California Dreaming

Albuquerque, NM – Tamarind Institute invites the local community to come do a little “California Dreaming.” Tamarind’s annual guest-curated exhibition, California Dreaming, opens on Friday, March 11 with a public reception from 5 – 7 p.m. The exhibition will be in the gallery through April 29, open to the public, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. — 5 p.m., or during special hours, 5 p.m. — 7 p.m. on Friday, April 1. The public is also invited to a “Walkthrough with the Curator” on March 24 at 5 p.m. The event is free, but limited to the first thirty who RSVP to tamarind@unm.edu, or 505.277.3901.

California Dreaming, guest-curated by Christina Rosenberger, explores Tamarind Institute's long-standing relationship with California. Founded in Los Angeles in 1960, Tamarind moved to Albuquerque ten years later—following a tradition of artists moving between California and artistic communities in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos. “The stories of artists’ epic road trips from California to New Mexico, and vice-versa, always caught my attention,” Rosenberger said. “In the middle of the 20th-century, Bea Mandelman and Louis Ribak traveled from Taos to Los Angeles to exhibit their paintings, and artists such as Richard Diebenkorn came to Albuquerque from San Francisco on the G.I. Bill. There was a remarkable fluidity of movement between the two locations, which continues today.” Rosenberger has selected lithographs from Tamarind's beginnings to more recent projects with some of California's most prominent living artists. Included in the exhibition are works by over twenty artists, including Billy Al Bengston, Tom Berg, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Frederick Hammersley, Hung Liu, Christine Nguyen, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, and Allison Miller.

“As Tamarind embarks on a new era with director Diana Gaston, a show that acknowledges Tamarind’s roots in California and celebrates the work of many of Tamarind’s recent artists seemed like a perfect fit,” Rosenberger concluded.