An installation view from the Strangers Collective exhibition Narrows, showing a grid of nine large-scale photographs by David O'Brien. The works are black-and-white images of garbage heaps, but they almost look like charcoal drawings.

Narrows

Santa Fe Community Gallery | May 2016

There’s revolution in the air in Santa Fe this spring, as emerging and alternative art projects by young creatives take the spotlight. New art districts are forming on Baca Street, Hickox Road and Siler Road, fostering experimental art spaces and collectives. In May, Strangers Collective stages a daring takeover of Santa Fe’s downtown arts district.

“We’ve seen a significant shift in the community since the collective formed, and it has emboldened us,” says Strangers co-founder Jordan Eddy. “Santa Fe is waking up to the fact that young artists are ushering in a radical new era of contemporary art here.” Narrows is Strangers Collective’s fourth public exhibition, featuring visual art in diverse mediums by seventeen artists, and zines by sixteen writers. The show’s title is a reference to the small apartments and studio spaces where the artwork takes shape, and the process of ferrying emerging art into the public sphere. Narrows is an examination of this invigorating and at times perilous voyage.

More.

A mixed media artwork by Alex Gill. A swirling ink on paper abstraction is the support for delicately stitched constellations of white thread. This piece was on the poster for the Narrows show.
An installation view of a new media artwork by Marcus Zuniga from Strangers Collective's Narrows exhibition at Santa Fe Community Gallery. A video of the cosmos, recorded on the artist's phone, is projected onto a wall in a dark corner of the space.

Press

“This latest show tangles with the other end of the young artist’s dilemma: where to make art, now that the end of college has also ended studio access. The 35 artists involved have engaged with Narrows, in terms of the tight domestic spaces in which many of them make their work, and the perilous journey those pieces make as they traverse out into the world.”

-Elizabeth Miller, Santa Fe Reporter

“If the road to opportunity is too narrow, you can do what Strangers Collective, one of Santa Fe’s hottest emerging art groups, did, and widen the gap. In under two years, Strangers grew from living room salons to mounting exhibits at major galleries, and recently opened Narrows, its largest show yet, at the Santa Fe Community Gallery.”

-Michael Abatemarco, Pasatiempo

My contributions: Curatorial with Kyle Farrell, press relations, zine making program

Artwork: Alex Gill (featured image), Marcus ZúñigaDavid O’Brien (header image)

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No Land, October 2015