deeper empathy for the places that sustain us. Representing over 70 years of study, labor, and reflection, Abstracting Nature promises to stoke the imaginations of all those who sought comfort in and kinship among the expansive lands of New Mexico. 

Image:

Joan Weissman, Pyramids, 1999, hand-stitched needled-point tapestry, Albuquerque Museum, gift of Joan Weissman, PC2021.15.1. Photo: Albuqerque Museum.