A collaborative exploration of land-based art in New Mexico

EQUATION: a balanced state?
August 1 – September 19, 2009

David Niec, Stars, Eastern and Central Direction

Equation: a balanced state? is an exhibition at 516 ARTS featuring the work of artists Katherine Bash, Paula Castillo, Ted Laredo, David Niec and Mayumi Nishida with a series of art installations that reflect a world where the environment is as much about ourselves and our creations as the natural world with which we struggle to strike a balance.

In the process of making art, the artist is in the middle, like the equal sign in an equation, balancing the subject matter against the artistic creation. In this exhibition, the subject matter is the environment––the virtual, built and natural environment we all inhabit. The site-specific art installations created at 516 ARTS include constructed spaces, drawings, paintings, books, videos and photographs. Each artist’s project is a small environment in itself, constructed to emphasize that in the present age of information and technology, our larger “natural “environment is inter-related with other types of environments we inhabit.

The exhibition includes digitally simulated waterfalls, built environments that glow in the dark, and explorations of the division between day and night in the natural environment as observed in the night sky of New Mexico. Science, technology and the study of climate and land usage play an important role in the research and development of these art projects.

All five of these artists are working with two additional locations in the process of creating these works at 516 ARTS: the rural worksite and exhibition space at THE LAND/an art site near Mountainair, New Mexico; and THE LAND/gallery space in downtown Albuquerque. The rural site is located 80 miles from 516 ARTS in a part of New Mexico that still reverberates with the signs of ancient civilizations. The five artists will use the art site as an outdoor studio or laboratory––a place to reflect, experiment, collect materials and create. Site-specific works related to the creation of their work at 516 ARTS will be on exhibit and open to the public at THE LAND/an art site near Mountainair. Support materials, documentation and ephemera related to the artists’ projects will be on display at THE LAND/gallery in Albuquerque. Curated by Thomas and Edite Cates.


The LAND/an art site, Inc., is a non-profit organization founded in 2000, providing environmental artists with opportunities to work and exhibit in New Mexico, and working to promote awareness of environmental issues through the art.

For more information about THE LAND/an art site visit www.landartsite.org