Artist Kim Arthun reflects on decades spent holding space for contemporary art in Albuquerque.
It’s inevitable. At some point, Exhibit/208 proprietor Kim Arthun hears a similar story from a visitor to his downtown Albuquerque gallery.
“We’ll get people that come in and say, ‘We flew into Albuquerque a week ago. We drove to Santa Fe and spent three or four days there. Then we went to Taos for a day or two. Somebody told us that when we go back to Albuquerque—and they said that ‘it’s on the way to the airport’—to stop by Exhibit/208.’”
“They’ll tell that story and say, ‘We haven’t seen anything like this on the trip’ and I’m always like, ‘Well, of course not,’” says Arthun with a smile. “I’m proud of that.”
In 1999, Albuquerque-born and -raised Arthun and two local artist friends founded Exhibit/208. The gallery, now outfitted with an in-house brewery, is in its twenty-fifth year of giving artists a chance to experiment and grow in a low-key yet supportive environment. Roughly half of the gallery’s forty artists—who show works ranging from abstract paintings to geometric abstractions to straight photography—come via a University of New Mexico pipeline that Arthun has developed as a lifelong Burqueño.
Exhibit/208’s snaking main gallery mounts ten solo exhibitions and two group shows annually, while the back gallery hosts rotating group shows. For many, the art space—which Arthun views as more of a clubhouse, hangout spot in a town where basically everybody knows everybody—is an imperative outlet for artists who aren’t easily shoehorned into commercial galleries.
“My life would be horrible if 208 didn’t exist,” says longtime Albuquerque artist Lucy Maki, who has mounted seven solo shows at Exhibit/208 since 2011, including the recent exhibition Eccentric Geometries. “My work isn’t product-oriented because I do a lot of experimentation. I appreciate that Kim, first and foremost, isn’t focused on product.”
Shortly after Arthun graduated with a BFA in drawing and lithography from UNM in 1976, he became a part of Meridian, a co-op-style gallery on the 200 block of Central Avenue in downtown Albuquerque that’s now a parking lot.
“I was the youngest and they hadn’t brought anybody on for about five years. I broke the dam,” laughs Arthun, an engaging and funny chronicler of the Albuquerque scene. “We did everything in terms of running the gallery and I learned a lot. It was my grad school.”
Arthun left Meridian around 1980 and went full-fledged exhibiting artist, showing in places like Denver, Atlanta, Paris, and Barcelona. He eventually grew tired of the hustle.
“I knew I’d always make stuff, but I had come to the point where I thought, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to do this anymore,’ so I took a break,” Arthun says.
For the sake of art-making, Arthun started taking Polaroid photos of his dogs on his daily walks. The self-imposed rule: shoot every day during the walk without ever looking through the viewfinder.
“The lesson was: if you’re not having fun doing this, it’s just a job, and there are easier jobs than this one,” he says. “We opened the gallery right after and the first show was my dog photographs.”
Alongside Albuquerque artists Russell Hamilton and Dwayne Maxwell, Arthun debuted Exhibit/208 in 1999 at 208 Dartmouth Drive NE in what was then a complex of galleries.
“The main reason we did the gallery was that we’d be the first to know when it was going to close,” deadpans Arthun. “We always get paid and our work would never be lost.”
“The thing that Russell and I always talked about was that we created the gallery we wanted to be in, and surrounded ourselves with people we admire,” adds Arthun.
In 2011, due to a rent hike, Exhibit/208 moved from Nob Hill to its current location—and funnily enough, to another 208 address, this time at 208 Broadway Boulevard SE south of Central Avenue. With Hamilton’s 2014 passing and Maxwell’s move to New York, Arthun and his wife now run the gallery in a building that the couple purchased in 2020.
In 2019, Arthun opened Thirsty Eye Brewing Company, an attached space that programs arts events. He wanted to activate the brewery’s walls—and not like some spots where boozers lean against paintings or knock artworks to the floor—so he built out the brewery “with the biggest walls possible to hang gigantic work higher up that overwhelms in a way that you have to look at it,” Arthun says. “It gives us a way to introduce people to this place. It has worked great.”
When Linda Durham Contemporary Art shuttered in 2011, Maki, who was represented by the Santa Fe gallery, lost her primary exhibiting opportunity. Maki—one of Southwest Contemporary’s 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now in 2022 and an MFA graduate from UNM—had previously met Arthun but had yet to see the Broadway space.
“I was just blown away,” says Maki. “It’s fantastic and holds its own with all of the Santa Fe galleries.”
“What’s great about 208 is that I feel I can do whatever I want. Kim’s very good about not giving you his subjective taste,” adds Maki. “It’s wonderful that artists like Aaron Karp, Jane Abrams, Zach Rieke, Margaret Fitzgerald, [and] Miguel Gandert also show at 208 as it raises the bar.”
Arthun says a hefty part of his job is visiting local Albuquerque artists in their studios. His selection process is subjective because “you never know what you’re going to like.” He recently brought on Ruby Kraft, a fresh UNM BFA graduate whose grandfather, Jim Kraft, taught at the Albuquerque university’s art department for nearly twenty years.
“I was blown away—it’s really unique, kind of old school painting,” says Arthun about Kraft’s work. Arthun says he made it clear to Kraft that she’s not a part of Exhibit/208 due to nepotism. “‘You’re in here because you belong here,’” Arthun relayed to Kraft.
“I also told her, ‘You’re about to get that warm blanket called school ripped off of you, and it can be scary and difficult. You can bring work in whenever you want. If you miss three or four shows, that’s fine. I just want it to be good for you. There’s no pressure.’”
We created the gallery we wanted to be in, and surrounded ourselves with people we admire.
With Kraft on board Exhibit/208, the gallery’s roster includes three generations of artists. Arthun is encouraged by the full-circle similarities he sees in himself, Kraft, and the Albuquerque art scene of past and present.
“I said to her, ‘I’m sure you’re applying to and have already been accepted to grad school.’ She said, ‘I’m not going to grad school. I’m actually real tired of the art talk.’ I was like, ‘Well, you came to the right place,’” says Arthun. “I see someone who wants to learn how to do all of this and it gives me hope.”
