Every summer since its founding in 2016, form & concept has invited its dynamic team of represented artists to come together for a group exhibition of new works. Each show unites local and far-flung creative voices in a conversation about art, craft and design. form & concept seeks to examine the conceptual lines drawn between such broad categories, and how these distinctions reflect cultural attitudes toward gender, race, and class.
The gallery, located in Santa Fe's Railyard district, was voted "Best Gallery" by readers of the Santa Fe Reporter last year. In its short history, form & concept has curated a formidable array of exhibitions that aspire to give platforms to mediums and topics that have been largely overlooked or excluded by local and national art galleries. "The Summer Show is the singular exhibition where our ethos is most clearly on view," Eddy says. "It's the most diverse in terms of mediums, forms, and concepts. It's bigger than just an exhibition. It's our annual contribution to the contemporary art discourse of Santa Fe and beyond."
The Summer Show is anchored by an immersive installation by Santa Fe artist Thais Mather. Large-scale watercolor figure paintings descend from the ceiling, cast with holographic prisms created by C. Alex Clark. The two mediums to bleed together, morphing what we believe into a suspension of disbelief. "Perhaps the work is about a loss of perception of self; a melting," Mather explains. "In this way, the transitional wave created by a prismatic breakdown of color works to dissolve perceived image. I felt somehow prismatic light was almost a breath, in it's simplicity and utter complexity. What is light, what is breath?"
Each represented artist will debut new works, including sculptures by Wesley Anderegg and Debra Baxter, as well as paintings by Heidi Brandow, Matthew Mullins, and Thais Mather.
