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Be they sweeping New Mexico landscapes, Shiprock tableaux or Spanish colonial scenes, the clichés of ready-made Santa Fe art abound in settings ranging from galleries to thrift shops.
Artist Charles Greeley takes these standards and infuses them with out-of-the-box materials, intricate details and his meticulous, artistic touch—effectively reenergizing the pieces and presenting them with a whole new perspective.
“The subject of my collages are usually scenes from the Southwest,” Greeley tells SFR. “I’ve lived here for over 40 years, and I’m still taken by the beauty of the area.”
A graduate of the New York School of Visual Arts, Greeley’s work is part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Santa Fe’s own New Mexico Museum of Art collections.
On Saturday, Greeley presents standouts from his recent body of work in
’ Limitless .
The tile speaks to the artist’s lack of restraint when achieving his vision. Think: A low-fire ceramic take on Asian cobalt porcelain or a Japanese paper collage pastoral.
“It’s heavily silkscreened,” the artist says of mulberry paper. “It’s very durable; it’s almost like a fabric, and the inks take so richly—they’re not bothered by sunlight.” Greeley stumbled across the material after a trial and error run with other types of paper, including magazine pages. “These pieces will last for 100 years,” he assures. “They’re almost like woodblock prints.”
Other pieces in Limitless are what the artist calls “cosmological mindscapes”—acrylics inspired by an infinite sense of space and time, as wells as images from the Hubble Telescope.
“They’re referred to as ‘visionary paintings,’” Greeley points out.
“Charles Greeley is the bomb,” Eggman’s Evan Glassman says.
Cloudface performs a special DJ set during the opening that’s guaranteed to get your toes a-tapping while you try to decipher the many components of Greeley’s explosive work.
5-9 pm Saturday, Sept. 15. Free. Eggman & Walrus,
130 W Palace Ave. 2nd floor, 660-0048
Santa Fe Reporter