Wilson began CIPX in 2012 with the support of the New Mexico Museum of Art and has photographed internationally, adding to the prolific body of work. Over time, the project and Wilson’s intentions have evolved. Today, he speaks about the ritual of portraiture and questions how it fits into contemporary culture. Some traditions that were once a rite of passage for families and individuals have become part of the past.
Angie Rizzo
New Mexico Women: Yoshiko Shimano
Shimano is worried that the culture of making is diminishing as technology becomes more omnipresent. She has noticed the decline in drawing skills as well as even everyday life skills among incoming students in the classes she teaches. We spoke of this phenomenon and the potential consequences which range from physical abilities in art-making to the power of having personal experiences that are unmediated by any device.
New Mexico Women: Virginia Dwan
Virginia Dwan, best known in the Southwest for her support of land art and artists, as well as the Dwan Light Sanctuary in Montezuma, New Mexico, boasts a career that reaches far beyond the desert. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dwan got her start in Los Angeles with the Virginia Dwan Gallery, which eventually expanded to New York, where she represented artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Yves Klein, Sol LeWitt, Edward Kienholz, and many, many more. Dwan, the heiress of manufacturing conglomerate 3M, was able to take risks on challenging art. She played a major role in supporting some of the most definitive earthworks, such as Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson, The Lightning Fields by Walter De Maria, Double Negative by Michael Heizer, and the still-in-progress Star Axis by Charles Ross. She is still a passionate supporter of the arts and speaks fondly of working with artists and being a part of the creative process.
Portfolio: Sama Alshaibi: Carry Over
Sama Alshaibi, a Tucson, Arizona–based photographer, is a Palestinian-Iraqi who originally came to the United States as a refugee from Iraq. Her mother’s family are also refugees from Jaffa, a historic port city that was fought over and ultimately became part of Israel in 1948. The families that lived there were forced to leave quickly, and many left behind family keepsakes such as family photo albums. Alshaibi’s family have few photographs from their time in Palestine.
Studio Visit: Paula Wilson and Mike Lagg
Paula Wilson and Mike Lagg live in Carrizozo, New Mexico, a town of about nine hundred residents, located north of White Sands. Paula, who arrived there ten years ago by way of Chicago and New York, and Mike, who settled in the area over thirty years ago, are mainstays of the art community in the region…
Portfolio: Melanie Walker: Song for My Father
Melanie Walker is an artist based in Boulder, Colorado. She works nearly equally in the worlds of photography and public art, with each realm informing the other…
Portfolio: Kristen Hatgi Sink
Photo Portfolio: Kristin Hatgi-Sink
Jesse Rieser Christmas in America: Happy Birthday Jesus
Jesse Rieser’s photographic project Christmas in America: Happy Birthday Jesus is at first glance humorous and lighthearted. The garish colors and cartoonish settings allude to theme parks and the classic feature film A Christmas Story and perhaps to one’s own holiday memories…
Karen Miranda Rivadeneira: In The Mouth of the Mountain Jaguar Everybody is a Dancing Hummingbird
Karen Miranda Rivadeneira, a Santa Fe–based artist by way of Ecuador and New York began laying the groundwork for her project, In the Mouth of the Mountain Jaguar Everybody is a Dancing Hummingbird, nearly eleven years ago when she first visited a small region of the…
Wendy Young: A Long and Slow Surrender
It started with a disagreement between the photographer Wendy Young and a friend about Confederate monuments and whether or not they should be taken down. The conflict triggered an exploration into her beliefs, education, and roots in the American South. Young was raised in Pensacola, Florida, and recalls studying the Lost Cause…
Natalie Christensen: Deconstructed Self
Light, shadow, and doors opened and closed are a few of the subjects of Santa Fe–based photographer Natalie Christensen. Informed by Carl Jung and a twenty-five-year career as a psychotherapist, Christensen looks for symbols in the Southwestern urban landscape that “reveal psychological…
