[curatorial footnotes]

form & concept Exhibitions Coordinator Brad Hart talks litho voodoo, hats and history in this staff interview. Brad has worked at our sister gallery Zane Bennett throughout its 15-year history, and has spearheaded some wildly ambitious installations for form & concept. He's also a master printmaker and may possess a time machine. Read on for a preview of his interview, and access the rest on the Zane Bennett website.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND IN PRINTMAKING. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO PURSUE IT?

I signed up for intaglio as an elective when I was working on a BFA in drawing. If you have the slightest compulsive tendencies, printmaking is your sport. I was hooked and finished up with a MFA in printmaking. I love the unique mark making that can be achieved with the various print techniques and the ability to create multiples.

YOU'VE WORKED WITH SANDY ZANE SINCE BEFORE THE INCEPTION OF ZANE BENNETT CONTEMPORARY ART AND FORM & CONCEPT GALLERY. HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THE ART SCENE IN SANTA FE CHANGE OVER THE YEARS, AND HOW HAVE THE GALLERIES REFLECTED THAT EVOLUTION?

 The biggest change I've seen is a much larger embrace of more contemporary, less traditional work. We originally opened on Canyon Road and very few galleries had any nonrepresentational work. Any artist that pitched work to those other galleries that couldn't at least be vaguely confused as a landscape was told to come talk to us. It's great to see much broader acceptance of new media and less traditional art forms now. Zane Bennett has held pretty steadfast to the work we represent and we're known for and sought out for that work. form & concept has filled a niche by embracing underrepresented art forms. It's a great combination of emerging, established, and contemporary masters. Santa Fe will still always ways hold the corner on the howling coyote market though.  

WHAT EXHIBITION WAS THE MOST FUN TO INSTALL?

 The Flying Blue Buffalo [installation by Armond Lara]. The perpetual squawking lift was annoying but the entire staff was involved in making the buffalo fly. It was a visually stunning display despite the headaches and great to be able to make Armond's vision a reality.

Read more at Zane Bennett.

Inspired by her indigenous Mexican culture and research into Native American patterning, Houston-based ceramicist Gabriela "Gabo" Martini wields terracotta clay and vibrantly colored slips. Reminiscent of the Mexican towns and terrains where she spent her summers, each hand-carved piece—made with the sgraffito technique—evokes the artist's ongoing reconciliation of civilizations, languages, and generations.

Gabo's work is new to the form & concept collection. Look below for more behind-the-scenes peeks at the artist's sketchbook, and then visit her artist page to see the finished works. Gabo answered three questions the early stages of her process and her sources of inspiration.

Describe your drawing routine, and how it relates to the rest of your studio practice.

I don’t have much of a drawing routine, it’s more like a spontaneous itch to draw that will suddenly happen. I enjoy ideas happening organically and I give myself room to draw anything no matter how unrealistic or weird it is. I always keep a sketchbook at hand and a felt pouch full of ball point pens of all different colors. I used to use pencil to draw guides so my pots wouldn’t be so lopsided but I no longer seek to make perfect drawings and only use archival ink pens to draw now. 

Drawing allows you to conceptualize pretty much any form, but do things ever get tricky when you're moving from the page to clay?

I would say about 75% of my drawings never translate easily to clay, but I really enjoy that challenge. It’s so interesting to figure out how to create something dimensional from a silly drawing. Sometimes when I’m just trying to figure out how to marry the surface design with the form, I do draw with the intention of making it easily translatable.

Your work evokes so many historic movements, from Mexican modernism to Pattern and Decoration. Could you talk a bit about your influences?

I’m very influenced by the full forms of Native American pottery, especially the San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez. Another source of inspiration is pre-Colombian artifacts from museums. I enjoy going to museums and sketching these forms and designs, which then inspire a fusion between traditional and contemporary.

View Gabo Martini's artist page.