Realism is alive and well in Albuquerque!

During very well attended reception several clients and artists discussed with me the “state” of realism. Are artists going back to it? Is there a renewed interest in it? In my humble, but firm opinion, both of it is the case. Not only do I seem to come across realistic painting quite often, whether in galleries, art fairs, or art magazines, I am also impressed by the high standard of craftsmanship practiced by realist artists. Maybe we have seen so much digital art that artists want to practice using a brush again, or maybe it is the very availability of digital media that allows artists to create a fully worked out “sketch” before moving on to the canvas. Whatever the reason, I am delighted to be able to represent so many talented and hard-working realist artists who live and work right here in New Mexico.

Patricia Malcolm employs the ancient and extremely time consuming medium of egg tempera to create her highly detailed animal images which go beyond portraits; they usually represent attributes such as “strength” or “humility.”


Rodney Wood also uses animal imagery in his work, but his pieces exhibit a surrealistic and sometimes supernatural bend in addition to showing his great sense of humor.

Matthew Lutz is an emerging artist whose larger than life flower clusters are beyond real, they are super-real with a nod to pop art.

Sarah Hartshorne is a new artist at Matrix Fine Art. Although she covers a large variety of subjects, her still lives are some of our favorites. They also made everybody very hungry!

Once again, this was a very busy reception; the gallery had a continuous stream of visitors all evening long. Thank you everybody for coming out to see the show!

Anise, our trusted server, is getting cuter and cuter.

Gallery assistant Tanya Landin and director Regina Held wrote and submitted this blog. And no, those are not giant strawberry earrings, just an unfortunate placement of Tanya’s head in front of Sarah’ strawberry still life……


Jeff Simpson, who is a New Grounds artist, volunteered his time to take pictures during the reception. Thank you Jeff, great job! (We’ll overlook the strawberry earrings this time….).



Regina Held, director, Matrix Fine Art