Two concurrent exhibitions -“The Clemmer Collection:  A History of New Mexico Print Artists” and “Marie Romero Cash: A New Mexico Santera’s Works on Canvas” opened last week to great response and interest. Both exhibits run through September 30th.

The Clemmer Collection is an exhibition of graphic media spanning the period from the late 19th through the mid 20th centuries.

The prints in the collection encompass a variety of techniques ranging from etching and lithography to woodblock, linocut, aquatint, serigraphy and monotype. The collection of fifty works is stylistically diverse with examples of academic realism, regionalism, modernism and cubist-inspired abstraction, presented in the main rooms of Peyton Wright Gallery in museum quality framing.

Concurrent with the Celmmer exhibition, Peyton Wright Gallery is pleased to present new works by renowned New Mexico santera Marie Romero Cash, in the first showing of her abstract paintings on canvas.

Marie Romero Cash has been creating art for half a century. Primarily recognized for her traditional New Mexican art, this exhibition presents for the first time to the public a series of acrylic paintings begun over a decade ago when a sibling was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Because of the time involved in his care, she felt unable to create the traditional art she was known for.

To fill her creative needs, she turned to painting on canvas –  a previously unexplored medium.

The resulting paintings flowed from a source she describes as otherworldly, imprinting colorful and intricate symbols on each canvas. Every work is imbued with a sense of reverence and a celebration of the enduring power of artistic expression.

These are the prayerful and fanciful doodles of an established santera, filled with folklorish themes replete with ample outsider influence.