2017 Local Treasures
For the tenth year, The Albuquerque Art Business Association will present the 2017 Local Treasure Award Ceremony and Reception. It will take place on Sunday, September 3, 1pm, at the Albuquerque Museum of Art & History. Every September, the Albuquerque Art Business Association, the gallery association that brings you First Friday ARTScrawl, recognizes and honors Albuquerque artists who not only excel in the arts and their artistic discipline, but who have given back to their community. By sharing their time, talent and passion, they help develop a whole new generation of art lovers and artists and ensure that New Mexico will continue to be home to the thousands of working artists for many years to come.
This year’s master of ceremonies will be the 2016-2018 City of Albuquerque Poet Laureate Manuel Gonzalez.The 2017 recipients of the Local Treasure designee are Elaine Bolz, Jade Leyva, Renee Gentz, Mark Horst, Cheryl Godin and Ilene Weiss. A reception will follow the awards presentation with music by Don Shearer.
Elaine Bolz:
Elaine has a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University. Today her studio is in Corrales. Elaine’s unique ceramics are slab built and sculpted out of white earthenware clay with airbrushed and hand painted glazes. She uses forms and imagery from nature including the human figure to create work that interplays plane, space, world mythologies, art history, fantasy and an element of soft surprise. Elaine has volunteered and donated work to numerous local art schools, organizations and causes. Her ceramics can be seen at Weyrich Gallery.
Jade Leyva:
Jade was born in Mexico City and now makes New Mexico home. Combining influences from Magical Realism to Pre-Colombian and postmodern art, Leyva’s work is at times whimsical, celebratory and reflective, yet always thought-provoking and expressive. The central themes of her art; love, unity, and our fragile relationship to Mother Earth, embody her positive hope for the future of the world. Through “Seeds: A Collective Voice/Community See Mural Project, she has created murals using seeds with children and the community of New Mexico. Her paintings can be seen in September at Tortuga Gallery.
Renee Gentz :
Renee is a highly regarded and long-standing member of the Albuquerque art community. Her medium is unusual, a combination of painting and quilting. She hand dyes and paints swatches of cotton and silk, then sews them together, quilt-like, into wall hangings that have the look of abstract paintings. The resulting works have the compositional character and structure of paintings but with a remarkable textural quality and luminescent color. Her work may be seen at Yucca Art Gallery in Old Town.
Mark Horst:
Mark has a PHD in theology from Yale University which led him to teaching and working toward neighborhood renewal in Southern Minneapolis. Today he paints full time in his Albuquerque studio. Known for his figurative work, he also loves the challenge of a cityscape or a landscape. Horst states that painting the figure is a process, the body is evocative and narrative with energy, a push and a pull. He lets the brush have some freedom, letting it dance around the canvas. Recently his work has also included murals and he spent this summer leading young artists on a community sculpture. His paintings can be seen Downtown at Sumner & Dene Gallery.
Cheryl Godin:
Cheryl, a realistic painter, has a passion for preserving the history of Albuquerque through her detailed renderings of historic Rt 66 signs and local landmarks. Her goal is to honor their memory with her art. Godin’s signature style elevates even crumbling old relics to saintly status with respect and love. Her paintings can be seen at Warren Fine Art & Collectibles in Old Town.
Ilene Weiss:
Ilene is a mixed media painter who believes that the integration of art into everyday life improves the quality of living. Access to art drives her involvement in the community. For decades Weiss has volunteered her time and donated her work to various Albuquerque institutions including VSA N4th Gallery, OffCenter Arts, and Albuquerque Sign Language Academy. Her paintings can be seen in September at The Next Best Thing to Being There on Mountain Road.
This year’s master of ceremonies will be the 2016-2018 City of Albuquerque Poet Laureate Manuel Gonzalez