Distilled Presence

Signe Stuart, Into Thin Air, 2022

Acrylic on sewn canvas

70 x 30 in.

Distilled Presence

Select minimalist works by celebrated Santa Fe artists

Dana Newmann, Signe Stuart, and Judy Tuwaletstiwa.

July 2 - 30, 2022

Throughout their career, the three artists have pursued a path of human connections, expressing through their art the essence of our deeply human search for meaning, joy, and beauty. "When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the mind, it becomes wisdom. When wisdom is integrated with life and issues out in action, it becomes pure and devotional” wrote C. Rajagopalachari in his commentary of an 8th century vedantic poem. Each artist in her own unique way, has pursued a path of technical mastery of medium and a metaphysical distillation of content and intention. Minimal and sublime yet deeply visceral, this body of work by Dana Newmann, Signe Stuart, and Judy Tulwaletsitwa provides us the occasion to pause and contemplate the essences of relationships and ideas.

Dana Newmann, Thorns I - Seton Village, 2022

Thorns and shadows in deep-beveled frame, 18 x 14.5 in. (framed)

Described as one of New Mexico’s cultural treasures, Dana Newmann is well known for her surrealist collages and exquisite cabinets of curiosity. This show presents some of her assemblages made of thorns or recycled antique piano keys. Her compositions play on our perception of form and shadows and the inherent patterns between found and repurposed objects. Dana Newmann attended California College of Arts and Crafts (California School of Fine Arts) and studied Drawing with Richard Diebenkorn. A graduate of Mills College, she earned her BFA while studying painting with Italian abstractionist Afro Basaldella. Her work is in the permanent collections of several museums, including the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, the New Mexico Capitol Art Foundation, and in El Archivero, Mexico City.

Signe Stuart, Adrift, 2020

Acrylic on sewn canvas, 20 x 75 in. triptych

What is the nature of Nature? Why are things the way they are? Signe Stuart has spent her life exploring these questions through her art. "My making process relies on both intuition and intellect, juggles the uncertainties between concepts of order and chaos, and acknowledges paradox and relativity.” Stuart’s work with sewn and acrylic stained canvasses began in the early 1960s. Her mesmerizing paintings offer subtle shifts of colors punctuated by incandescent lines or arcs which on close inspection reveal small ridges that have been meticulously stitched and painted. Stuart was featured in 18 solo museum exhibitions, received several awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Painting Fellowship, and was a professor of art at South Dakota State University.

Judy Tuwaletstiwa, Pleiades #2, 2021

Glass and acrylic on canvas, 12 x 36 in.

Santa Fe’s beloved artist Judy Tuwaletstiwa returns to Pie Projects with several works of kiln fired glass on canvas. Distilled to the essence of meaning, each artwork is a conversation between delicate textures and evocative forms: an intuitive and profound act of storytelling. A celebrated artist with a long career of residencies, exhibitions, and collections to her name, Judy Tuwaletstiwa received her BA in English Literature from UC, Berkeley in 1962, and her MAT in English Literature from Harvard University in 1963. Her art lives in private, public, and museum collections. Special editions of her three books, including her 2016 book, Glass, published with Radius Books, reside in libraries such as the Corning Museum of Glass’ Rakow Library and Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.