Saturday Nov. 7

Paseo de Peralta, by Farmers Market/SITE 10 am - 12 pm --- New Mexico Museum of Art 1 pm - 4 pm

 

Saturday Nov. 14

Paseo de Peralta, by Farmers Market/SITE 10 am - 12 pm --- New Mexico Museum of Art 1 pm - 4 pm

 

Porter Lara transforms what we know as a bake sale into a vehicle for the multi-directional exchange of art. While many of us regard baking as an art form, the artist — who used to work as a pastry chef — bakes actual art into her cookies. Each delicious item on her bake sale table contains a tiny original drawing.

 

But art isn’t just a secret ingredient. Art is the currency of BAKE/SALiEnt, where no cash is accepted. In the words of the artist: "Baked goods will be priced in Arts. Some items may cost more Arts than others. For example, a peanut butter cookie may cost 1 Art, while a chocolate chip cookie may cost 1.5 Arts. All transactions will be rounded up to the nearest Art."

 

Porter Lara invites hungry visitors to create their own small works of art with which to buy BAKE/SALiEnt items. Currency-sized paper and and a wide array of drawing materials are provided for “wealth creation”. She stipulates that "any image made on one slip of paper will be valued as one Art. Anything proffered as Art will be accepted as currency by BAKE/SALiEnt. No Art will be turned away. The valuation of one Art, regardless of who makes it, is always one."

 

Jami Porter Lara is a contemporary artist whose interests range from drawing to sculpture to social sculpture.  Her work is widely collected and has been featured in the PBS arts series Colores! and in American Art Collector Magazine. She is represented by Central Features Contemporary Art in Albuquerque and by Stephanie Breitbard Fine Arts in San Francisco.

 

Thanks to The New Mexico Museum of Art for their support of this project.

 

This is the first of our occasional series of exhibitions by residents of The Santa Fe Art Institute.