NO LAND Grand Opening

54 1/2 E. San Francisco St. #7
Saturday, April 8, 6-9 pm

Alternative art projects and collectives aren’t just making waves anymore in Santa Fe. They’ve arrived: Siler, Rufina, Hickox, and Baca all feature experimental art spaces and disruptive collectives that challenge the Santa Fe status quo. This spring, Strangers Collective opens NO LAND, an art space that signals a new phase of this sea change, with a location in the heart of the City Different—the Santa Fe Plaza. The grand opening of NO LAND is on Saturday, April 8 from 6-9 pm at 54 1/2 E. San Francisco St. #7.

Curated by Strangers Collective, NO LAND will feature solo and small group exhibitions by artists, writers and performers, and also host collaborative events with other local creatives. Dedicated to those ready to take the next step in their careers, NO LAND gives artists the opportunity to develop and show full-fledged bodies of work. NO LAND will also house a permanent zine library and merchandise store of affordably priced items.

Strangers originally used the ‘No Land’ title for their fall 2015 exhibition at Wheelhouse Gallery. “It evokes a no man’s land, an in-between place that emerging creatives often roam,” says Kyle Farrell, co-director of NO LAND. “We’re shining light on that space, and creating a platform for diverse voices that aren’t often heard in the Santa Fe art community.” 

Strangers began in fall 2014, in a living room in Santa Fe’s historic district. For the past two years, the group has worked with painters, printmakers, performers, photographers, writers, poets, and more, in venues from the Center for Contemporary Arts to Art.i.Fact. They now enter a space formerly used by prominent Santa Fe curator Eileen Braziel.

“It’s time for a new kind of artist to show on the Plaza,” says co-director Jordan Eddy. “We’ve been working hard to rally the emerging art community, and there’s a huge demand for fresh, multilayered stories in this town.” The existence of a permanent space downtown allows Strangers to synthesize all of these skills and interests in front of the world, right on East San Francisco St. The first exhibition in the space will be Ya Veo, a solo exhibition of new media by local artist Marcus Zúñiga, opening April 8th, 2017.