Gallery Hopping In Santa Fe

How many of you know that Santa Fe trades places with New York City every year between being the second and third largest art market in the world? It’s true.

Paris is always number one. I had no idea before coming here. I also thought Santa Fe was a western art town. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My friend, Anna Karin (you’ll find Anna in an earlier post, The Old Adobe Church, the Wolf and Survival), and I went gallery hopping in Santa Fe the other day and I took some photos for you.

There are so many galleries we couldn’t possibly get to them all, so we’ll do this again. But for those of you who have never been here before, I think you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

We started the day downtown at Evoke Contemporary. See more about the gallery at evokecontemporary.com. Kathryn is a good friend and great gallery professional. Anna and I agreed this is one of our favorite galleries in all of Santa Fe.

Then we headed over to Skotia, which is just around the corner from Evoke. They were in the middle of hanging a show so the whole upstairs was roped off. See more about Skotia at skotiagallery.com.

We got back in the car and drove to Canyon Road, after that, and took in just a few of the many galleries there. Canyon Road used to be, literally, a dirt road out to the canyon lined with inexpensive, falling down adobes.

Because artists could afford them, they moved in and created studio/galleries. Now Canyon Road is one of the art focal points in Santa Fe.

We started our Canyon tour at The Meyer East Gallery at the “foot” of the road (where Canyon meets Paseo de Peralta). Find more about Meyer East at meyereastgallery.com.

Then it was time to break for lunch. We headed to the “top” of the road to El Farol, Santa Fe’s oldest restaurant. Anna and I agreed their margaritas are the best we’ve ever had. Learn more about El Farol at elfarolsf.com.

The road itself, without all the galleries and the art, is worth a visit. A stroll from one end to the other, probably not one mile each way, offers some of Santa Fe’s most charming and quaint historic structures.

After lunch we ventured into Turner Carroll Gallery, which offers contemporary American, European, Asian and Latin American art. Learn more about the gallery at turnercarrollgallery.com.

Then we dropped by The Matthews Gallery, formerly Deloney Newkirk. The gallery is now showing historic European and American art, as well as contemporary. Because much of the work is historic and on paper, featuring artists such as Modiglianii, Pissaro, Matisse and Mary Cassat, to name a few, I wasn’t able to shoot much for fear of the flash harming the artwork. Visit their website at thematthewsgallery.com.

Next we visited NuArt Gallery. Anna and I agreed it is one of Santa Fe’s freshest art venues. See more at nuartgallery.com.

After that came the Selby Fleetwood Gallery, a charming space with an interesting mix of contemporary art. See selbyfleetwoodgallery.com.

And last but not least, we stopped in at Hunter Kirkland Contemporary. Nancy Hunter has been around for a very long time and is one of the nicest gallery owners you could hope to meet. See more at hunterkirklandcontemporary.com.

We missed many of the downtown and Canyon galleries, not to mention the museums, and we didn’t even get over to the Rail Yard, one of the city’s newest gallery areas. Our intention was to take our time savoring the art at a few venues, rather than to rush. So, one of these days, Anna and I will get off the mountain again and take you to see some of the galleries we missed. You should check out The Essential Guide’s website to get a fairly complete overview of what the area has to offer. Find them at essentialguide.com.

I hope these photos are enough to spur you on to the galleries in your own town or, better yet, inspire you to make your own art.

Love to you all,
Jeane