Speaking of surreal...

I couldn’t write about the surrealist art of Santa Fe without mentioning two galleries that make it their specialty: The Longworth gallery and the Pop gallery. These galleries represent artists with a peculiar, colorful vision of the world and want to share their perspectives through attractive, sometimes bizarre works of art.

            One of the major artists featured in the Pop gallery is St. Victor, a self-taught painter who has honed a recognizable and highly characteristic style of painting people in surreal scenery. The moodiness and odd proportions of some of his characters leads the viewer to wonder what these people would be like and where they came from. What exactly influences the expressions on their faces?

Bumbelina by St. Victor

            My favorite artist at the Longworth gallery is Vladimir Kush. He paints large scenes filled with tiny, intimate details. There is a remarkable light to his paintings that reflects the care that he puts into each one – a style born from the darkness he encountered during his upbringing in Russia, according to the gallery’s owner, Lisa Rogers. 

Walnut of Eden by Vladimir Kush

            Both galleries represent many other artists with surreal and unusual styles, and are also an interesting change of pace from the art that Santa Fe is known for. While these two galleries are certainly not the only ones which feature such varieties of art, they are the places where the surreal and the bold concentrate.