ArtHaus66 Gallery

ILLUMINE is an astonishing tour de force by two artists who come together to create an installation never seen before in Albuquerque.

Also featuring CIUTATS by Raul de la Torre

Lena Bartula contributes a series of beautifully crafted huipiles fashioned from the most disparate materials: recycled bags from corn or beans, market bags, lottery posters, oilcloth, found fabrics, bandanas, ribbons and even prayer flags. These sculptures shed light on the universal issue of women’s rights and they give voice, with their seemingly mundane yet imposing presence, to the millions of women who lead a life of inequality and discrimination.

Karen Wight opts for a more classical approach to illustrating the plea of human existence. The human body has become the primary focus of her artwork as the vehicle that she uses to convey not only its resilience, but also its malleability andever changing nature. Her resin sculptures of both female and male bodies, not only capture light as it pierces them, but they also smolder with a lovely amber glow that brings peace to the mind.

In combination, Bartula’s and Wight’s work creates a dynamic dialogue between interior and exterior spaces. The hidden and the open. Surface and essence. Opposites that become meaningless without each other’s existence.