Off-Center: New Mexico Art, 1970-2000 (Place Spectacle)

Off-Center: New Mexico Art, 1970-2000, surveys the last three decades of the twentieth century, a pivotal time in which numerous artists relocated to New Mexico, drawn by its distinctive climate and landscape, its rich diversity of cultures, and its strong reputation as a center for the visual arts.

During this time, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos continued to be important destinations for contemporary artists, but other communities developed in cities and towns infrequently identified with the visual arts such as Galisteo, Gallup, Las Cruces, Roswell, and Silver City. The exhibition will undergo five partial rotations over the course of the year to capture as much of the thematic breadth and as many of the influential artists as possible. With over 125 artists on view, Off-Center presents a compelling range of artistic approaches and a diverse range of experiences that will be organized into three major thematic groupings: Place, Spectacle, and Identity.

These artworks represent a crossover between the exhibition categories of Place and Spectacle, categories that at first may not appear to overlap but coincide with some frequency in New Mexico.

The secret spectacle of the initial detonation of the atomic bomb in Alamogordo in 1945 is intimately connected with place and set the stage for work by artists later commenting on the state’s contributions to this technology and its lingering environmental impact on this place.