We see you. We hear you. We are with you.

ecoartspace acknowledges the recent murders of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, James Scurlock, Ahmaud Arbery, and Nina Pop. We, as ecological advocates, artists, writers and institutions, can most definitely play an important role in addressing violence against blacks, structural racism and systemic inequality. The quality of black lives has been disproportionately highlighted in the current pandemic and illustrates our violent relationship with nature. Nature is a mirror and if we are not in balance with each other as human beings, proportionately the environment is also at risk. It's a vicious circle.

This year, so far, is definitely pushing socio-political-cultural (spc) boundaries and this summer is looking to be one massive social experiment. With physical distancing becoming more challenging and with anticipated spikes in Covid-19 cases, we will mostly likely need to continue limiting our movement. 

The ecoartspace exhibition Performative Ecologies will officially open to the public in Santa Fe this weekend in a limited capacity, by appointment. However, the digital reception that was scheduled for this Friday is now postponed to create time and space for a Week of Action in Defense of Black Lives. You can view the show online on our website. Ten members are included! More INFO below.

I will be conducting a My Life in Art interview with Bonnie Ora Sherk via ZOOM Webinar on Sunday, June 28. This is a program of SITE Santa Fe and is FREE, registration required. More INFO below.

The next GREAT PAUSE ZOOM Dialogues will be held on Friday, June 12 in the afternoon so we can welcome our Australian member artists. More INFO below.

We now have 272 members and 126 subscribers. That's over 100 new members in the last month! The turn out for the eco consciousness call for artists was excellent. 60% of our members applied to the CALL, that's 162 artists who submitted a total of 404 artworks for consideration. Eleanor Heartney will be jurying the show this month and we will announce the results in the July Newsletter, if not sooner. 

Please do check out the new featured artists on our home page and below!

Patricia Watts, founder

PERFORMATIVE ECOLOGIES

June 6 through September 2020

CURRENTS 826 Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Virtual Opening + Tour TBA

Performative Ecologies examines the role of ritual for artists addressing the natural world. The exhibition includes artifacts and documentation resulting from performative works by eleven women artists dating from 1971 to 2019. These artists have sought to experience fields of ecological consciousness in both urban and rural spaces, primarily for themselves, although through documentation they share their experiences with others. 

To honor physical distancing set forth by the Governor in New Mexico we have scaled down the exhibition space with seven artists in the front room of the gallery and the other four visible through the windows outside the gallery 24/7.

The online exhibition is now featured on our website under Exhibits in the menu bar.

The digital opening TBA will be on Instagram @currentsnewmedia and Facebook Currents New Media.

The exhibition will be open to the public on Thursdays and by appointment on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11-5pm.

Includes members: Alicia Escott, Basia Irland, Cherie Sampson, Claudia Bucher, Dominique Mazeaud, Fern Shaffer, Jenny Kendler, Mary Mattingly, Shana Robbins, and Minoosh Zomorodinia. Bonnie Ora Sherk also featured.

My Life in Art: Bonnie Ora Sherk with Patricia Lea Watts

SITE Santa Fe, ZOOM

FREE - REGISTRATION REQUIRED June 28, 2020 1-3pm MDT

My Life in Art, SITE Santa Fe is an annual series of lectures that focuses on significant artists, collectors, patrons, dealers, critics, or other art world luminaries.

Join us in a conversation with ecological artist Bonnie Ora Sherk, with ecoartspace founder Patricia Lea Watts.

Bonnie Ora Sherk is an American landscape architect, planner, educator and international artist, and founder of Crossroads Community, known as The Farm, and A Living Library. She's also well-known for her environmental performance work in the early 1970s, including Public Lunch where Sherk ate her lunch in a cage with tigers on each side of her while in the Lion House of the San Francisco Zoo. The performance took place on a Saturday at 2pm, during normal feeding time and prime spectator attendance, highlighting a human being fed and watched like the other animals.

Newsletter Image: Public Lunch, 1971, included in Performative Ecologies is pictured at the top of this newsletter. Recently digitized film footage of this original performance can be viewed in the online exhibition and at CURRENTS 826 Gallery in Santa Fe.

ZOOM dialogues

THE GREAT PAUSE DIALOGUES: TREES

Friday, June 12 at 4PM MDT

The next ZOOM Dialogue will be focused on trees. ecoartspace members Sant Khalsa, Ruth Wallen, Marietta Leis, Catherine Ruane and David Burns will present their work. We will then open the dialogue to all members and guests. This is a FREE EVENT for members + one guest. The general public will pay $10. You will need to register to attend.

READ the STATE OF THE WORLD'S FORESTS 2020 published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Images above include ten members who engage trees. This is not a comprehensive representation by any means. Includes: Sant Khalsa, Catherine Ruane, Ruth Wallen, Helen Glazer, Fern Shaffer, David Burns, Kim Abeles, Patricia Miranda, Lyn Horton, Rita Robillard.

featured ecoartspace artist

Amber Stucke is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. She identifies her work within ideas of social relationships situated between artistic research, science and imagination. Visit her website HERE

Above: INSTRUCTIONS FOR OUR LOVE: CAHUILLA | CHEM'AYAWQAL'U'UNI, 2019 Wonder Valley

Instructions for Our Love was a vocal piece spoken in both English by Amber Stucke and Cahuilla by John Preckwinkle III, a member of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. By honoring the creosote and with the Cahuilla language considered critically endangered, the instructions intended to reconnect the sound of the language back to the land. 

recommended online exhibits

The Botanical Mind Online  Curated by Gina Buenfeld and Martin Clark.

Drawing on indigenous traditions from the Amazon rainforest; alternative perspectives on Western scientific rationalism; and new thinking around plant intelligence, philosophy and cultural theory, The Botanical Mind Online investigates the significance of the plant kingdom to human life, consciousness and spirituality across cultures and through time. Click on image above to go to online exhibition

READ a review of The Botanical Mind by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein on our BLOG. 

Meteorlogical Mobilities Curated by Marianna Tsionki.

Climate migration is not a new phenomenon. Ancient civilizations were resilient, adapting to climatic shifts and developing ability to live in variable environmental conditions. Displacement and reorganization were common in their societies as a means of addressing destructive environmental conditions such as droughts, floods, rising sea levels, and high temperatures. Click on image above to go to online exhibition

about ecoartspace: Conceived in 1997 by Patricia Watts, in 1999, Watts partnered with Amy Lipton to create a nonprofit platform for artists addressing environmental issues. Together they have curated over 60 art and nature exhibitions, have organized and participated on dozens of panel discussions, and have given over 50 lectures, nationally and internationally. Since 2010, Watts has created Action Guides of replicable social practice artworks and has conducted video interviews with over twenty-five pioneering ecological artists. In 2020, Watts decided to transform ecoartspace into an LLC membership platform.

PO Box 5211, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502