Primate Picassos
Celebrate World Chimpanzee Day with an exhibit featuring paintings by rescued apes
With World Chimpanzee Day falling on July 14, it’s worth knowing that New Mexico—Alamogordo in particular—has been a hub for lab experiments on chimpanzees since the 1950s, and animal activism related to these primates continues today.
Currently, for example, nonprofit Animal Protection of New Mexico is engaged in a legal battle to free 26 remaining chimps from the Alamogordo Primate Facility, and it will soon come together with Florida-based sanctuary Save the Chimps and Santa Fe’s Jen Tough Gallery for Interspecies, a new exhibit of 16 acrylic paintings opening Saturday, July 13—the night before World Chimpanzee Day. The twist? All the paintings were created by the Save the Chimps’ chimpanzees, most of whom are retired from New Mexico lab research.
“People hear how much we have in common with chimps,” long-time chimp advocate and Save the Chimps Director of Events and Special Projects Dan Mathews says, “and when you actually see their artwork and can see that our closest living relatives in the animal world also share our creative impulses, it deepens your well of respect for these incredibly intelligent beings.”
Painting, Mathews explains, is one of many therapeutic and social-enrichment activities the sanctuary offers to its roughly 220 resident apes. About 20 have taken to the brush and canvas, Mathews adds. Tough, meanwhile, adds that she’s thrilled to host the show.
“Because these chimps have been through hell and back in the laboratories here in New Mexico, it’s a way for them to heal from their experiences,” she says. “New Mexico was really kind of the epicenter of a lot of this testing, and it’s a wonderful way to pay back what we gained from them.”
Also slated for the exhibit are a desert-toned “Santa Fe collection” of the primates’ works co-curated by Tough and a photographic timeline of the history of chimpanzee experimentation in New Mexico. Additionally, photographer Karen Bystedt donated large format prints of Andy Warhol for the chimps to paint on, creating works that mimic how Warhol painted over photos of celebrities in his works; and Animal Protection of New Mexico’s Program Officer Gene Grant is slated to speak. Proceeds go to Save the Chimps. (Mo Charnot)
Interspecies Opening: 4-7 pm Saturday, July 13. Free. Jen Tough Gallery, 4 N Chamisa Drive, (505) 372-7650
Market Value
Honestly? The International Folk Art Market’s move to Railyard Park last year could have been a disaster, but the venue shift from Museum Hill went off without a hitch, which bodes well for IFAM’s 20th anniversary this weekend. “Twenty years is big news, and we have a lot of people coming back to celebrate,” Executive Director Stacey Edgar tells SFR. “We’ll have a legacy tent featuring artists who’ve been with us since 2004 through 2008; we’re excited about our first-ever free community day on Sunday, July 14; and for kids, we’re bringing back our passport program for the first time since the pandemic. They’ll get a little passport and can go around collecting stamps from artists.” This year’s market encompasses 161 artists from 51 countries, includes both a lecture series and nighttime events and…well, you should just go. (ADV)
International Folk Art Market: Various times Thursday, July 11-Sunday, July 14. $0-$300. Railyard Park, 740 Cerrillos Road, folkartmarket.org
The Juiciest Double Feature
You want to spend a hell of a day at the movies? Visit the Jean Cocteau Cinema on Sunday. Beginning in the afternoon, catch a screening of Richard Linklater’s über-romantic 1995 film Before Sunrise about a pair of impossibly attractive people (Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke) who spend one magical night on the streets of Vienna—then close out the day with 1974′s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre about a gaggle of impossibly attractive Texan youths getting fully full-on chainsawed by horror icon Leatherface. Presumably, at least one couple out there just looked at each other and shouted “Finally!” about this cinematic coming-together. Note you are not required to attend both screenings. (ADV)
Before Sunrise and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: 3 pm and 5:30 pm respectively. Sunday, July 14. $5. Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave., (505) 466-5528
Collectivism
Local Balkan-infused act Rumelia Collective started recording their recently released Beneath Roses in 2020, just before all that terrible COVID stuff happened. Four years later, members Alysha Shaw, Willa Roberts, Sitara Schauer and Nicolle Roen finally dropped their full-length, and it’s everything you want it to be. Whether we’re talking intricately layered vocal melodies that err into almost drone-like moments of near-spiritualism, percussion-filled jams that play like the soundtrack to some hot Turkish night or just plain pretty sounds, Roses might be the band’s best work yet. “I’d say it’s a huge accomplishment that we set out to do before COVID, and it was so disheartening to have to slow down and stop, but it feels so great we’ve done it,” Shaw says. “We’re so proud of it and it represents our unique identity as a band and our repertoire.” (Alex De Vore)
Santa Fe Bandstand: Rumelia Collective: 6 pm Monday, July 15. Free. Santa Fe Plaza 63 Lincoln Ave., lensic360.org