In August and September, 2015,  six professional artists from Santa Fe mentored sculpture students at the New Mexico School for the Arts as together they learned a pre-industrial bronze casting process from Piers Watson.  We are pleased to exhibit the 40 small bronze sculptures that have resulted from this this time together.

The Luted Crucible bronze casting process has been used for centuries in both West Africa and in India. Originally from Santa Fe, Watson made several trips to the rural community of Bastar, Chhattisgarh, India, where he apprenticed with local bronze casters to learn this direct wood-fired casting technique. Since that time, he has been traveling in Europe and the U.S. teaching it to other artists.  The term “luted crucible” refers to the connecting or “luting” of two elements (in this case, the mould that contains the wax or 3-d printed object to be cast and the crucible that contains the copper and tin).

Chris Collins is a sculptor and found object artist.  Born and raised in Alabama, he has a BFA in painting from University of Montevallo and an MFA from Memphis College of Art.   For the last decade, he has been primarily engaged with the metal casting process, working in several foundries, and becoming a highly skilled foundry artisan in that period of time.   His current work deals with themes of technology, science, nature and the passage of time.

"Bob Haozous is a man with a mission, or two. Some thirty years ago he set out to be a damn good sculptor. He has since achieved this, successfully wedding Native and especially Apache imagery with powerful form and a sharp, unequivocal wit aimed at contemporary American life, at “the white man in all of us.”  (Lucy R. Lippard)

Anne Russell lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She studied art at Gonzaga University and in Laval, France. She brings her experience in painting into the colors and textures of her sculptural pieces. Her work can be found in private collections throughout the United States and beyond.  She writes: "Every work is a relic, a container for memories, secrets, and imagination. I invite the viewer to experience them as reminders of own organic nature, our shared and ancient past, and our connection with each other through communal stories and our common sense of mystery." 

Rose B. Simpson was born in Santa Fe, NM, and raised among an extended family of artists in Santa Fe and Santa Clara Pueblo. Her mother; Roxanne Swentzell, a known ceramic sculptor within the Indigenous art world, and her father; Patrick Simpson, a contemporary artist in wood and metal introduced her to the art world at a young age. Of both Indigenous and Anglo descent, with art and philosophy primary in both families, she has pursued the pure expression of truth through many forms of art including sculpture, printmaking, drawing, creative writing, music, and dance. Her work often signifies the constant struggle between the two worlds that most modern Indigenous peoples survive through; traditional and the colonist perspective/assimilation.

Diane Tintor was raised in Buffalo, New York and has lived and worked in New Mexico for most of her life.  She combines fabrication and casting of metal to produce both jewelry and sculpture.  The work is mainly narrative in approach and concerns itself with nature, ecology and spirituality.  Diane teaches at Santa Fe Community College and is the program head of Jewelry/Metal Arts and Art History.

Erika Wanenmacher lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Described as a local maverick, her work has been shown nationally and internationally. Her work often investigates the conflicts between nature and culture, and a large body of work is derived from New Mexico's atomic history. Gifted with a skilled technical hand and a facility for adapting to new materials, her work is guided by the principles of alchemy and the belief that each object made is a spell- with the unlimited possibility for change and remediation. Her work encompasses any and all materials and techniques including carved and painted wood, forged steel, cast aluminium, sand paintings, leaded glass, projected video,a propane-powered V-8 Volvo hot-rod, and ranges in scale from the intimate object to large-scale installation. 

Piers Watson has taught the luted crucible technique of casting at the Kansas City Art Institute as well as The Institute of Making in London. He has run workshops all over the world including England; Brooklyn, New York; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and El Bruc, Spain. He holds a Masters from Middlesex University, London, England, and a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute and is a native Santa Fean. He exhibits his work widely in Europe and the USA.