This past weekend was the Santa Fe Indian Market, as well as the first IFAM market, with both markets gathering a large amount of artists and collectors. The amount of revenue pouring into Santa Fe every year is staggering, and very vital to the galleries and artists who depend on this collector base. Outside of these events, are the smaller gallery openings and events that keep everyone entertained, from concerts, to fashion shows, there were a lot of events every night for Market weekend.

This year, we heard about an event occurring at Winterowd Fine Art, that was featured in collaboration with Contemporary Native Art Magazine. Jennifer Karch Verze’, made a presentation about the Imago Mundi Contemporary Native Art Project and presented interested artists with canvases to participate in the project. Here’s the project description from the event page:

“Luciano Benetton’s IMAGO MUNDI project with Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, of Treviso, Italy is growing day by day in importance as a result of the enthusiastic voluntary involvement of artists from across the world. IMAGO MUNDI aims to take the enormous art collection on a journey, to the widest possible number of people around the world. It is a collective project which will portray our world – its geography, the spirit of the new times, its people – through art …… Check out the website of Imago Mundi to see how it grows daily with new collections organized by international scholars and Curators.”

You can find more information about Imago Mundi on their website: www.imagomundiart.com

My personal creation for Imago Mundi is included with this post; titled “Read Between The Lines“, the image features an internal conversation mixed in with a conversation with my girlfriend, and with Navajo words that signify self determination, resilience, and a strong mental self.  I hadn’t taken any art supplies with me, aside from my usual pens and sharpies, but my friend, Michelle, had some markers, and I ended up buying some colored pencils to augment the painting.  The final piece came out as I envisioned and I’m glad that it will be added to this growing collection of works.

Thank you for the opportunity Jennifer, and I cannot wait to see the catalog when it is published, along with the other amazing native artists included in the North American collection.