Tag Archives: Events

MY LOWELL OBSERVATORY ARTIST RESIDENCY

Having been entranced for many years with darkness and our vast night skies I contacted the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ and some days later was thrilled to have received the award of “Artist in Residence.” I waited patiently for the next several months for my arrival date. Finally, my husband, David Vogel, and I set off by car for the 5+ hours’ drive to the Observatory, enjoying the car trip of beautiful scenery as we anticipated what we would see and learn in the coming weeks.

Driving up a lovely windy road with terrific views of Flagstaff we ascended to the Lowell Observatory Campus where we were graciously greeted by
Michael West, an astronomer at Lowell who would be our host. He showed us to the Trustee’s home that had a lovely apartment where we would reside during the 2 weeks of my residency. We especially liked being settled in a landscape of Ponderosa pines. Flagstaff has the largest contiguous Ponderosa forest in the world. We enjoyed our apartment’s balcony as it overlooked the city at a distance and had good views of the sky.

The staff and our host Michael were so generous in giving us information and Michael even escorted us to the LDT an extremely large telescope 1 hour outside the city on a hilltop which held our attention for hours. The floor beneath the telescope would rotate to position the telescope directed by the operator, Ben — sometimes by a program on his cell phone but mostly by this NASA looking array of monitor screens downstairs in one of the many rooms snaked with massive cords and wires of every color.

Positioning the telescope was done by the coordinates decided remotely by the researcher. My imagery of astronomers looking through telescopes on a hilltop was readily dismissed. It is highly technical work that is largely conducted with precisely programed computers.Amazed as I was by the technology and the work that was undertaken by the technicians and the staff of astronomers my biggest impressions were, of course, the celestial skies and the incredible sights one could access by the ingenious mechanisms and programs that now exist. 

 I loved that young and older people could visit the beautiful campus and share in the mysterious skies—Lowell is currently building an even more spacious Discovery Center that will dazzle and teach. We loved hearing the excitement of young people experiencing the skies — their joy was palpable.

Of course, the history of the Lowell and its beginnings from Percival Lowell’s interest and experiments was intriguing as it is still a private non-profit business. The restored historical buildings with stone and wood were beautiful. Flagstaff was the first city in the world to be designated as a ‘dark city’ that uses light effectively and smartly, so they do not impact the sky views nor human metabolism! Being at Lowell affirmed my desire to describe my impressions of the wonders of our Universe in my art and poetry. Ironically i was so busy taking in all the opportunities that were available to learn that I did not have time to ponder, sketch or write. That will have to happen back home after I complete my current work. However, my ideas and impressions are so impactful that they will save, store and manifest later. Stay tuned for those developments.

Toward the end of my residency, I was invited to speak to a group of people who were lured with a pizza lunch! it was a lot of fun to tell them about my work and interests and then discuss how it might align with their own scientific practices. I was delighted by the young people that stayed on to discuss their ideas—always learning so much by these exchanges.

 

Well, I hated to leave although I was looking forward to being back in my studio. There could be a night I would miss when I could have glimpsed another star cluster or planet. It was a magical place. I encourage everyone to visit. It is always a good thing to observe the cosmos and recognize the perspective of our place in it as small humans on a beautiful planet rotating and dancing around in a vast playground with many glorious playmates!

Photos by Leis and David Vogel

 

 

 

Tag Archives: Events

Things Are Warming Up!

Here are some exciting things coming up for me and my work in the next few months:


 

On May 2nd, MichaelWarren Contemporary of Denver CO. will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary with an exhibition highlighting 10 artists they have represented for the past decade. As part of the exhibition my paintings Symbiosis 1 + 2 will be on view. The opening reception will be held on May 2nd and will be on view until June 15th 2024.


Wright Contemporary, Taos, NM will be showing some of my art in their Office Exhibition Space concurrent with a solo exhibition of artist Florence Pierce. The opening event is May 25th. Also, I will also be giving a slide lecture presentation: “Artist Residencies that Resonate” on Sunday June 2 at 3pm at Wright.


Lastly, I am excited to announce that this summer I I will be will be a June 2024 Artist in Residence at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff AZ!
I will be reflecting on art making and the cosmos during my 2 week stay at the observatory.

Tag Archives: Events

Changing Venues

Yes, I am in the process of downsizing and moving and what a move it is. My husband David and I have been talking throughout the pandemic about what energy it takes to maintain our property which is a compound of studio and house in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico, US. Even with zero landscape and minimalist sensibility we felt that it took too much time away from our pursuits—my art and David’s community work.

So we have looked about for the ‘next place’ that would require less time and effort—we covered 3 states and came back to our own New Mexico. In 2021 we found that a new apartment was being built in downtown Santa Fe and we decided that would require our downsizing and give us the urban experience we enjoy.

We spent a lot of time looking for my studio and an office rental and finally found accommodations across the street from the apartment. So the transition has begun. After unloading a lot of ‘stuff’ we moved into the apartment July 2, and the studio and offices will follow.

But as my recent newsletter can attest the move, though slowing me down a bit and requiring time, has not diverted my art endeavors. I enjoyed participating in the Portugal group exhibition “earth@Faro” curated by Paulo Duarte Filipe. We spent part of a morning ‘messaging’ one another to get my “Boundless” pieces hung. My regret was not going to Faro as seeing pictures of some of the artists frolicking on the beach made me very envious. It’s always an adventure and a pleasure to exhibit internationally. And there will be more exhibits in Portugal to report.

The group exhibition, “Arctic Summer” at The Curated creative in Albuquerque was beautifully curated by the Director, Brianne Clarkson. The events— an opening, an artist talk and a cocktail/poetry reading (by me) were an exceptional way to celebrate art and community.

My wonderful assistant, Stefan Jennings Batista ‑a talented artist/photographer/educator, is the curator, of my solo exhibition at the Taos Art Museum at Fechin House.  He tackled this task with much enthusiasm and we look forward to exhibiting in the Museum’s gallery space located in the former Fechin studio.

For this exhibit Batista selected the theme of WOODmetal because that aligned with Fechin’s own sensibility. and practice while he lived and worked in Taos. The exhibit will show my art made of or influenced by wood and reflected surfaces of metal. It opens September 9 with my reading poetry and will close October 16. Fechin’s house and grounds which have been restored are worth the trip to Taos!
You will hear from me next this winter as a Writing Artist in Residence in Fairhope, Alabama. I’m quite excited, stay tuned…

 

Tag Archives: Events

A NEW YEAR!

So happy to kick 2020 out of the Door and wish all of you a bright and
optimistic 2021! Michael Warren Contemporary will have a ‘live’ an exhibition of
gallery artists this month and I will be showing several pieces of my new work of 2020,
Eclipse. Following below, find both my artist statement of this work and also my poem. Enjoy!


ECLIPSE  
(hidden and revealed) a statement

Eclipse is a series of paintings of Flashe© and copper leaf on panel and linen.The series came about from my infatuation with the idea of a black surface that would not reflect at all—an echoless environment.

Black has been a thematic visitor in my work for a while. Mystery, fear, discovery, velvet, night etc…all intrigue me

I pursued this evasive black relentlessly for several weeks. After many trials I arrived at Flashe©, a black that one sinks into and doesn’t return, a black hole.
I then began to think of light trying to creep over the edges – like that of an eclipse when the light of the sun limns from the obscurity of darkness. The play of light and dark, what was dominant and what was subsumed, bifurcated and partial, became the intention of the work.

The paintings speak to the sublime and offer glimpses into the infinite landscapes of the internal and external.

 


ECLIPSE 
a series of paintings of Flashe© and copper leaf

 

Darkness absorbing light limned with copper
Dark days, dark nights, dark thoughts
with the promise of better times

Black obscuring light-but light sneaking out
Glowing hope and promise
Warming black’s mystery

There is a game of hide and seek
within an ecliptic peek a’ boo
But what is hiding

And as we move into the black
familiarizing ourselves with its velvet purr
It soothes and comforts

Black doesn’t eclipse the light
It accents the light, brightens it
Illuminating the night

Perhaps the light obscures the black
lessening its prominence
equalizing the power held

Partial eclipse hints at attempting balance
Weighing, evaluating, thinking
compromising, negotiating

No loss of significance, power, prominence
Deep thoughts evoke fairness
Black and copper both shining


 

Tag Archives: Events

Harnessing Light Exhibition at the Harwood Museum


The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, NM will be presenting my work in the exhibition Harnessing Light:

Where: Harwood Museum of Art, Taos
Opening Reception: Saturday August 4, 3-5pm
Dates: Saturday August 4-Sunday October 7
Artists: Marietta Patricia Leis, Debbie Long & Mary Shaffer
Curator: J. Matthew Thomas
Roundtable Panel: Aurthur Bell Auditorium, Tuesday, August 7, 7pm

New Mexico based artist Marietta Patricia Leis will be exhibiting her multimedia works with artists Debbie Long and Mary Shaffer in the exhibition Harnessing Light. Curator J. Matthew Thomas selected these 3 artists who by different paths converge on a common focus: light on surface. Leis’ art contributes a contrast to the other artists as she captures light’s tenebrous illumination of darkness in her graphite acrylic pieces, prints on metal, small sculptures and oil paintings on wood. Her approach to this marriage of two extremes presents us with a duality of lightness and dark, for without one there cannot be the other. Becoming immersed in the soft nebulous incandescence of the arctic, Leis’ eyes forgot the programming of modern artificial lighting and she began to see the nuances and elegant shades of darkness more clear. Leis’ intention is to present unique visions of the natural world. Through her art, she hopes to make viewers more acutely aware of the fragile beauty and tenuous future of our planet so that we may seek ways to preserve it for generations. Taos was Leis’ first home in New Mexico after she migrated from Los Angeles in 1982. She considers her time in Taos as decompressing and centering after years of working in the endlessly illuminated cityscapes of New York and LA. Leis is honored to be exhibiting at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, and feels a deep gratitude for the place that gave her such peace and serenity.

Tag Archives: Events

Winter 2017-18 News

Because of my upcoming exhibit at the Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco, I thought I’d initiate you about my background and Italian heritage. First, a little family tree history because my last name (provided by my German-derived Father) has perhaps led you astray. I was born in Newark, NJ and grew up in the neighboring East Orange. My mother, Marietta Roma Napoliello (her mother was a Fiore) was a first generation American and I am thus a second generation thoroughly Italian-American girl.

My great grandmother Fiore

For those of you not in-the-know let me explain if your mother had an Italian family you were subsumed into that family totally, wholly regardless of your father’s ancestry.

Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco

So now that we’ve cleared that up we can move on to my relationship with the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco because as an Italian American I am eligible to exhibit my art there. I have a great fondness for this institution as it helps me assert my Italian-ness to which I attribute a lot of things, and which balances my Germanic-ness which keeps me very organized.

The Museo www.museoitaloamericano.org established in 1978, is a touchstone for me. I started my dialogue with them in 1984. The first time I walked into the Museo in Fort Mason was in the early 90s when I met the then director, Robert Whyte.

Since that time I have admired their mission, the programs they offer, their community outreach and their support of Italian and Italian American artists.

Mostra ’94

Whyte asked me to exhibit first in 1994 for the Mostra ’94 or six artists he wanted to introduce to the Museo audience. He curated 5 paintings from my Illumination series into that beautiful exhibition.

In 1998 Whyte again contacted me because he was curating with Valentina Fogher an exhibit entitled Artists Who Look Back: Spirituality in Modern and Contemporary Art, and thought my new work inspired by Venice of the 1600s would enhance the exhibit nicely. This was a large and extravagant exhibit with a wonderful catalog.

Moonless Balm, oil/wood, 24 sq.

In 2007 I met with the Museo’s esteemed Director, Paola Bagnatori and Committee of Art Chair, Professor Angela Little to discuss an exhibition for 2008. It was decided that it would be a dual exhibition with a wonderful abstract San Francisco painter, Paulette Long. The Museo’s expansive gallery held more than 30 of my minimalist paintings largely from my Blue Series of sea and sky. This was another good experience artistically, but beyond that there is a pride of my Italian roots that the Museo honors.

Shard 20, inspired by Dante’s Inferno

During 2007 and before the 2008 exhibit Professor Angela Little contacted me to participate in an exhibit of paintings at the Museo that would be based on Dante’s Inferno. I created a painting, Igniting Despair, that I paired with Dante’s Inferno passage, “Through me the way into the suffering city…..”

This trajectory of diverse exhibitions that I participated in at the Museo shows that the Museo provides a selective and varied platform of exhibit experiences for its audience.


Vacuities, archival print on metal, to be exhibited at Perspectives

Now we jump another decade to 2017, and Mary Servanti Steiner, the art curator at the Museo. After some dialogue and a committee meeting I was once again selected to exhibit. This time it would be a 3-person exhibition for 2018. Besides myself there would be 2 artists from San Francisco, Gianluca Franzese and Giuseppe Palumba. Planning went on during 2017 and the exhibit crystallized to become Perspectives. Which opens January 18th with a reception from 5:30-7:30. The exhibit closes on April 29th.

Bifurcation, acrylic/wood, inspired by my residency in Iceland
Infernos 1-6, rubber/linen/Styrofoam, inspired by my residency in Iceland

 

 


Currently a very exciting new development in my relationship to the Museo has evolved, as they are adding 5 of my paintings from my Marietta Robusti Tintoretto Series (1994-6) to their permanent collection. Some of these will be shown in November 2018 in an exhibition of their permanent collection.

This is a perfect home for this work, as it tells the story of an incredible Italian woman artist of the 16th Century. As the daughter of a Venetian master, her work had been subsumed into her father’s and her brother’s oeuvre. However, my research and resulting exhibition has, in the words of Lucy Lippard, made her visible again. The exhibition toured for several years under the funding of the ED Foundation (the research is held in the archival library of Seton Hall University, NJ). It is so fitting that the remaining pieces of that body of work be at the Museo and I know that Robusti Tintoretto’s story and my work will have an audience there for years to come.

Bocca Di Leone, Tintoretto series
Court of the Cord, Tintoretto series
Golden Century Tour, Tintoretto series

So this is my little story and homage to the Museo Italo Americano. Perhaps you will see Perspectives in 2018 or the Robusti Tintoretto Story in the fall of 2018. I’d love for you to become acquainted with this wonderful institution that holds a very dear place in my personal and artistic life.

 

Marietta Patricia Leis

Tag Archives: Events

Looking Back and Forth

2018: A Preview of Coming Events:
Summer is zipping by lending itself to my reflections of what has happened this year and what we can look forward to in 2018. Please watch for my winter NEWS when I will be announcing more about the exciting exhibitions and events coming up. A sampling includes:

  • January- Visible Poetry Connecting the World- An international group art exhibit at the Hanam Culture and Art Center in Hanam-si, South Korea. I have been fortunate for several years to participate in many international art organization exhibits that foster global peace and sustainable environments.
  • January 18-April 29- Museo ItaloAmericano, San Francisco. A return to this wonderful venue and to my Italian roots in a 3-person exhibit. Many of my current works will be exhibited at the wonderful Fort Mason complex.
  • May 8-June 17- Dairy Arts Center, Boulder is a solo exhibition. The large lobby galleries offer an opportunity to show my larger scale installations in this wonderfully active community gallery.

 

New Art in the Works: Here is a sneak preview (right) of my new work in progress that pays homage to the world’s trees—those that have been, those that are still with us and those that are hopefully yet to be.


2017: Highlights of Events Past:

Winter Blues and Seasonal Hues, Lincoln Art Center, Fort Collins, CO. Curated, Jeanne Shoaff.

This was a holiday season extravaganza. Three wonderful artists sharing a beautifully-installed exhibit with a community ready to celebrate the joy of Christmas and into the New Year. A wonderful opportunity for the inaugural exhibit of my paintings, Ascensions inspired by Iceland’s Northern Lights.
 


Pausing: A Book of Reflections in Art and Poetry

What fun this was: the first reading of my book. I didn’t know how it would be received, but my 15-minute allocation spread to 2 hours with poems and discussion. Everyone was eager to talk about about pausing in today’s chaotic environment. It was also nice to have a couple of the original artworks from the book there for people to see in person.
Please visit Amazon.com if you would like to purchase a copy of Pausing.


Lost and Found in Iceland, Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver, CO.
The premiere of my Iceland paintings was perfect in this beautiful gallery where they showed dramatically. The curved birch wood formats painted and burnished with graphite looked just as I remembered Iceland’s landscape. With no trees to obstruct the views the volcanic island shone for miles all the way to the curvature of Earth.


Illuminexus, April Price Projects Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
April Price and I conjured up the idea to invite Santa Fe artists to participate in an exhibit with me in Albuquerque. It worked out beautifully with installations and paintings intertwined in one gallery space and another gallery room showed my Ascension paintings. The coupling was very successful and was attested to by a terrific review: click here to read it!



Landscapes of Life and Death: Photography, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM.
516 Arts is the premiere showcase in Albuquerque. Between a museum and gallery, it shows some of the most exciting art globally, so it is a great privilege to exhibit my art there. This exhibit, part of the NM photography month had Mary Anne Redding, a superb curator, selecting my series of 8 photos on glass, Heartspace. These were taken looking out of my cabin window at a storm raging in the Drake passage and a sound piece of that storm accompanies the photos.


Spectrum, bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.

Such fun to revisit my old stomping grounds. Having lived in Los Angeles for 20 years, I can appreciate how vast the art scene has become. This invitational group exhibit was in the infamous Bergmont Station group of galleries. The art was hung salon-style in groupings of hues, creating a dynamic spectrum of color. Oh, and being there for July 4th enabled me to see a local parade and look over the Santa Monica pier at fireworks.
    



Our Fukushima, Home of Culture, Kavadarci, Republic of Macedonia

Always pleased to exhibit to a new audience and this group show of international artists was certainly that. But more then that it brought attention to the continuing plight of Japan’s suffering Fukushima.


Now I am looking forward to my fall events, which I have posted in my MailChimp. You can sign up for my MailChimp announcements on my Contact page. If you have any questions regarding these upcoming happenings, please don’t hesitate to email me and I will be happy to send you more information. Hoping to see you at one or more of these upcoming events!

Tag Archives: Events

GREEN Abundance at Las Cruces Museum of Art

06. Seed 13GREEN Abundance, my multimedia exhibition of paintings, videos, photographs, sculpture and poetry, will be a solo exhibition at the Las Cruces Museum of Art (NM) November 23rd until January 18, 2014. There will be an artist reception December 6 at 5-7pm that I plan to attend.

This work was influenced by my Artist Residency in the verdant North of Thailand. My studio was a veranda with a thatch roof that looked out to vegetation of all colors so my palette was ever-changing. The color linchpin, however, was GREEN—the living, breathing color of life. Around me were rice paddies and ponds and food, food, food. Sights, smells, taste and tactility assaulted my sensory system in ah such a good way. Even now I can arouse my sense memories of that experience without 05effort and feel the Thai heat, sunshine and GREEN. My media grew in an effort to express all the imagery and ideas flooding me during my stay.

The paradox of this bliss is that the surrounding countries as well as the hillside people of Thailand have a different experience—one of far less generousity in many ways. That painful knowledge lead me to the poems and empty food sculptures to express seed the idea of the inequality that we face on our planet.

This series of work has been embraced by a group of supporters (I call them the Green Team) that rallied and donated to the GREEN Kickstarter campaign—an internet crowd sourcing funding. Their support for shipping the exhibit has made it possible for GREEN to exhibit at several venues and more to come.

I hope this location—The Las Cruces Museum of Art, is one that you will be able to visit.

20. Arrangement

Tag Archives: Events

Miniatures & More at the Abq Museum

minimoreFor the past 22 years the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History has produced Miniatures & More, an invitational exhibit and sale of small paintings. This year I have been extended an invitation to exhibit my paintings and I am thrilled to be part of this time-honored tradition of my home town Museum. Three paintings from my oil on wood reductive Pixels series will be on display. This work inspired by skies and seas from my travels will be shown for the first time locally.

The quality of work in Miniatures is superb and represents terrific artists from the area. Many people look forward to attending and this year the exhibit opens with a Collector’s Dinner Saturday evening, October 25th followed by a Gala Saturday, October 26th. The exhibit will run until closing Sunday, December 8.

I hope everyone has a chance to visit the Museum during Miniatures. Unfortunately, I will miss the October activities as I will be in Greece for an Artist Residency but I’ll catch up to the exhibit in November.

Tag Archives: Events

Harwood Art Center 12×12 Fundraiser

My painting, “Betwix and Between” was recently included in the Harwood Art Center’s (ABQ) 6th Annual 12×12 Fundraising Exhibit held on Friday, December 2, 2012. 12×12 is a unique event where artworks donated by esteemed artists are sold to the public to benefit the innovative community arts program for children, teens, adults and families. Click here to read the weekly Alibi’s article for information on the event.

“Betwix” is part of my ongoing work using interference paint. Interference colors offer a unique “interference flip.” When viewed from different perspectives, interference colors flip between a bright opalescent color and its complement. Interference colors offer not just one “flip”, but multiple tones between two points on a spectrum. Interference colors offer a range of reflective properties and interplay with light. As my monochromatic paintings reflect the colors that epitomize the places of my travels. My intention for using interference paints is to both enhance and mystify the “stories” of these places.