ERIN CURRIER
Currier’s “Taos Fiesta Queens”
Erin Currier moved to Santa Fe a year or so ago, but a large part of her heart remains in Taos. She recently completed a love song to the town, Taos Fiesta Queens VI, and delivered it to Parks Gallery, her long-time local representative.
“I moved to New Mexico from New England nearly twenty years ago,” she says, “and almost immediately was deeply impressed by Taos's Hispanic culture with its traditions, particularly its respect for its ancestors, elders, and family, for its sense of community. It seems to me that the Fiesta Princesas and Reina reflect and embody these values. As a socio-political artist, it was, and is, important to me to support and pay homage to these values and to these young women. And I love Fiestas! I go most every year, and every year I find that the Reina and Princesas are stunningly beautiful. This is the sixth year I’ve painted them and it always feels like an honor.”
“Erin has been important to me, to the gallery and to Taos art in general since I first discovered her -- scores of people make the same claim -- at the Southside Bean more than a decade ago,” says gallery owner Steve Parks. “Since our down-sizing earlier this year, we’re unable to stage her major exhibitions, as we did for so long, and she’s gone on to exhibit in the wider art universe. But she’s extremely loyal and continues to get us new work as she’s able, and this new piece is as strong and beautiful as anything she’s ever done.”
Taos Fiesta Queens is on view through the end of November at Parks Gallery, 110-A Paseo del Pueblo Norte. A portion of the sale of Taos Fiesta Queens VI will be donated to the Fiesta Council’s scholarship fund. For more information call 575-751-0343.
Artist Bio →
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BIOGRAPHY
Artist's Statement:
What began as a natural integration of my sociopolitical beliefs with a sheer joy of art-making, has since developed into a full-fledged artistic praxis by which I integrate the human realm I come in contact with in the course of my travels- its individuals, cultures, and struggles- with its refuse, in order to comment on and participate in the issues I feel most passionate about. I have travelled to nearly 40 countries, immersing myself, to the best of my abilities, in the daily life of countries like Nepal and Nicaragua, cities such as Istanbul and Caracas, studying languages, getting around on foot or by bus, sketching, documenting extensively, making friends, and collecting disinherited commercial “waste”, after which I return to my studio to create series of works. Aesthetically, Latin American Muralist traditions, Eastern Spiritual Iconography, and Social Realism inform my work. In addition to drawing its subjects from the so-called developing world, my work often draws its aesthetic from the “Global South”, as well as its philosophical influence, in the form of Paolo Freire, Eduardo Galeano, Augusto Sandino, and Edward Said.
The more I travel, the greater my sense of urgency as an artist to address social inequality and economic disparity through my work. Above all, I am a humanist artist, politically active and unapologetically narrative in my repertoire of practices, and for whom art and the social world are inseparable.
Erin Currier 2011
Erin Currier
Born: 1975, Haverhill, MA
Home: Santa Fe, NM
Education: College of Santa Fe, BFA Costume Design
Resume
Selected One Person Exhibitions:
2010: "Journalistas Unembedded," Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2009: “Schoolyards,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2009: “Schoolgirls and Schoolboys” Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
2009: “Portenas,” Masottatorres Contemporanea, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2008: “Miss World,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2007: “America Below,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2007: “In Solidarity,” Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Embassy, Washington D.C.
2006: “From Vietnam to Venezuela, Bandits and Beauty Queens,” Parks Gallery, Taos
2005: “Mothers and Martyrs,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2005: “Small Works,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2004: “The Other America,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2004: “Selected Works,” TOPS Gallery, Malibu, CA
2003: “Liberation Series,” College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
2003: “Liberation Series,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2009: “Salvo”, Jack Fischer Gallery, San Fransisco, CA
2007-08: Masottatorres Contemporanea, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2008: “FOCA Show,” Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2007-08: “Originals,” National Museum of Women in the Arts, Harwood Museum, NM
2007: “Lifting the Veil: New Mexico Women and the Tricultural Myth,” Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM
2005-08: MJ Higgins Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2005: “Heroes,” Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
2005: “La Madre Poderosa,” Harwood Museum, Taos, NM
2003: “FOCA Exhibition,” Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2003: “El Corazon,” Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM
2002: “El Dia de la Muerte,” Martinez Hacienda, Taos, NM
1999-2006 Tops Gallery, Malibu, CA
Selected Books and Publications:
Women Artists Datebook 2010, Syracuse Cultural Workers, 2009
Peter McLaren, Education, adn the Struggle for Liberation, Mustafa Yunus Eryman, Hampton, 2009
100 Artists of the Southwest, Douglas Bullis, Schiffer, 2006
Pedagogy and Praxis in the Age of Empire, Peter McLaren, Nathalia Jaramillo, Rowman and Littlefield, 2006
Capitalists and Conquerors, Peter McLaren, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005
Teaching Against Global Capitalism, Peter McLaren, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005
Buenos Aires Herald, 2009
Pagina 12, Argentina, 2009
Paseante Extranerjero, Argentina, 2009
Raw Guide, Argentina, 2009
THE Magazine, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2004, 2003, 1999
Santa Fean Magazine, 2009, 2007, 2004, 2003
Welt der Frau Magazine, Austria, 2008
Washington Post, 2007
Tele Sur, 2007
Pacifica Radio, 2007
Bottom Line, 2006
Malibu Magazine, 2005
Art News, 2004
Atomica, 2004
American Style Magazine, 2003
Utne Reader, 2002
National Public Radio, 2002, 2000
New Mexico Magazine, 2002
Su Casa Magazine, 2001
Selected Collections
Bernardo Bertolucci
Sherilynn Bevel
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Embassy
Lisa Bonet
President Hugo Chavez
John Cusack
Joan Cusack
Whoopi Goldberg
Mr. & Mrs. Mel Gibson
Linda Hamilton
Coretta Scott King
Julia Roberts
Mr. & Mrs. Carlos Santana
Martin Sheen
Dean Stockwell
Town of Taos Hall