The Center Gallery of Fine Art in Truth or Consequences opened on Labor Day 2021 and in less than two years has distinguished itself in the Sierra County Arts community. With a bold full-page spread in the newly released New Mexico Field Guide (pg. 62) and a “Field Report” write-up (pg. 73-74), the new place in town is still making waves.
In March of this year, whilst the nearby Elephant Butte Reservoir began to rise with the nectar of the Northern Rockies snowmelt, Center Gallery Fine Art reached a new high-water mark of its own, selling the work of five different artists in one month.
Then in April and May the gallery sponsored the Second Annual Sierra County Student Art Show in partnership with the Sierra County Arts Council. The juried show invited 60 of 80 applicants grades 6-12 to the show, where students could sell their work and compete for $4,600 in scholarship awards. This year more than half of the students sold their work at the show and during the exhibition of show winners in the Gallery during May.
At the start of June, the gallery welcomed two new artists: The globally-renown Navajo painter Carlis Chee, who offers distinctive fusions of traditional and modern native culture, from the Rez to the city and emerging painter Chantal Elena, who describes her vibrant, psychedelic color palette as “a map of my internal mood-ring.”
The gallery also features new exhibits by current artists.
Painter and International entertainer Lindsay Williams presents her new series of bold color phantasmagoric pop images and nationally-renown muralist Chris Krieg unveils his new tribute to TorC’s “healing waters” history in his piece “Health Center of America.” Drawing on his lifelong mastery of tattoo art, Morres Candelaria brings bold colors to his popular charcoal still-lifes.
After 33 years living amid the Santa Fe arts community, gallery owner Art Burger said he was drawn to the nascent art scene in Truth or Consequences. A lifetime fine art collector, Art saw an opportunity to help grow the city’s arts district, and to provide the youth of Sierra County the same levels of encouragement and to express their creative talents that are commonly available to their peers in the state capitol.
Burger said he was thrilled to acquire the lava-built Center Building in the town’s Hot Springs Historic District as the site of the new Center Gallery of Fine Art, diagonally across Main Street from the recently renovated El Cortez Theater. Burger’s activist spirit carries beyond his new home. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukrain, the gallery has featured Chris Krieg’s tribute to the people of Ukraine with his 10’x16’ “Madala on the Ukrainian Flag” mural on the northwest exterior side of the gallery building.
Center Gallery Fine Art gallery hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday to Friday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, at 201 S. Foch in TorC. Hours. It’s also open 6-9 p.m. for Second Saturday Art Hop, and by appointment. For information call 505-428-8418 or visit TheCenterGallery.com or the gallery’s Facebook page.
