Crumpled Spirits

Strata Gallery’s new showcase is crumpled and torn, just like all of us

Paper is the way to the soul. Don’t you see all those Valentine cards currently lining the grocery store shelves? Or wait, maybe it’s the representation of the soul. Either way, if you’ve never seen what a talented paper artist can do, you’re in for a real treat this week, Santa Fe.

Enter Phillip Byrne, a California-based artist and current MFA candidate at UC Davis who takes root at Strata Gallery to promote his new show, Sacred Wound. As a creator, Byrne’s work is built around his personal dealings with Crohn’s Disease and Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome—two diagnoses that robbed him of bodily agency. In Sacred Wound, paper is the metaphor for human physicality. The paper on display is fragmented, crumpled, cut, torn and yet rehabilitated to form a new kind of whole.

In his artist statement, Byrne describes his inspiration as, “placing my own metaphysical body on the dissection table and exploring its interior contents.”

We haven’t heard something so surgically thrilling since high school anatomy class, and rarely in the fine art sense.

“Phillip was a student of mine, and I’m very familiar with his work,” David Olivant, artist and president of the board of directors at Strata Gallery, tells SFR. “It’s really stimulating stuff. The condition of the human body is in all his works. He dunks paper into dyed water and sculpts that into expressive forms, mimicking wounds from mythologies.”

Have you ever wandered how the body examines its own wounds, and what the physiological impact of that might be? For Byrne, such looming questions are a part of every day. What are the metaphysical limits to our boundaries, and what’s all this impermanence about anyhow? In short: if you’ve ever been overwhelmed by life’s fluidity and your own lack of control, as Byrne has, there’s a chance this show will resonate. His previous work has included light drawings which built patterns of awesome geometric madness, light veils that gave an X-ray glow to sculptural installations and, of course, paper-based unravellings representing human frailty.

“And it goes beyond paper,” Olivant adds. “There will be a 35-foot canvas with crimson ink stains streaming down, reflecting into this controlled environment. Windows will be darkened, sound and light elements added, and molded plexiglass works hanging from above.”

Byrne’s showcase runs through Feb. 19, so there’s plenty of opportunities to check it out. But hey, don’t you wanna get your decorative N95s out, get a little February mingling in and see some art to make you remember the fragility of the body? We all need that from time-to-time.

Sacred Wound Opening: 5 pm Tuesday, Feb. 8. Free. Strata Gallery, 418 Cerrillos Road Ste. 1C, (505) 780-5403

Beat It, Kids

Locals are always telling us how they’d love Meow Wolf so much more if there were hours set aside just for them. Like, nobody wants anything bad to happen to your kids, people with kids, we just like to have some time away from them...and their screaming. The local arts corporation heard your pleas, too, Santa Fe, and it now offers special adults-only hours. That means booze, slower exploration, none of that aforementioned screaming and, we hope, F-word after F-word uttered through the hallowed neon halls and rooms that have things that look things but are really other things (like that fridge that’s really a door, for example). Go wild, just don’t get lax about COVID. (ADV)

Adulti-verse: 6-10 pm Thursday, Feb. 3. $35. Meow Wolf, 1352 Rufina Circle, (505) 395-6369

Screening

We understand it’s a little confusing to differentiate between the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and the Santa Fe Film Festival, but while the indie version starts in October, February’s all about the older of the two and its more films than we could possibly list here (it’s seriously dozens). For 10 days this month, find SFFF offerings at various theaters around town—and don’t forget that you’ll have to get vaxx’d and boosted—and be able to prove it—to attend. Masks are also required. Is this the spot where we mention how Santa Fe has better movie-going options than cities thrice our size? Because we do. In other words, if you’re a fan of film and want to be in the know about what the indie champs are doing, here’s a good start. (ADV)

Santa Fe Film Festival: Various times Thursday, Feb. 3. $10-$212.50. Various locations, santafefilmfestival.com

Westward, Ho!

If’n you’ve lived around these parts for any period of real time, you’re sure to have heard the name Joe West whispered from the lips of many a Santa Fean. Yeah, that countrified-meets-citified acoustic guitar slingin’, time travelin’, throat warblin’ songwriter just can’t seem to quit, and that could be why he’s hosting a jam night at Beer Creek Brewing Co.—or maybe he’s just looking to party. West adopts a “no amps allowed” policy for his ongoing open mic nights/jam sessions, plus, given the caliber of musician he works with on the reg, could be you see something amazing in some configuration that never connected before and never does again afterward. If all else fails, remember West’s sage words of wisdom that we discovered on the social media invite: Not too many harmonicas, please. (ADV)

Joe West Acoustic Jam: 5 pm Friday, Feb. 4. Free. Beer Creek Brewing Co., 3810 Hwy. 14, (505) 471-9271