Palette Contemporary Art and Craft in Albuquerque
A little over a week ago I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the opening of When Heaven and Nature Sing at Palette Contemporary Art & Craft. Albuquerque is a high elevation city set in a geologic bowl. It is bordered by the Sandia Mountains to the east and a row of defunct volcanoes to the west. The city has an old town, and a downtown populated by mid to tall-rise buildings, but its creative heart feels spread out among its many square miles of low-lying strip malls and residential neighborhoods.
Looking east toward Albuquerque and the Sandias from the Vulcan Volcano Loop Trail, Petroglyph National Monument, New Mexico
Palette Contemporary Art & Craft, located at 7400 Montgomery Blvd. NE in Albuquerque, has the hallmarks of a coastal urban gallery – white walls, high ceilings, polished floors – minus the big city attitude. Gallery directer Kurt Nelson is as personable as they come and his assistant, Ariana, will chat football with you as easily as she’ll chat about the art.
“When Heaven and Nature Sing” is a show of thirty-six paintings from my series of One-Hundred Flowers, up at Palette Contemporary Art & Craft in Albuquerque, New Mexico through the end of the year
The aesthetic at Palette is modern and bright.
“When Heaven and Nature Sing” at Palette with art glass in foreground
And the gallery is strong on art glass, a lot of which has a retro-futurist look and feel.
Another angle
Center row from right to left, “Pickle,” “Superkitty,” and “Bean”
Center right, “Soothsayer”
Surprise! Kurt commissioned a local bakery to make a batch of frosted cookies in the shape of “Sun Pop” for the opening.
Cookies frosted to match “Sun Pop”
“Sun Pop,” encaustic and ink on panel, 5″ x 4″
Call or email Kurt and Ariana to ask about Sun Pop or any other painting in the show.