Public art took a leap into a gallery space last weekend when "Contemporary Arts in the Public Realm" opened at Magn°fico.
What exactly is art in the public realm?
"That's the question we want people to think about," Melody Mock, Magn°fico's director of exhibits and programs said. "It's really a wide range of things."
She said public art can be considered as old as the petroglyphs; it could even be the clouds in the sky.
"It's art that can be appreciated by anybody and usually it's something out in the public," Mock said.
So what would be included in a show where anything goes? Well, to just skim the surface - a performance piece, storefront window art, mini-TVs hanging from the ceiling, photos taken through a glass water-filled ball and a talking rock.
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All of this makes "Arts in the Public Realm" one of the most diverse shows one can see.
"The approach we took was to try and examine a lot of different forms that could be considered art in the public realm," Mock said.
UNM's Land Arts of the American West program can without a doubt be considered public art. Under UNM professor Bill Gilbert, students have been able to break out of the confines of a traditional classroom and spend months out in the open land. There they learned new ways of seeing their environments which resulted in new ideas to make art.
Julie Anand, Ryan Henel, Blake Gibson, Jeanette Hart and Gabriel Romero have their art from this program in the gallery.
Gibson's piece, "Contiguous Painting Piece" is beautiful in its spontaneity and messiness. He took cans of paint spattered them on the walls, poured the paint on the ground, on wood, on boxes, shoes, all while an audience watched.
"One arm scrapes piles of paint with wooden planks, the other arm paints images on paper with brushes," Gibson said in his artist statement. "One action does not exclude the other, they can happen simultaneously."
Hart's exhibit features Plexiglas boxes with TV screens hanging in the middle of the gallery, documenting views on what home is. The oddity of seeing video come out of so many small industrial-looking boxes is what makes this piece. When you walk in the space, although all the work is outrageous in its own right, this piece stands out.
Beyond UNM studio art students, the School of Architecture and Planning has the work of five of their students up in a project called "Albuquerque's Space-Time Geography: Landscape Significance in Space and Time."
These pieces represent Albuquerque's past and future in different spots throughout the city.
The mixed-media installations and found objects used in the pieces fall far from the blueprints and computer-aided drafting one might expect from architects. The surprises of these alone are worth seeing.
In conjunction with the show, a symposium will take place May 21 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Artists who have created public displays and directors of organizations pioneering new concepts of public art will present events examining public art.
All events - just as public art is - are free and open to the public.
What: Las Cantantes Annual Barefoot Concert
When: Tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Keller Hall
Price: $3 students, $7 general admission
