The Taos Abstract Artist Collective (TAAC) and the Couse-Sharp Historic Site announce their partnership on the exhibition, On Which It Rests, to be installed from July 5th, 2024 – August 30th, 2024 at the Lunder Research Center Gallery at the Couse-Sharp Historic Site in Taos, NM. The Exhibition will be curated by Davison Packard Koenig and Alexandra Terry.
 
The deadline to apply is May 14th 2024, 11:59 pm MT. Selected artists will be notified by early June.

Please click here to view the call and apply
 
Application Guidelines:

• Artists must live or work within New Mexico to apply to this show. Please do not apply if you live/work elsewhere. 

• Submitted work must be abstract.

• Emerging, mid-career, and established artists or collaborative teams are welcome to apply.

• Artists must be at least 18 years old to apply.

• Work featured in the exhibition may also appear in promotional materials for the show.

• Work featured in the exhibition will appear in a printed and digital exhibition catalog.

• Artists must complete the application on CaFÉ, please do not email us a submission.

• The $25 entry fee is nonrefundable.

• Accepted work MUST be in presentable condition and ready to hang/install.

• This is a curated exhibition, and the selection of work is up to the curatorial team.

• Not all pieces submitted are guaranteed to be selected for this exhibition at the Lunder Research Center Gallery. Works will be accepted based on exhibition space parameters and consistency with exhibition theme.

• In the spirit of TAAC's commitment to artist safety and inclusivity, work that depicts violence or hateful rhetoric towards any individuals or groups will not be considered.

Proceeds from the submission fees are applied towards operational costs to mount the exhibition, including press materials, event-related programming fees. Any additional funds raised through this call are applied towards free community programming benefiting the Northern New Mexico art community.
 
On Which It Rests: Curatorial Concept
On Which It Rests is an exhibition and visual dialogue intended to foster conversation on the importance of place within the artistic process. The exhibition, a collaborative curatorial endeavor between Taos Abstract Artist Collective and the Couse-Sharp Historic Site, will be held in the Lunder Research Center Gallery at Couse-Sharp Historic Site from July 5th – August 30th, 2024, and will feature contemporary abstract artists working, or finding inspiration, in Taos Valley. On Which It Rests aims to deliver a microcosm of conceptual introspection and promote illustrative didactics surrounding the pedagogy of the artistic process.  
 
A fulcrum is the place on which we, as artists, rest; the place where we settle into our practice and begin to understand what we are doing. It is a tipping point, a balancing point, a support. It is a pivotal space on and by which our work is and becomes. These spaces and/or places are those which we center this exhibition in and with and for. A thing that adds up to that which we make, that which we are, on which we rest. 
 
Selected works within this exhibition will represent the historical creative thread connecting artists to those who have come before, paving the way for new and exciting introspections and conversation in this dynamic landscape. The chosen artists will be driven by a deep cultural and artistic traditions and a visceral connection to something greater than self.
 
Curatorial Team
We are thrilled to announce that On Which it Rests will be juried and curated by Davison Packard Koenig (Executive Director and Curator of Couse-Sharp Historic Site) and Alexandra Terry (Curator of Contemporary Art at the New Mexico Museum of Art). Their collective experience in and dedication to the art world brings an exciting and fresh take on the exhibition themes. 
 
Before the New Mexico Museum of Art, Alexandra Terry was Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), where she organized exhibitions by artists including Shana Moulton, Genevieve Gaignard, Barry McGee, Simone Forti, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Gabriela Ruiz, amongst many others. Terry was also Curator & Artistic Director at MOP Foundation, a London-based nonprofit dedicated to contemporary Iranian art. She has curated exhibitions in the US, UK, and UAE and contributed internationally to art publications. Terry holds a BA in Art Practice from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
 
Davison Packard Koenig's background as a museum consultant specializing in all aspects of exhibition execution led him to specialize in the art, culture, and history of the American Southwest. Koenig has also served as Curator of Exhibits for the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona (the Southwest's oldest and largest anthropology museum) and as Gallery Director for Dada Fine Art in Tucson. He has produced over sixty exhibitions, gaining extensive knowledge of the living cultures and artistic expressions that have shaped the Southwest, specifically Taos. Koenig holds an MFA in Museum Exhibition Planning and Design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a BFA in Anthropology of Art from Hobart College in Geneva, NY.
 
Concept Development
In January of 2024, Taos Abstract Artist Collective participated in a survey on themes of historic and cultural influence, material choice, creative process, and place. At a subsequent roundtable discussion in J.H. Sharpe's 1915 studio, more questions were raised, and important themes surfaced: What is our responsibility to place? How do we internalize the influences of a place? Can we interrogate the intuitive nature of process and influence? How do we get out of our own conscious way and allow these processes to flow?
 
This exhibition is not meant as an attempt to answer these questions but instead to start a dialogue surrounding the potentiality of the many micro-perspectives that exist within the spaces in which we create. 
 
Historic Context
Artistic production in Taos dates back as far as human occupation in the valley, well over a thousand years. However, the origins of the Taos Art Colony began in 1893 when painter Joseph Henry Sharp passed through Taos and began to talk to colleagues on the East Coast and Europe about what he experienced. At first glance, isolated, rural Taos seems an unlikely cauldron of creativity. But Taos Pueblo’s importance as a trade center made it uniquely suited to welcome outsiders appreciative of the people and culture. The valley, once situated at the extremity of the Spanish empire, was the meeting point of many Indigenous influences—Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, Ute, Navajo, and other Pueblos. The Anglo-American artists that later migrated to Taos (the Taos Society of Artists, Taos Moderns, etc.) found inspiration in the people, landscape, and light of the Valley and continue to do so.
 
The Southwest offers a historical depth and breadth of continuous artistic production, particularly in Northern New Mexico, that is like no other place in the United States. Artists in the Taos region today owe a debt to the peoples that have come before, each with a distinct culture and visual language.
 
On Which it Rests will be installed from July 5th, 2024 – August 30th, 2024 at the Lunder Research Center Gallery at Couse-Sharp Historic Site (138 Kit Carson Rd, Taos, NM 87571).
 
Please email info@taosabstractartistcollective.org or call 575-737-8211  if you have any questions.