Mountains of food, gallons of lemonade, two mailings, two receptions, one gallery talk, getting up at 3 AM to take our Japanese visitors to the airport - All TOTALLY WORTH IT!
September 5 – Reception for McCulloch and Trovillion
Seriously, why have one reception when you can have two, and a Gallery Talk to boot? There are simply too many fabulous artists to feature and too many great works of art to exhibit. Matrix started out with its First Friday reception featuring Local Treasure Frank McCulloch and new work by Emily Trovillion – two long-time Albuquerque artists who have shaped the Albuquerque art scene, such as it is, long before I opened Matrix Fine Art. If you love surreal art, don’t miss Emily’s pieces – this mini show is a treat (of course, I am totally biased since I fell in love with her work when I was still in graduate school, and, after all, she is one of “my” artists….).
September 5 – Reception for McCulloch and Trovillion
Seriously, why have one reception when you can have two, and a Gallery Talk to boot? There are simply too many fabulous artists to feature and too many great works of art to exhibit. Matrix started out with its First Friday reception featuring Local Treasure Frank McCulloch and new work by Emily Trovillion – two long-time Albuquerque artists who have shaped the Albuquerque art scene, such as it is, long before I opened Matrix Fine Art. If you love surreal art, don’t miss Emily’s pieces – this mini show is a treat (of course, I am totally biased since I fell in love with her work when I was still in graduate school, and, after all, she is one of “my” artists….).
Trovillion's Alcove
Frank McCulloch at the Reception
September 19 – Reception for Hayashi
Then, the day before our Friday 19th reception, we picked up Ando Shinji and Takahiko Hayashi from the airport. Our first order of business was to feed them large doses of green chile at El Patio. Thus fully acclimated, they were ready for their receptions the next day – Ando Shinji at New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery, and Hayashi at MATRIX Fine Art. It took us most of the morning to get Ando Shinji prepared for his etching demonstration which turned out to an incredible treat - see our video and stills on the New Grounds blog. Both of these artists have a huge following – this was Hayashi’s second event in Albuquerque – he had an exhibition at New Grounds two years ago.
Then, the day before our Friday 19th reception, we picked up Ando Shinji and Takahiko Hayashi from the airport. Our first order of business was to feed them large doses of green chile at El Patio. Thus fully acclimated, they were ready for their receptions the next day – Ando Shinji at New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery, and Hayashi at MATRIX Fine Art. It took us most of the morning to get Ando Shinji prepared for his etching demonstration which turned out to an incredible treat - see our video and stills on the New Grounds blog. Both of these artists have a huge following – this was Hayashi’s second event in Albuquerque – he had an exhibition at New Grounds two years ago.
Hayaashi, Shinji, and Regina, Fritschze and Hayashi at Reception
Gallery Talk by Takahiko Hayashi
On Saturday, Hayashi gave us some valuable insights into his work during his hour-long gallery talk. Hayashi pointed out that the main symbol in his work is the spiral, an element that he uses to illustrate wind, flow, energy, and the landscape in general. On a technical note, he originally created large scale work by collaging several small etchings together simply because he did not have access to a large press. However, he continued to work this way even after he bought his large etching press because he had come to appreciate the flexibility of inking up several plates in very different colors and printing them on various Gampi papers before combining them into a large piece. In addition to his etchings, Matrix featured the artist’s highly textured and detailed mixed media paintings. He creates those by combining many different materials from handmade paper to strips of canvas, pigments and pen and ink. The show was completed by a recent series of under glass paintings which he developed by trial and error. These pieces have an almost primordial feel with spiral pattern in luminous colors emerging out of dark fields – alluding at string and chaos theory. This technique intrigued him because he was forced to work from the front to the back with the first layers of paint showing right against the glass.
On Saturday, Hayashi gave us some valuable insights into his work during his hour-long gallery talk. Hayashi pointed out that the main symbol in his work is the spiral, an element that he uses to illustrate wind, flow, energy, and the landscape in general. On a technical note, he originally created large scale work by collaging several small etchings together simply because he did not have access to a large press. However, he continued to work this way even after he bought his large etching press because he had come to appreciate the flexibility of inking up several plates in very different colors and printing them on various Gampi papers before combining them into a large piece. In addition to his etchings, Matrix featured the artist’s highly textured and detailed mixed media paintings. He creates those by combining many different materials from handmade paper to strips of canvas, pigments and pen and ink. The show was completed by a recent series of under glass paintings which he developed by trial and error. These pieces have an almost primordial feel with spiral pattern in luminous colors emerging out of dark fields – alluding at string and chaos theory. This technique intrigued him because he was forced to work from the front to the back with the first layers of paint showing right against the glass.
Hayashi at the Gallery Talk, Under Glass painting discussion
Thank you, everybody!
As always, tons of people made this happen – Tanya Landin, my infinitely capable intern/gallery assistant/workshop manager (Tanya, we need to take a picture of you), Paul Helphenstine who keeps things going and me laughing, Bruce and Patti Carpenter who took Ando and Hayashi to dinner on Friday, Yoshiko Shimano, UNM professor in printmaking who graciously volunteered her time as translator, my husband Cornelius who, among many other things, takes care of the refreshments, and a sea of artists from Matrix and New Grounds who volunteered in different capacities during our functions. And, of course, thanks to all of you who attended despite of the State Fair opening, despite of Globalquerque, despite of the Old Town Artscrawl and despite of the stock market crashing!!!
See you in two weeks for our October show!
Regina Held
As always, tons of people made this happen – Tanya Landin, my infinitely capable intern/gallery assistant/workshop manager (Tanya, we need to take a picture of you), Paul Helphenstine who keeps things going and me laughing, Bruce and Patti Carpenter who took Ando and Hayashi to dinner on Friday, Yoshiko Shimano, UNM professor in printmaking who graciously volunteered her time as translator, my husband Cornelius who, among many other things, takes care of the refreshments, and a sea of artists from Matrix and New Grounds who volunteered in different capacities during our functions. And, of course, thanks to all of you who attended despite of the State Fair opening, despite of Globalquerque, despite of the Old Town Artscrawl and despite of the stock market crashing!!!
See you in two weeks for our October show!
Regina Held
