The Long and Winding Road

Artist Pascal Piermé celebrates long-running career with new book, retrospective exhibit

In another life, French-born/Santa Fe-based artist and sculptor Pascal Piermé could have easily gone into the dental field. For a time, in his native land, Piermé worked as an apprentice in a dental technician program, the type of lab where cosmetic pieces get crafted from plasters and resins, waxes, epoxies, gold and so on. In retrospect, he tells SFR, that might have something to do with his becoming enamored with three-dimensional art—though as an artist he’s perhaps best known for working in wood and steel. In any event, he left that field to pursue art, and all’s well that ends well: Piermé releases his new book, Origines+Life this week through Santa Fe’s GF Contemporary gallery, which also hosts a retrospective exhibition culled from gallery pieces, private collections and elsewhere. The show also includes new, never-before-seen works.

Of course, it wasn’t a smooth road getting here. As a kid, Piermé learned the man he’d thought was his biological father was not. The real one, it turned out, lived in California, which spurred Piermé to visit and spend time in the states, which would lead him to New Mexico in 1996.

“I totally fell in love the first time I came here,” he tells SFR. “The reason I stayed here and didn’t go to New York or Los Angeles...I loved the landscape, and I was seeing some pretty successful artists who were doing well without being in a bigger city.”

According to the new book, the year he decided to stay in Santa Fe was the same year his gallery at the time sold an entire shipping container worth of his work.

“I also decided between quality of life or being obsessed with success,” Piermé continues. “I don’t think my ego was big enough to give up Santa Fe.”

Success lingers, even if a retrospective show comes with complicated feelings. Piermé says he might start dabbling in other mediums once the new exhibit runs its course. He doesn’t want to speak in generalities, though—he’s free to do work on his own time, and that’s how he likes it.

“It’s going to be very strange for me to have old pieces and [new pieces] mixed; a little bit like a retirement party,” he says with a laugh. “But Santa Fe is my mother. The egg. It’s where everything became possible to me.” (Alex De Vore)

Pascal Piermé: Origines+Life Book Launch and Retrospective: 5 pm Friday, Oct. 21. Free. GF Contemporary, 707 Canyon Road, (505) 983-3707

Sisters Are Doing it For the Rest of Us

If you don’t know Albuquerque’s Lindy Vision by now, you’re missing out, friendo. No, but furreal, the sister duo of Dorothy and Natasha Culyear (not to mention former member Carla Culyear, who can still be found on earlier recordings) has steadily carved a niche through a combination of synthy dance jamz, experimental instrumentation and, thankfully, a healthy dose of weirdness. The Culyear sisters craft the kind of tunes that not only get the booties shaking, but inspire a pause to truly consider the expert composition at play. Find ‘em this weekend at the Santa Fe Institute’s Interplanetary Festival, wherein the theoretical research org dedicates brainpower to the mysteries of the universe. We’d make an “out of this world” joke, but we respect Lindy Vision’s vision too much to stoop to goofs. Instead, we suggest you educate yourself on the music. You won’t be sorry. (ADV)

Lindy Vision @Interplanetary Festival: 8:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 22. Free. SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta, (505) 989-1199

Going Viral

It’s been a minute since local troubadour/theater-lover Joe West has been able to put on his once-annual Theater of Death program, but with the pandemic...well, not over, but relegated to the fringes of our collective consciousness, he’s back at it again. What, you ask, is Theater of Death? Well, West is famously a fan of the French Grand Guignol tradition and the theater of the grotesque—the tough things made light and theatrical for all to enjoy. For the return of West’s series of short plays and original tunes, the theme and title are Virus!, an apt undertaking at this point in human history that, one hopes, will help re-contextualize our troubles. Or, to put it another way, you laugh so you don’t cry, maybe? Who knows, but the point is this: West’s a killer songwriter with a penchant for the dramatic. Plus, the whole thing’s goin’ down in a cool tent beside a brewery with great pizza. You can hardly ask for more. (ADV)

Joe West’s Theater of Death: Virus: 3 pm and 7 pm Saturday, Oct. 22 and Sunday, Oct. 23. $25. Beer Creek Brewing, 3810 Hwy. 14. (505) 471-9271

Give it Up

Folks from Santa Fe are likely already familiar with musician Nacha Mendez and her trademarked combination of folklorico-meets-contempo style. What some might not know, however, is that Mendez kicked off a music scholarship program last year, and the good things that come from that are just starting to roll hard. Aptly dubbed the Nacha Mendez Music Scholarship for New Mexican Girls of Color, the goal is simple: Get musical and financial resources into the hands of young girls, who are so often dissuaded from careers in the arts, particularly music. Come Tuesday, Mendez herself performs in support of the scholarship, in celebration of the looming Day of the Dead and alongside recipients from last year’s first cohort and locals Carla Kontoupes and Melanie Monsour. At $75 a ticket, we know that sounds steep, but proceeds go to the next round of scholarships, and anyway—it sounds like a pretty fun proof of concept. (ADV)

Nacha Mendez Day of the Dead Concert: 6 pm Tuesday, Oct. 25. $75. Museum of International Folk Art, 710 Camino Lejo, nachamendezscholarship.com