PUBLIC FORUM:  In Context - New Mexico in the Art World

Thursday, July 13, 2023 6pm – 7:30pm

Join us for a public forum about the place of New Mexico within the context of the greater art world. The forum takes place in conjunction with the exhibition Southwest Contemporary's 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now, their annual look at some of the most interesting and engaging artists working in the state. The forum features Louis Grachos, Philips Executive Director of SITE Santa Fe, Jadira Gurule, Art Museum and Visual Arts Program Manager at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Nancy Marie Mithlow (Chiricahua Apache), writer, curator, and professor at University of California, Los Angeles, and Marina Perez, scholar, educator, culture worker, and Ph.D. student at University of New Mexico. The forum will be moderated by Lauren Tresp, publisher and editor in chief of Southwest Contemporary, and co-curator of Southwest Contemporary's 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now. The event will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel. 

About the panelists:

Louis Grachos is the Phillips Executive Director of SITE Santa Fe. Grachos headed Buffalo, New York’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery for 10 years after serving as serving as director of SITE Santa Fe from 1996-2003. From 2013-2019 he served as CEO of The Contemporary Austin in Texas. Grachos was previously the Chief Executive Officer and JoAnn McGrath Executive Director at the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California.

Jadira Gurulé is the Head Curator and Visual Arts Program Manager for the Art Museum at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gurulé finished her BA in Art History at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 2010 and received her MA in American Studies from UNM in 2015. Her curatorial work engages themes of race, gender, pop culture, social justice, and the role of museums in building community and shaping national discourse.

Nancy Marie Mithlo is a Chiricahua Apache curator, writer and professor. Her exhibitions have been shown at the Venice Biennale. Mithlo has worked as the chair of American Indian Studies at the Autry National Center Institute and as a professor of gender studies and American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author and editor of several books about Native Americans and Indigenous art.

Marina Perez is a descendant of the Nahua and Huichol peoples of West Mexico. She is an interdisciplinary scholar, educator, and cultural worker specializing in community and cultural art-making practices. She earned an MA in American Indian Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is currently a Ph.D. student in Art History at the University of New Mexico. Her scholarship addresses emerging themes in contemporary Native arts, archives, and oral histories.