Hi everyone!
For a monthly magazine, it can be difficult to capture a theme throughout an entire issue. So much of our content is deliberately eclectic, covers a span of disciplines, and is a mix between in-depth and topical coverage. I’m delighted, therefore, that our “Landscapes” issue came together rather organically. The idea was born following the call for New Mexico artists we issued late in 2018 for our February-March Artists Issue (12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now). We received so many submissions from artists working in landscape painting that it got us thinking about and questioning the idea of landscape as artistic genre, tradition, and muse, one that is increasingly imperiled. It’s obvious that the landscape in New Mexico continues to serve as inspiration for artists. It is not obvious, however, what the future holds, for both the landscape itself, and the genre. What more can be done, artistically, poetically? How many more landscape paintings does the world need? It turns out, as we see in this issue, this theme is tireless and enduring. And as the world and landscape continue to change, there is only more fuel for the artist fires.
As we recruited contributors to tackle this subject, our thinking became more expansive. In this issue, our writers have approached this subject from a number of different angles, including Shane Tolbert’s study of contemporary landscape art (including and beyond painting) in the Southwest, Julie McGilvray’s feature on the concept of cultural landscape and what it helps us to see and understand about the places we inhabit, Maggie Grimason’s profile of artist, writer, and activist Subhankar Banerjee, a portfolio by Melanie Walker that positions modern objects as future artifacts of the Anthropocene, bound to return to the landscape itself, and more.
I’m also excited to announce that the landscape theme has resulted in an upcoming exhibition at The Magazine’s project space that will further this conversation. Where Are You? is guest-curated by Alicia Inez Guzmán and includes work by Dakota Mace, Daisy Quezada Ureña, and Vicente Telles. Featuring three artists’ takes on landscape through installation, mixed media, and textiles that push far beyond the boundaries of the genre, the exhibition asks us to reimagine the lands we know so well as politicized, culturally significant, and cosmological spaces. The show opens Friday, June 28, 6-9 pm, and will be on view through August 24, 2019. I hope to see you there.
And lastly, as always, my plea for Letters to the Editor, for which the space below is reserved. What are your thoughts on landscape art and our interpretations of it? What other themes would you like to see explored by The Magazine? I’d love to hear your responses. And thanks, as ever, for reading!
I hope you enjoy the new issue!
Lauren
Lauren Tresp, editor + publisher
lauren@southwestcontemporary.com
1415 W Alameda St, Santa Fe, NM 87501
