Meet the 2018 NeoRio Featured & Contributing Artists!

Featured artist Scott Sutton, (ScottSuttonArt.com) originally from Oregon, moved to New Mexico where he received a Masters of Landscape Architecture at University of New Mexico. He teaches artists how to forage for mineral pigments to make paints; and his passion for creating extends beyond the walls of his art studio through a combination of interests – land art, public art, and ecological design.

He describes his NeoRio project, Weight of Water: “It brings to light the importance of roots in the creation of place while questioning our impacts…on the watersheds we live within. The installation will display rooted cuttings of Salix amygdaloides (Peachleaf Willow) collected from the North Willamette Watershed in Oregon and will be transported to the Upper Rio Grande Watershed. The rooted cuttings help make visible the delicate relationship we have to the soil, water, air, and sun within the watersheds that sustain us.”

Featured artist and educator Kacie Smith (SundryProjects.com) is originally from California and now lives in Albuquerque. She completed her BFA in Printmaking at Washington University in St. Louis, programs in Waldorf education and biodynamic farming, and her MFA in Art & Ecology at the University of New Mexico. With an affinity for textiles, she engages with a wide variety of mediums to create sculptural installations and interactive projects that explore the personal, historical and natural elements of place and craft. For NeoRio, Smith will set up All That You Can Show Me, a temporary outfitters station inviting viewers to borrow from her collection of handmade backpack kits to use on-site. 

She describes: “Inspired by various outdoor adventures, each backpack is designed with a specific activity in mind, such as foraging, journaling, etc. With a background in outdoor education and early childhood education, I create objects that engage with place, play, ritual and the body. The kits can be used solo or in groups at Wild Rivers.”

Land Arts of the American West – LAAW (LandArts.unm.edu) is a semester long, full-time, studio art program at the University of New Mexico, committed to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students into the field of Art & Ecology. 2018 LAAW artists include Sarah Canelas, Brionna Garcia, Erin Gould, Xena Gurule, Jeanette Hart-Mann, Ryan Henel, Kyle Holub, Nicholas Jacobsen, Blaise Koller, Francisco Letelier, Rowan Roberts, and Jessica Zeglin. These individuals will convene at Wild Rivers before the event and camp on-site as they intimately explore the Rio Grande gorge.

“We will work both individually and collaboratively across creative disciplines of performance, time-based media, sculpture, and experimental art to explore a “rooted” sense of place to create finished works to share with the public,” describes Jeanette Hart-Mann, Director LAAW.

Contributing artist, LEAP’s own, Martha Shepp (MarthaShepp.com) is fairly new to New Mexico; her studies ranged from graphic design and dance to filmmaking and music. Her works across a range of media reveal her abiding interest in the intersection of community development, self-concept, and aesthetics.

About her NeoRio project The DNA of Root Words, she states, “Roots, root words, and human-created sounds fascinate me. My project is an interactive typography installation, using natural, materials, print, and sound.”

Contributing artist Nicholette Codding has a multidisciplinary practice based in Portland, Oregon. In addition to fine art photography, Nicholette practices and teaches sustainable agriculture and living.

She describes her NeoRio installation Shifting Paradigm as “an illumination of that which is seen and unseen…utilizing reflective surfaces, I expose what is above and below the surface….”

More info on each artist and their projects as well as other elements of the event HERE.

Support NeoRio and bring artists like this to participate the event HERE!