Tasty. Very tasty. This is the kind of place you’re either told about because you’ve got a snootful of money and class, or you find it on your own—probably because you’ve got a snootful of money and class, or at the very least, refined and well-informed preferences in art. William Shearburn, a gallerist from St. Louis, opened his latest venue here upstairs in the former Gary Farmer space—decluttered and newly airy—in May for those who may be in the (secondary) market for something snazzy from the estate of Robert Motherwell, which Shearburn represents. A print specialist, Shearburn has shown at Art Basel/Miami Beach, the Los Angeles Art Show, ART Santa Fe, and Art Chicago, among other art-savvy fairs. According to his St. Louis web site, recent acquisitions for re-sale include savory works by Roy Lichtenstein, Bernar Venet, and Maya Lin. Suffice to say the man knows his chops, and visiting this gallery should be a must for any serious collector or student of art history. Not a single expressionist oil painting of snow-covered aspens was spied, nor were there any bronze sculptures of horses or bears in cute poses.
Asked why he opened a gallery here Shearburn replied, “I believe that the visual arts scene is changing in Santa Fe and there is a place for the gallery here…. I want to be a part of that and I think my aesthetic is a nice fit. I have also been encouraged by a number of clients who live in Santa Fe to open here.”
The inaugural exhibition included delectable works by Louise Bourgeois, John Chamberlain, Helen Frankenthaler, Teo González, and Robert Mangold. I drooled over a monotype by Polly Apfelbaum, Lover’s Leap 20. At nearly 50” square, it’s perfectly sofa-sized—just the kind of thing you want in your loft to show the cognoscenti that you, too, know your stuff. But seriously, I could live with the piece for a long time, watching flowers shift in and out of focus while the surface interplays with dimensionality. This gallery’s a keeper, and I wish them well in Santa Fe. While they may not tend toward more extreme and/or ephemeral versions of contemporary art, Shearburn’s has the feel of modernism at its best: thoughtful, erudite without being overly academic, nuanced yet bold, and just plain delicious to look at.
