NM10:DISPERSION is a loose collective of 10 artists — a fleeting stroboscopic flash on lives and work in constant motion, indelibly influenced by a unique and, yes (truly), magical part of the world — the high desert of Northern New Mexico. These artists showed, worked and played together in Santa Fe and Taos at the turn of the 21st century.
The obvious attractions to New Mexico for an artist are the desire for space, sun, the intense high-altitude light and saturated colors, and distance from the rest of the world. But there is a body of mythologies to contend with: the sacred desert, the desert as wasteland, the desert as nuclear bomb mad scientist lowrider UFO playground; and the myths of solitary artists Georgia O'Keeffe and Agnes Martin, each leaving New York City for greater mystic concentration; as well as the living myths of Bruce Nauman, the laconic artist-cowboy, and Richard Tuttle, the art nerd in his desert hideout.
Perhaps all this, too, has some incalculable influence on the artists of NM10. There is certainly a shared interest in paring away to essentials, in simplicity without simplification, clarity without sacrifice of ideas. The artists of NM10 favor contemplation and the slow burn over entertainment, theory, or shock. They favor reflective surfaces, light, depth, color, and enigmatic darkness over the obvious one-liner. But they're not asleep to the complexities of global culture at this moment, they're just meditating on a mountain of the mind, somewhere.
In recent years, these 10 artists have dispersed, two to Marfa, Texas, two to California, one to New York. Five remain in Northern New Mexico.
Starting in Los Angeles, NM 10:DISPERSION will travel to Marfa TX, Beacon NY, Chicago IL, and Santa Fe NM. Stay tuned for dates and locations.