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Jul. 14—OPENINGS
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3000 Grapevine Mills Parkway, Grapevine, Texas
General admission starts at $45
Get unreal in Texas
It's not every week that you get to welcome a new Meow Wolf into the world. But that's what's happening in select cities throughout the Southwest.
The fourth permanent Meow Wolf installation, The Real Unreal, opens Friday, July 14, in Grapevine, Texas, following the inimitable artistic outposts previously established in Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and Denver. The first Meow Wolf, Santa Fe's House of Eternal Return, opened in 2016. Omega Mart followed in Las Vegas in 2021, and Denver's Convergence Station opened in 2022. A fifth Meow Wolf attraction is planned for Houston at some point in the future.
The Real Unreal takes up 29,000 square feet at the Grapevine Mills Mall — its flabbergasting decor was created by a team of 150 artists.
Within The Real Unreal are more than 70 installations, portals, and wormholes designed with the usual Meow Wolf flair and colorful detail. The journey will be different, but you'll see such familiar trademarks as day-glow graffiti adorning rooms and appliance portals to other worlds.
Local Texas artists who created new installations at the Grapevine Meow Wolf include Carmen Menza, Dan Lam, and Tsz Kam.
Lam's Cosmic Play is a large-scale sculpture that oozes color from the wall onto the floor beneath it. Lam's Waterworks pairs forces of nature with iconography from various cultures, inviting the viewer to consider the merging of worlds. — Spencer Fordin
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MOVIE NEWS
Oppenheimer blows up
One of the most anticipated films this summer, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, is expecting to blow up the box office here when it opens July 21.
New Mexicans might have more interest in the film, where the historical events of the Manhattan Project depicted in the movie took place in the still secretive town of Los Alamos and at the Trinity test site near modern-day White Sands National Park (the movie was filmed in New Mexico, too).
Nolan continued to build the anticipation for the film, as he announced in late May that a 70mm IMAX special edition of the film would be released in theaters worldwide, 23 of those in the U.S.
"The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled," Nolan told the Associated Press in early June. "The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you're really letting the screen disappear. You're getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You've got a huge screen and you're filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You're immersing them in the world of the film."
The closest locations to Santa Fe to see 70mm IMAX screenings of Oppenheimer include Tempe, Arizona; Dallas; and San Antonio.
While the 70mm edition may be too far to travel for, the Center for Contemporary Arts announced that it will host the 35mm screenings of the film, starting July 21 through August 10. CCA is the only authorized theater in New Mexico to screen the 35mm version.
Both IMAX screenings and standard formats of Oppenheimer will premiere on July 21. — Anthony Romero-Kleve
Visit imax.com for showtimes and ticket information.
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MAKE ART
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135 W. Palace Avenue, Suite 100
11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
Clay class
The world is on fire. Or flooding. Or sinking. Or just plain baking. There are wars and human struggles across the globe. I worry about friends and family here and abroad.
I can't sleep.
Then, in late June, I discovered Tumbleroot Pottery Pub — a new cocktail bar, ceramic ware gallery, and walk-in pottery studio at the corner of Palace and Grant avenues, between the Plaza and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
Stepping inside here? Best idea ever.
Why? Because at Tumbleroot Pottery Pub, for a moment (about two hours), I can forget about the problems of the world. While I'm there, my focus is, "Does this look like my corgi's butt?"
Here, I have a blob of self-drying structural clay locally harvested and made in New Mexico, which I order ($9 per pound) alongside a cocktail (made with locally distilled spirits) and a strong cafecito. The cold, soothing clay that I have has all the intentions — although I don't have skills, which doesn't matter — of turning into an artistic rendition of my corgi, (Liz) Lemon.
The pub has monthly clay contests. In June, the theme was pets. In July, it's flying machines. You can make anything you want, too, and if you're stuck for ideas, talk to the bartender. Plus, when you're done, you can take home your creation.
The bartender brings me my cocktail in a blue clay cup. He says, yes, my blob kind of looks like a corgi. He encourages me to keep going. I work more and soon join the locals at the table next to mine in admiring a clay parrot/dinosaur one of them made. Everyone's hands are dirty, their empty cocktail and mocktail cups covered with dust. I point at my corgi.
Surely, these four individuals, too, must have worries of their own. But now, everyone, including me, is giggling. As writer Kurt Vonnegut once said, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."
Angela Smith Kirkman, potter and co-founder of Tumbleroot Pottery Pub, calls this "mud therapy." And the feeling I have here is exactly what she and her husband and co-founder, Jason Kirkman, want their customers to experience when they hang out at the pottery pub. Working with clay and making pottery is physical; it loosens you up and forces you to be present, in the moment, allowing you to forget your worries for a while. And if you add a cocktail or two to the experience, and maybe a friend, then you're definitely in for a lovely time. — Ania Hull/For The New Mexican
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DRINK UP
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$30
Semifinal rounds: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 15, at The Drinkery by Bosque Brewing, 4980 Promenade Boulevard
2 to 4 p.m. July 22 at Public House 28 Brewery, 10092 NM-28, Anthony
Final round: Three sessions (noon, 2 and 4 p.m.) July 29 at Flix Brewhouse, 3236 La Orilla Road NW #1, Albuquerque
Hoppy challenge
Set your taste buds for hoppy.
The 21st annual New Mexico IPA Challenge will come to Santa Fe on Saturday, July 15, with 16 distinctive beers seeking the crown of top IPA brewed in the state.
The Drinkery by Bosque Brewery will serve as host, and the victors will be selected by the casting of votes by attendees. Tasters receive a sample of all 16 semifinalists as part of the price of admission, and votes will be tabulated for the top tasting brew.
A semifinal round will be held at Public House 28 Brewery in Anthony on July 22, and the final field will be subjected to rigorous tastings by the public in the championship round at Flix Brewhouse in Albuquerque on July 29.
Last year, more than 400 votes were cast in the final round, and Albuquerque-based Gravity Bound Brewing's Quick Take IPA earned the top prize.
This year, 42 breweries will compete in the private preliminary round on July 9, and 16 brews will be chosen to move forward. — S.F.
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ARTS EVENTS
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Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy Street
$20
First Look Friday: noon to 4 p.m. Friday, July 14
Collectors Opening Night: 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 14
General Fair Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 15, and Sunday, July 16
redwoodartgroup.com/art-santa-fe
Movers and painters
Contemporary art and artists will stage an amicable takeover of the Santa Fe Community Convention Center this weekend for the 23rd edition of Art Santa Fe.
Dozens of galleries from around the country and around the world will showcase paintings, drawings, sculptures, lithographs, and more.
Art fair attendees will have the opportunity to browse the work and, in some cases, interact with the artists, as Art Santa Fe will include several live demonstrations and interactive experiences.
And if you don't know where to go? Art Santa Fe provides a special guide. The Art Santa Fe curatorial team selected a number of artists as part of its Spotlight Program, and it has also selected noteworthy pieces priced less than $1,000 as part of its Discoveries Collection. — S.F.
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CLASSICAL NOTES
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4 p.m. Tuesday, July 18
Free admission, first come, first seated
Site Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta
Muhly, Monteverdi, and more
The Santa Fe-based tenor Joshua Dennis and San Francisco's Del Sol Quartet are joining forces for a free concert of contemporary music by Nico Muhly, Charlton Lee, and Stefano Scodanibbio at Site Santa Fe on Tuesday, July 18. Muhly, whose Marnie was produced by the Metropolitan Opera in 2018, has recently crafted a new orchestration for Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo, which will be heard at the Santa Fe Opera this summer. His Stranger, for tenor soloist and string quartet, was premiered by Nicholas Phan and Brooklyn Rider in 2020. The program also includes Five by Four by Lee, the Del Sol's violist, and Scodanibbio's Mas Lugares. The latter is a 2003 work based on several Monteverdi madrigals written by a musician described as "a tremendous bassist, a fearless improviser, and a gifted composer" by Sequenza 21. — Mark Tiarks/For The New Mexican
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LISTEN UP
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Bella performs at 7 p.m. Friday, July 14, and Saturday, July 15, as well as 4 p.m. Sunday, July 16, at Teatro Paraguas, 3205 Calle Marie. $15, or $8 for students and those with limited income; 505-577-2679 or teatroparaguasnm.org/big-feelings.
Wellington will read at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 20, at Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse, 202 Galisteo Street. Copies of the book can be ordered from the bookstore; call 505-988-4226. Free; collectedworksbookstore.com.
Poetry by the book
Two lauded Santa Fe poets will perform readings in the coming week, both centered around books they've written recently.
One of them might be wearing more glitter than the other.
Slam poet Gigi Bella, real name Gigi Guajardo-Galpert, will present what she bills as a "glitter glam extravaganza" featuring original pop-punk songs and costume changes. It's based on her book big feelings (2020, Game Over Books), inspired partly by her time in New York City.
Darryl Lorenzo Wellington serves as Santa Fe's poet laureate through January 1. He had been set to cede the position July 1, but the city didn't decide on a replacement and extended his term, he says.
Wellington's book Legible Walls: Poems for Santa Fe Murals was released June 1 (Stalking Horse Press). It's described as challenging and opening people's perspectives of their city. Wellington's own work has been featured in mural form at The Lena Wall. — Brian Sandford
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ARTS EVENTS
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10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 15, and Sunday, July 16
New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue
Free
505-476-5200; nmhistorymuseum.org
Show for the youth
Virginia Chama has spent a lifetime selling her wares at the Palace of the Governors. And now, twice each year, she relishes sitting back and watching her granddaughters take center stage.
Chama, a potter who has spent decades honing her craft, gladly yields to members of the next generation who will be participating in the Native American Portal Artisans' Youth Show Saturday, July 15, and Sunday, July 16.
"We have three generations coming," says Chama of the event held in the Palace of the Governors courtyard. "My two granddaughters are coming. And I have a third granddaughter coming down. The oldest granddaughter, I think, is getting better than me."
Chama says she's been coming to the Palace of the Governors since she was about 6 or 7 years old, learning to throw clay at her mother's side. Decades ago, she says, there was no organized program to develop youth participation in the arts.
"There were no rules or regulations," she says. "We could come, and we could bring our brothers and sisters. We used to come from Jemez, and we would sleep under the benches because we didn't have a ride."
The artists in the youth show range in age from 5 to 17, and many of them are children or grandchildren of participants in the museum's Portal Program. Chama is one of 10 members of the Portal Program Committee and adds that her grandchildren got started in pottery late.
"They're always sitting by me. That's how they got interested," she says. "I said, 'You're watching me. If you want to, whatever you want to make, you can watch me.' And they did. I kind of guided them too, because that's what you need in the beginning. You don't just sit down and make whatever you want to make. I guided them, and then I said, 'OK, you're on your own.'"
When she was young, Chama says, her family only made wedding vases and bowls. But now they make ornaments and figurines, and her grandchildren are branching out into houses and flower platters.
"Pottery is pottery," she says. "At that time, we hardly had anything. Now there's tools you can use and sponges you can use. At that time, we had to use nothing but our own hands. And now I don't even use the tools because I'm so used to using my hands." — S.F.
