Artist Bio

 

Michael Namingha lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is from a family of artists. He is a multidisciplinary artist with a spare contemporary aesthetic. A keen observer of today's society, he creates a compelling mix of imagery and words commenting on modern interpersonal relations and contemporary culture. His ability to distill everyday conversational statements results in work that surprises and engages the viewer. His current body of work explores the vanishing and changing landscape of the American West.

 

Artist Statement:

 

I began this body of work in 2014 after exploring an area south of Santa Fe, New Mexico called the Galisteo Basin. It is a picturesque southwestern landscape with sweeping vistas and valleys surrounded by juniper and pinon tree dotted mountains. I began to photograph an approaching rainstorm from the roadside and noticed small signs that read “no oil” in Galisteo. As I returned home I began to do research into the signs I saw and discovered that the tiny village of Galisteo was battling with oil companies wanting to come in and began oil exploration in the area.

 

I took the photographs I had taken and began to place blocks of color over pieces of the landscape. I used these blocks to represent a piece of the landscape that may not be there some day. I also began to research color psychology and chose colors that have calming effects on people, because when I am out in nature I get that feeling of calmness and serenity. However, these are also the feelings that could be lost in the not so distant future.

 

This series began to evolve in to more complicated compositions after I heard a lecture on Donald Judd at the Dia Foundation in New York City. The lecture had stated that Judd did not like his sculptures represented in a photograph. That a photograph did not allow for interaction with the viewer.

 

I wanted to create a sense of dimension out of a two-dimensional plane so I began to have my images face mounted to a shaped piece of Plexiglas with different mounting points on the back so that you may change the perspective of the piece.

 

The second series in this body of work centers on a proposed billion-dollar development to go in on the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon known as the Escalade Project. The area is sacred to both the local Native American tribes of the Hopi and Navajo. With these compositions, I used a shape of color intersecting with an image to represent the desecration of the land.