SOME KIND OF NATURE

September 2-23, 2023

at F O M A, Guadalupe Center, 333 Montezuma Avenue, Santa Fe

Juried by Dominque Mazeaud

Some Kind of Nature is the title of the ninth track on the British virtual band Gorillaz’ 2010 album “Plastic Beach,” and is the point of departure for this gathering of artists from across the United States, Canada and Europe. As we have entered the Anthropocene, with human impacts being the dominant force of our changing climate, this exhibition presents the role artists can play in having conversations about how humans are affecting planetary species survival for generations to come.

Some kind of nature, Some kind of soul, Come from within us, Oh Lord, forgive me, Some kind of mixture, Some kind of gold, It’s got to come and find us, All we are is dust (final chorus)

Topics addressed include glacial melt, sea level rise, water quality, water displacement, dewatering, bogs, trees and rivers, forests, the forest floor, wildfires,  soil, air, mycorrhiza, decomposition, the value of plants, desert plants, seeds, plastics, anthropomorphic perspectives, and rebirth.

Exhibition Dates: Saturday, September 2 through Saturday, September 23, 2023

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 2, 3-5pm

Informal Discussion: Intervention and Interconnection, Saturday, September 23, 1pm

Closing Reception: Saturday, September 23, 3-5pm

Location: F O M A, Guadalupe Center, 333 Montezuma Avenue, Santa Fe

Hours: 11am-5pm MDT, Tuesdays through Saturday, Closed Sunday

This exhibition has concluded and an online 360 version has launched as a fundraiser gallery through 2023!

About Juror
Mazeaud is an artist and curator of the "spiritual in art" as written about in Suzi Gablik's The Reenchantment of Art, in 1991, which included her performative project The Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande (1987-1994). Mazeaud curated Revered Earth, in 1990, for the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, including Helen and Newton Harrison, Lenore Tawney, Alan Sonfist, Ana Mendieta, Michelle Stuart, Betsy Damon and more. Her self-published memoir examines forty years of her ritual performances and installations titled The Heartist's Secret (2022). Mazeaud has lived and worked in Santa Fe since 1987. www.earthheartist.net

Juror statement
Some Kind of Nature presents a special kind of artist, each called to speak for our planet. As varied as their voices are, these artists are unified in their dedication to home (oikos for home in Greek is the root of ecological). In their own particular words, they are connector (Aline Mare & Claire McConaughy), collaborator (Moira Bateman & Rosalyn Driscoll), salvager (David Cass), steward (Lil Olive), re-imaginer (Bia Gayotto), cross disciplinarian (Anna Mein), scientist (Joan Baron & Kelly Eckel), mapper (Meredith Nemirov, Perri Lynch Howard & Stacy Levy), naturalist (Karen Hackenberg), apprentice (Erika Osborne), contemplator (Holly Fay), devotee (Beth Ames Swartz), and mystic (Catherine Ruane). To draw further from their language, I imagine these "Earth Poets" would all agree they share the feeling of "communion with place," (Mary Meyer); they feel "the mystery of death and change," (Nancy Macko); they experience "a sense of wonder and awe about the universe," (Shirley Crow) and that "they are nature," (Jeanne Dunn). I would even espouse that their work reflects the words of Prof. Prof. Henryk Skolimowski, the father of eco philosophy who made the case for no matter your race and religion, ecology binds all human and non-human living things together. "Thus ecology is the religious project of our times…" Henryk Skolimowski

Moira Bateman, Joan Baron, David Cass, Shirley Crow, Rosalyn Driscoll, Jeanne Dunn, Kelly Eckel, Holly Fay, Bia Gayotto, Karen Hackenberg, Perri Lynch Howard, Stacy Levy, Nancy Macko, Aline Mare, Claire McConaughy, Anna Mein, Mary Meyer, Meredith Nemirov, Lil Olive, Erika Osborne, Catherine Ruane, and Beth Ames Swartz.