Is Argos open yet?

12/2/22

In late 2019, we secured a new location and set about remodeling it, with a view to moving in mid-2021. Of course, covid happened and we had to shut down.

We spent most of the pandemic building the new space, but more slowly than planned. Still closed due to health mandates, we made the move August through October ’21.

We planned to open the studio and gallery by early ’22, but a plumbing flood set things back by about six months.

Mandates have lifted and health concerns have lessened. Argos has reopened in some of its parts:

— The gallery will be the last component to reopen, in early ’23. Until then, we are not open to a walk-in public.

— Several drawing groups have reopened; please see the “Life Drawing” links on the right

— Kevin Gorges’ portrait and figure live-model classes are in session

— The printmaking studio is beginning to function; see the “Intaglio Print Studio” link on the right

Please see the map for our new location, at the link “Map and Hours”, and find email or phone info at the “Contact” link for any queries.

We’re looking forward to a more normal 2023.

Politics As Usual

Political commentary in prints across five centuries.

The December 2019 historical prints exhibit at Argos looks at political and social messaging in printmaking. On display is the work of fine artists who speak out on social issues, as well as commercial artists who have made political commentary a high art. As the U.S. commences its most consequential political season in memory, these images remind us that few issues in a democracy are entirely new.

Works by Durer, Callot, Goya, Hogarth, Daumier, Nast, Kollwitz and many more are on exhibit. The exhibit is curated from the collection of Robert Bell, who will give a gallery talk on the Sunday after the opening.

Reception: Friday, Dec. 6th, 5:30-7:30
Gallery Talk: Sunday, Dec. 8th, 2:00pm; RSVP
Exhibit: through Jan. 5th

Image: Anon. (French), The English Elections (detail), lithograph, 1820s

Landscapes Revisited – Whitman Johnson

Whitman Johnson’s forty-four year career as a painter of the local landscape has few rivals. This exhibit comprises oils and watercolors from recent years, and a large collection of ink drawings, all executed in the open air in and around Santa Fe. Preview the work here.

Reception: Friday, September 20, 5:30-7:30
Exhibit: September 20 thru October 18

Gallery Hours:
M, Th, Fr, Sun: 11-5:30
Sat: 1-5:30

The Ambos Lados Print Exchange

158 printmakers, largely from Mexico and the US, plus Cuba, Canada, Australia and Ireland. A print exchange between artist-printmakers, administered by print collectives in Oaxaca and the American Southwest.

Opening reception: Friday, July 12th, 5:30 – 7:00pm
Exhibit: July 12th through August 2nd

Preview the exhibit here

Fact & Affect – realism and the subjective

Artists committed to academic-realist painting skills do not always use them to depict the factual. Argos presents two realist painters, Zienna Brunsted Stewart and Vahn Phan, who portray the deeply subjective.

Reception: Friday October 26th, 5:30 – 7:30
Exhibit: October 26 thru November 18th

Preview the exhibit here

Eli Levin – Nudes

Eli Levin has published a new book through Sunstone Press that surveys his struggle with the nude as an art form. The book is an almost unique example of a painter critiquing his own fifty-five year body of work on the subject of the nude.

This exhibit displays work from across thirty-five years, taken from each chapter of the book. The opening reception will include a book-signing.

Opening reception: Friday, July 13th, 5:30-7:30
Exhibit: July 13th thru August 3rd
Go here for examples of the work

Full Disclosure

The Tuesday Night Drawing Group’s fifth annual push-pin exhibit of drawings.

The Tuesday Night Drawing Group is Santa Fe’s longest-running artists-model drawing group. It originated in Eli Levin’s studio in 1969, and now meets weekly at Argos Studio/Gallery. By tradition, it is a short-pose format and is open to anyone.

Opening Reception: Friday, March 23rd, 6:00–8:00
Exhibit: March 23rd thru April 8th, 2018

Sample the exhibit here.

2017 historical prints exhibit

The Nude – A Survey in Prints

Our 2017 historical prints exhibit focuses on the nude. Kenneth Clark writes that the nude is not a subject in art so much as it is an art form, invented in ancient Greece, with its own systematic visual language. This exhibit surveys images of the nude, dating from the middle Renaissance through the present day, curated from the Bell family collection of fine art prints. Go here to sample the exhibit.

Robert Bell will offer a tour and discussion of the exhibit on the Sunday following the opening.

Opening: Friday, Dec 1st, 5:30 – 7:30pm
Exhibit Tour: Sunday, Dec. 3rd, 3pm, by RSVP
Exhibit: December 1st thru December 31st

RSVP for the exhibit tour and discussion by email, or call 988-1814

Image: details from Max Weber’s Untitled (Nude) and J. A. D. Ingres’ The Source

Bob Richardson – Paintings and Drawings

Behind the Scenes – Paintings and drawings by Bob Richardson that explore personality through figure and portrait. Go here to preview the exhibit.

Reception: Friday, September 22nd, 6:00–8:00

Exhibit: September 22nd through October 15th