The Santa Fe art season is upon us, and this issue embraces the spring awakening with kaleidoscopic original cover art by local designer/illustrator Luke Dorman. Dorman was also the first artist to contribute to our new “Printed Page” series, and we recently learned that his July issue illustration won several awards.
This issue represents a break with our regular publication schedule as THE Magazine undergoes some dramatic changes behind the scenes. Combining April and May into a single Spring issue for this year only, we are hard at work preparing THE for the future. During this time we are building a new, comprehensive infrastructure online, continuing to update and modernize our editorial design, and seeking out
additional collaborators and contributors across disciplines. This July, THE Magazine will celebrate its 25th anniversary, at which point much of this work will be revealed as we usher in the next quarter century of Santa Fe’s arts and culture publication. In short, stay tuned as THE evolves!
In this issue’s feature article, “La Lucha Sigue,” Alicia Inez Guzmán takes us inside the archives of the Center for Southwest Research at the UNM Libraries in a prescient study of the archives’ holdings of Latin American and Cuban posters, one of the largest collections of Latin American print ephemera in the country. In our Studio Visit, Clayton Porter and I dropped in on painter Richard Kurtz to talk boxing, superheroes, and Kurtz’s evolving studio practice. Don’t miss this issue’s expanded reviews section: the artists discussed deal with questions ranging from environmental concerns, indigenous identity, the continuing relevance of the still life genre, and the under-recognized Park Place Gallery of 1960s Manhattan.
Albuquerque-based artist Larry Bob Phillips presents Mystic Mesa, his first of three contributions to our Printed Page series. Find more of his work on his website, larrybobphillips.com. Representing one of our efforts to catch up with the times, our photo contest is expanding to Instagram! The June theme is “Monuments,” and you may enter by simply tagging #themagphoto and @themagsantafe in your Instagram posts.
Lastly, a plea for letters to the editor. We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on our content, and to start a dialogue on this page. Please submit to the addresses below.
Happy reading,
