Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • 50

Send gallery notices or arts briefs to Arts, Journal North, 328 Galisteo Santa Fe, KM. 87501. The Arts Journal North Thursday, June 24, 1999 Adams Sculptures Blur Lines Between Mass, Space i Phoebe Adams' looped dumbbells deflating into a slight wilt are a permanent installation in the sculpture garden of Bellas Artes gallery. I had never seen a lot of her work grouped together until Saturday. The sculptor, wearing an ecru suit and a grasshopper-green cast on her broken foot, circulated, as much as was possible, amid the viewers.

We traversed the cool interior, and moved back outside, attracted to the warm and light courtyard where, a year since its unveiling, the glorious Judy Pfaff glass-and-rod installation looks even better for its spell in the weather. Phoebe Adams, who lives in Philadelphia, works in bronze. About Art ft -if 3 2S JOSH STEPHENSON JOURNAL VISIONS IN BRONZE: Phoebe Adams' sculptures "allude to studies for living seaweed with big ovular pods forming at the ends. Yet they are totally earthbound." If you go effects are playful. They manifest a revolt, she says, to an upright upbringing that sniffed at the superfluity of Adams has just begun working in glass, and the two bulgy pieces on the windowsill that do dutiful reference to Louise Bourgeois are my favorites in the show.

I like it that they lie prone objects meant to be touched and perhaps even rolled gently on a table or other semi-stationary place. The motility seems in keeping with a form that would be tossed in water or afloat in some ethereal gas. I wondered how Adams would fare if she regularly chose material with greater transparency as a partner to bronze. I am reminded again of jewelry I have seen: shapes that gain their fluency from folds, and a lightness that suggests they could be blown down the street by wind. Women in the Arts Can representational art dedicated to a gender theme surpass cliches? I was disappointed with the juried exhibition of New Mexico women artists, a local exhibition initiated by the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Jurors Lucy R. Lippard and MaLin Wilson-Powell selected the participants from slide entries. Susan Fisher Sterling, a representative of the National Museum, also juried. Having mounted the pink-toned stairs at the gallery I encountered a cornucopia effect: bright colors, a crowded room. The display was cheery, if evocative of a craft fair.

Paintings dominated half the room. The other half was split between1 collage, shrines, small installation work and more paintings and works on paper. Given that paintings so much dominated the field, one would have hoped to find a wide range of themes. Not really. Portraiture or self-representation through objects or ecology dominated.

Masks and unmasking, vessels, ladders and transformation and suitcases were familiar symbols. If so much of this work is "personal," why does it come to look generic? Anthologies toe a difficult line. One wants balance, serious content, able technique. Jurors have to choose from the entries, not curate an independent selection. JOSH STEPHENSON JOURNAL AQUATIC IMPRESSIONS: Two of Phoebe Adams' creations stand In the Bellas Artes gallery on Canyon Road.

OURNAL I enjoyed Sally Bennet and Catherine dinger's pieces. Shaun Gilmore's fluidity with gesture reminds of her dancer's art the unbent motion at work. Kay Harvey showed a teeming expressionistic canvas, slightly overworked, but it was welcome to see it, given Harvey's usual absence from exhibiting locally. Shows like this touch on a schism between "community art," or "under-represented art," and other display criteria keyed to a curatorial premise. Lucy Lippard's recent passions, expressed in her two latest books, focus on community activism projects and grassroots initiatives.

She publicly avers her disinterest in art issues. Wilson-Powell, who is my colleague at this newspaper, is not disinterested in art issues. Whichever stance you take, support for "women in the arts" is obviously a good idea given the unequal exhibition opportunities for women. But the ability to surmount cliches and create a picture that doesn't airbrush the dark side seems a harder trick, at least here. As I wrote this, I flipped open my ArtForum, and my eyes fell on an ad for Kim Dingle's work exhibited last week at the Basel Art Fair.

Her malevolent dollies and nasty little girls screech at the viewer. Celia Rumsey's empty crib and amputated foot in this show were part of a larger installation that the artist assembled at Plan 18 months ago. The fact that they seemed so out OPENING SATURDAY NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS CULTURE is hosting the second annual "Museum Fiber Arts Festival of Traditional Cultures of the Southwest," featuring traditional southwest textiles and basketry artists from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

827-6344. OPENING MONDAY NEDRA MATTEUCCI GALLERY, 1075 Paseo de Peralta, presents an exhibit of jewelry, flatware and objets d'art by Italian designer Gian-maria Buccellati. Through July 3. 982-4631. Phoebe Adams sculpture at Bellas Artes, 653 Canyon Road; 983-2745.

The New Mexico show of the National Museum of Women in the Arts at Arlene LewAllen, 129 West Palace, ends 5:30 p.m. Friday; 988-8997. of place here seemed strange, but emblematic of something: perhaps lightness of community events, which in the end get separated from serious art analysis as apples do from oranges. But is that what women artists really want? II Abiquiu 753-2609 Alcalde 753-3966 Ancon 1-800-641-3451 Ext. 3586 Angel Fire 758-9600 Arroyo Seco 455-2226 Bernal 1-800-641-3451 Ext.

3586 Canoncito 988-9618 Chama 747-3235 Chamita. 753-3966 Chimayo 455-2226 Cochiti Lake 465-0167 Cochiti Pueblo 465-2729 Cimarron Dixon 587-2545 Eagle Nest 758-9600 ElRancho 455-2721 EIRito 581-4415 Espafiola 753-2514 Fairview 753-2514 Gonzales Ranch 1-800-641-3451 Ext 3586 Rowe 757-8558 Santa Clara 753-3966 Santa Cruz 753-4442 Santo Domingo 867-2857 Santa Fe 474-4224 San Ysidro. 1-800-641-3451 Ext. 3586 San Jose 1-800-641-3451 Ext 3586 988-9618 San Juan 1-800-641-3451 Ext 3586 San Juan Pueblo 753-3966 San Miguel. 1-800-641-3451 Ext 3586 Santo Nino 753-2514 San Pedro 753-3996 Sena 1-800-641-3451 Ext.

3586 Sombrillo 753-2514 Springer 483-5087 Taos (East) Taos (West) 758-9J2J Tecolote 1-800-641-3451 Ext. 3M Terrero. Valencia 757-8858 Velarde 753-3964" Vfflanueva 1-800-641-3451 Ext 3586" White Rock 672-3011 Hernandez. 753-3966 Ilfield 1-800-641-3451 Ext 3586 LaMesilla 1 753-3966 Lamy 988-9618 La Joya 151-bifl LaPuebla 455-2163 Las Vegas 425-7938 Los Alamos 662-9228 Mora 1-800-641-3451 Ext. 3586 Nambe.

455-2226 Pajarito Acres 672-3011 Pecos 757-8858 Pefla Blanca 465-2729 Penasco 587-2545 Pojoaque 455-2226 Pueblo 1-800-641-3451 Ext. 3586 Questa 758-1033 Ranchitos 753-2514 Raton 445-3586 Red River 758-1033 Riberia 1-800-641-3451 Ext 3586 GALLERY Palace presents "Group Eighteen" a group exhibit by gallery artists Jim Amaral, Dirk Bakker, Suki Bergeron, Larry Fodor, Darren Vigil Gray, Timothy Hawkesworth, Martin Horowitz, Kellogg Johnson, Orlando Leyba, Timothy Murphy, Udo Noger, Peter Opheim, Thomas Ostenberg, Charles Srong, Elyse Vaintrub, Clark Walding, Joseph Wesner, Jay Whol-ley and Carlos Machado. Through July 14. Opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. 989 9888.

EL MUSEO CULTURAL DE SANTA FE, 1615-B Paseo de Peralta. presents a one day group show featuring Hispanic artists in all mediums from noon to 6 p.m. 992-0591. ELLEN BERKOVITCII For the Journal Adams' sculptures are physical and bodily: They hearken to breasts, or even to intestines or polyps. They allude to studies for living seaweed with big ovular pods forming at the ends.

Yet they are totally earthbound. The title of the show includes the words "Celestial" and "Earthly," acknowledging the paradox. It is a trait of the sculptures, and possibly a shortcoming, that they are mounted on rods like models of molecules you'd see in a chemistry lab, or realizations of constellations. But if these are galaxies in miniature, Adams joins them with a poetic inference that a lymphatic network holds them tethered in a gravity field. She casts and colors the bronze in ways that can be surprising.

Pancreatic shapes are hued verdigris, or with bluish and coppery tones. The bulbous forms also are treated bright gold; bright blue or white; pewter. Adams expresses a jewelers' preoccupation with surface. Sometimes she encrusts small indentations in the surface with pearls or gold dots. The decorative OOPENING TODAY JUDY YOUENS GALLERY, 103V2 Vic toria, presents the "Glass Group Show," featuring Tom Farbanish, Mark Ferguson, Stephen Hodder, Ray Howlett, John Lewis, Maria Lugossy, Concetta Mason, Damian Priour, Michael Schunke, Robert Willson and Charles Pebworth.

Through Aug. 30. Opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. 954-4209.

OPENING FRIDAY THE NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, 107 W. Palace presents two exhibits. "Selections from the Permanent Collection," featuring paintings, photographs, prints, drawings, and popular images that chronicle New Mexico art from the 1880s to the present. Through Sept. 5.

"New Mexico Collects," an exhibit of 29 works of art from local collections. Through Oct. 10. Opening reception for both exhibits hosted by the Women's Board of the Museum of New Mexico from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. 476-5062.

DELONEY NEWKIRK FINE ART, 634 Canyon Road, presents an exhibit of new works by Joan Barber. Through July 8. Opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. 992-2850. NEDRA MATTEUCCI GALLERY, 1075 Paseo de Peralta, presents a group show.

"Women Artists of the Early 20th Century," featuring paintings and watercolors by 25 academic, impressionist and post-impressionist American women artists of the early 20th century. Through July 12. Opening reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday 982-4631. MEYER GALLERY, 225 Canyon Road, presents an exhibit of tonal landscapes by Michael Workman.

Through Monday. Opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. 983-1434. THE CLAY ANGEL, 125 Lincoln presents "Our Talavera Heritage Revisited." Through July 25. Opening reception from 4:30 to 8 p.m.

9884800. VENTANA FINE ART, 400 Canyon Road, presents an exhibit of new pastel paintings by Doug Dawson. Through July 1. Opening reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. 983-8815.

JOYCE ROBINS GALLERY, 201 Gal isteo presents "Southeast Southwest." an exhibit of three Charleston, S.C.. artists, Eva Carter, Mickey Williams and Susan Mayfield West. Through July 9. Opening reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. 989-8795.

PEYTON WRIGHT GALLERY, 237 E. Come Celebrate a New Era in a Santa Fe Family Tradition Jim, John and Tamara Dell announce the grand opening of Dell Furniture and Accessories, a gallery of their enduring furniture designs and an eclectic collection of furniture and accessories from around the world. I i I i i -i- Grand Opening "Friday, June 25th, 10 am to 8 pm Saturday, June 26th, 10 am to 6 pm Sunday, June 27th, 12 pm 5 pm Artists Reception Friday, June 25th, 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm If DELL FURNITURE ACCESSORIES Fine Handcrafted Southwest furniture, Jim John Dell American Frontier furniture accessories, Swede Schmidt Copper Steel furniture accessories, Bill Eckhardt Roughcast candles, Mike Steidle Stoneware, pottery sculpture, Mark Lake Native furniture and collectibles from around the world HXKKK Handcrafted in Santa Fe De Vargas Center 173 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico 995-8435.