SFR Picks—Week of March 4

Sunken Treasure

New Mexico Museum of Art's Alcoves brings together local hits

It's not about terms like "best" when it comes to the next iteration of the New Mexico Museum of Art's Alcoves series—especially considering it boasts names like Todd Ryan White, Munson Hunt, Debra Baxter and Jonathan Parker—but if we were hard-pressed to name the artist we're most excited about in a sea of excitement-worthy creators, we'd have to say Amy Ellingson.

Ellingson is a relatively new transplant to Santa Fe, but as a longtime visitor (and an absolutely bonkers good artist), she's sure to eek out a space all her own in short order. Alcoves seems a good start. Think of it like Ellingson is working with a partner, though in this case, that partner is a computer and its various arts and modeling apps. Once she's zeroed in on a design, Ellingson transfers the content to archival quality physical materials using painting and encaustic wax processes. In the end, she winds up with abstracts that look equal parts mathematically sound and planned, but still emotional and wild with motion.

"I've been designing my paintings on the computer for about 30 years, believe it or not," Ellingson tells SFR. "The goal was to create a new way of approaching abstraction and to see if there were any things I could do with a computer that would open up new avenues in terms of creating forms."

Indeed they have, and though Ellingson does touch on the familiar emotionality of the abstract—"it has to be emotionally driven," she says—the work is as much about the digital processes as it is culling from her own well.

"What I'm kind of trying to do is seduce people with the optical and digital effects," she continues. "It's all painted by hand, but the imagery is generated on the computer—there's a lengthy process."

In Ellingson's other offerings, she represents the raw data of her computer-generated images in graphite, as well as in ceramic; manipulating a completed pre-painted image onto a 3-D sphere opens up new opportunities for expression we might otherwise have never seen. (Alex De Vore)

Alcoves 2020 #3 Public Reception: 
5 pm Friday, March 6. Free.
New Mexico Museum of Art,
107 W Palace Ave.,
476-5072.

Full Speed Exit

Yeah, it's been a pretty good run for Albuquerque/Santa Fe indie-punk/pop act Full Speed Veronica, but since all good things must come to an end, this good thing is…you know the rest. Seems guitarist/singer Malcolm June is leaving New Mexico, but not before the band does a couple farewell shows, one of which goes down right here in Santa Fe. The timing is a little odd—the band dropped its new EP, The Final Round, recently and is one of the few rock bands around here without a country-ish subtext. And even though we wish June well in whatever happens next, it's always sad to lose a local band. But if you're looking for rock with a poppy sensibility and the whispers of classic punk seeping in all around its catchy choruses, this is the one—and your chances are dwindling. (ADV)

Full Speed Veronica Farewell Show with The Ordinary Things, Sunbender and Sweet Nothin': 
8 pm Friday, March 6. $5-$10 suggested donation.
Ghost,
2889 Trades West Road.

Shell Shocked

All is not lost if you're thinking it's the end of poppy punk-esque jamz, at least not if Tempe, Arizona's Snailmate has anything to say about it. Oh, they've come before, and they'll come again. And you'll like it. Think rap meets synth meets punked-out lovelorn weirdness with a highly danceable backbone and a dash of Violent Femmes-ish humor. Snailmate is almost like Mates of State didn't make everything a certified drag (with nothing but love to MoS), like if Ween had a little more focus. But if we're looking to ditch the comparisons and define what it is Snailmate does, it's hard. Just know that fans of Cake, Peaches or the less-shitty stylings of Bloodhound Gang might have found their favorite new band, and it comes in the form of Kalen Lander and Bentley Monet, a couple of musical geniuses who don't fear the weird. (ADV)

Snailmate: 
8 pm Monday March 9. Free.
Mine Shaft Tavern,
2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid,
473-0743.

Mo’ Momaday

N Scott Momaday (Kiowa) is quite possibly the most singular corporeal expression of New Mexico literature; his legendary status was established with the 1968 novel House Made of Dawn, which viscerally explored the post-war Native American experience, won a Pulitzer and set the grounds for a resurgence of Indigenous voices throughout the second half of the 20th century. Perhaps you didn't know that he's out with new work, a collection of over 200 poems. The Death of Sitting Bear captures Momaday's attitudes towards words as sacred tools of expression, and he breathes life into those words this Tuesday with a reading and conversation with poet Layli Long Soldier (Oglala Lakota). (Cole Rehbein)

N. Scott Momaday: The Death of Sitting Bear:
6 pm Tuesday, March 10. Free.
Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse,
202 Galisteo St.;
988-4226