Museum exhibit seeks to broaden perceptions
Two-part exhibition set to open at Millicent Rogers Museum
THERE IS A SPECIAL two-part exhibition at The Millicent Rogers Museum (MRM) on view starting May 25 through January 8, 2023. “A Part of The Earth” showcases recent MRM acquisitions — part two of the exhibit starts next year, January 18, 2023, and runs through May 14. It promises to be an important showcase with an emphasis on Northern New Mexican and women artists contributing Indigenous and Hispanic perspectives within art production.
Michelle Lanteri, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the MRM, responded to a Tempo inquiry about the significance of this exhibition, a few of the featured works and her criteria curating the show. Here are the highlights:
In the past three years, the museum has received many gifts of extraordinary artworks that have joined the permanent collection. We are so grateful for the donors’ generosity and felt that we needed to exhibit these artworks as soon as possible to further show the diverse repertoire of artists and art forms in the Southwest region. It also gives us a chance to show gratitude to the makers, donors and related communities. We want to show the intersections between cultures in the area and inspire new conversations between these works within the context of the museum as a community gathering space. We’re working to broaden perceptions of Southwest art in terms of media, style, theme and identity. In this exhibition, we’re also wanting to recognize the depth of creative expression found in the region, with an emphasis on Northern New Mexican and women artists contributing Indigenous and Hispanic perspectives within art production. This builds on the temporary and permanent exhibitions currently on view.
An important work in this exhibition is Anita Rodriguez’s painting, ‘La Santisima de Amber y Las Abejas’ (2018), an ofrenda, or offering, to Michlatecuitzli, an ancient Mexica goddess. Rodriguez, from Northern New Mexico, extends her arts of stewardship across many creative practices in making art, storytelling and plastering adobe. Her acts of creating a vision, sharing a narrative and building an intimate space all converge in this artwork. La Santisma is the androgenous goddess of the underworld and acts as a healer who promotes the community. Rodriguez uses a palette of purples and yellows to evoke the power of this figure to both protect and guide pathways into togetherness and cooperation.
The exhibition also celebrates legacies of innovative practices. One work that shows this regular occurrence in the Southwest is a multi-stone and inlaid belt buckle in gold by Hopi artist Sonwai, or Verma Nequatewa, the niece of the Avant-Garde jewelry artist Charles Loloma (Hopi.) A skilled goldsmith, Sonwai expands upon particular styles established by her predecessors, like her uncle, who influenced generations of Native jewelry artists from the 1960s onward. Made at a smaller scale, the buckle makes a subtle, yet powerful statement. The composition reflects a mesa sky, punctuated by a turquoise circle. Sonwai, a leading maker of Native jewelry, is one of her uncle’s select proteges who passes his legacy forward through the lens of her experiences.
Taos Pueblo artist Angie Yazzie’s fine art pottery exemplifies time immemorial relationships with this place. As a vessel made of local materials, Yazzie’s micaceous clay jar embodies this area — the place of the Red Willow as home to the Tiwa peoples. The artwork features a sculpted bear figure in relief, inlaid with turquoise. The combination of these elements describes the interconnections between all beings here and the value of the stories, teaching and healing that each provides. The jar reflects water as the force of life, merged with the clay to give form to a vessel of support. Yazzie’s pottery carries vitality between generations.
We’re an educational institution, always seeking new ways to learn through dialogue in the arts. We’re also going to be showing different approaches to regional art forms, such as santos and Hopi katsina dolls.
At 1504 Millicent Rogers Road in Taos, the Millicent Rogers Museum celebrates and shares the arts and cultures of the Southwest. It serves as a memorial to Millicent Rogers (1902-1953), a Standard Oil heiress whose inspiration, patronage and collections form the core of the museum’s holdings. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. General admission is $12, with free admission daily for veterans, members and children 12 and under. Taos County residents receive free entry to the museum every Sunday.
Visit millicentrogers.org for updates about this exhibition.