Sixth Annual Group Exhibition by Strata Gallery Members
June 26 - July 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, June 26, 5-7PM
Closing Reception: Friday, July 17, 5-7PM

Strata Gallery is pleased to announce its Sixth Annual Group Exhibition, featuring new and recent work from Strata Members from across the country. The exhibition opens Friday, June 26 and will run through July 17. Celebrate with us during our opening reception on Friday, June 26, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. In addition, we will have a closing reception on July 17, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. This summer show highlights the range and vitality of artistic practices represented within the Strata community.

Founded in 2021 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Strata Gallery has established itself as a space dedicated to showcasing work based on merit rather than market trends. Located in the heart of Santa Fe’s downtown plaza, Strata provides a platform for artists who continue to push their practices in bold and thoughtful directions. 

This year’s exhibition features the work of thirteen artists: Brianna Tadeo (NM), C.J. Rosenthal (NM), claudia hermano (NM), Cody Kamrowski (CA), David Olivant (NM), Diana Noh (IL), Elaine Duncan (NM), Frank Trocino (NM), Jeannine Spooner Kitzhaber (MN), Jennifer Van (CA), Lita Kenyon (WA), Michael Donnelly (NM), and Taylor Thomas (CA).The works in this year’s exhibition reflect a wide-ranging engagement with memory, identity, perception, and the rapidly shifting world around us. Through photography, painting, collage, and mixed media, the artists explore both personal experience and broader cultural realities.

Some artists turn toward questions of identity and self-construction. claudia hermano examines the complexities of race, gender, and embodiment, while Taylor Thomas reflects on representation and Black interiority through archival imagery and cultural memory. Diana Noh reconstructs photographs to navigate displacement, vulnerability, and repair. Jennifer Van’s photographic works similarly consider memory, preservation, and the emotional weight carried by personal spaces and landmarks.

Others investigate humanity’s relationship to the natural and built environment. C.J. Rosenthal confronts ecological instability and human fragility. Jeannine Spooner Kitzhaber responds to rapidly changing landscapes shaped by suburban expansion, incorporating reclaimed materials that carry traces of place and history. Cody Kamrowski focuses on quiet moments of contemporary life, elevating ordinary subjects through carefully constructed compositions.

Material experimentation and process play a central role throughout the exhibition. Brianna Tadeo embraces impermanence within analog photography, allowing light, deterioration, and fragmentation to shape the image. Elaine Duncan approaches painting through movement, texture, and spontaneity, while Lita Kenyon’s intuitive works evolve through layering, scraping, and collage. Frank Trocino draws from architecture, music, and Cubism to create compositions rooted in rhythm and structure.

Photography remains an important thread throughout the exhibition. David Olivant combines fragmented imagery and shifting realities to explore emotional and psychological uncertainty, while Michael Donnelly’s photographs draw from decades of observation across landscapes.

Together, the artists in this exhibition offer distinct yet interconnected perspectives on contemporary life, inviting viewers to reflect on transformation, connection, memory, and the changing conditions of the world around us.

Join us this summer at Strata Gallery to experience artists' work that challenge, question, and reimagine contemporary experience.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website, Instagram, or Facebook.

Turning from a Fixed Direction
Lita Kenyon
June 2 - June 19, 2026
Reception: June 5, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents Established Member solo exhibition, Turning from a Fixed Direction, by Lita Kenyon. The exhibition opens June 2nd, with a special reception on June 5, from 5-7pm. The exhibition will be on view from June 2 through June 19.

Lita Kenyon’s work explores abstraction’s ability to evoke balance and tension without relying on narrative. Kenyon avoids specific references, allowing meaning to emerge organically as images blend and shift within fields of color and gestural marks. Inspiration comes from nonobjective forms as they emerge in the composition. Kenyon’s process is guided by intuition-driven methods, where each piece begins with a gesture and evolves through scraping, repainting, and layering.

Lita Kenyon received her MA in Fine Art from Northern Illinois University. Her work has been exhibited in Seattle, Washington; San Francisco, California; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Portland, OR, and Columbia, MO. This is her first solo show in New Mexico.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Four Stories in Photography
Michael Donnelly
May 12 - May 29, 2026
Reception: May 15, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents its Established Member solo exhibition, Four Stories in Photography by New Mexico based photographer Michael Donnelly. The exhibition opens May 12, with a special reception on May 15 from 5 to 7 pm. The exhibition will be on view from May 12 - May 29.

Bringing together four distinct bodies of work, Four Stories in Photography reflects Donnelly’s long standing interest in narrative, place, and cultural memory. Working in both film and digital formats, and in black and white as well as color, Donnelly creates images that balance formal photographic structure with a strong sense of story. His work draws from a background in the cinema industries of Los Angeles and Santa Fe, as well as his experience living in Mexico City, all of which continue to shape his visual approach.

“I am an admirer of the formal photography masters, whose social activism, poetic sensibilities, and use of technology showed us ways to reveal the world around us,” Michael notes. “A strong core image allows the viewer to create a personal context beyond the photo work itself.”

The exhibition includes selections from a decade-long photographic essay documenting the construction of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, a tribute to the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York, photographs from an ongoing project on the American Ranch Rodeo, and a curated group of landscapes from the New Mexican Southwest.

From 2002 to 2012, Donnelly shaped a ten year photographic essay documenting the construction of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. What began as documentary coverage evolved into a personal interpretation of the creation of a universal work of functional public art, expressed through a technical progression of images. Printed selections from this architectural series will be exhibited alongside a continuous video slideshow of the complete fifty image edition presented at Strata Gallery. The presentation carries added resonance following the recent passing of architect Frank Gehry.

Another body of work reflects on a pivotal moment in American history. In September 2001, Donnelly was scheduled by his employer, Technicolor, to present a seminar on film and digital cinema in New York. After the events of September 11, he chose to travel to the city despite being offered the opportunity to cancel. Arriving one week after the attacks, he witnessed not only devastation but also an extraordinary effort by the city and its people to recover. As the 25th anniversary approaches, these photographs honor the people and first responders, recognizing the resilience and recovery that emerged from tragedy.

A very different subject appears in Donnelly’s photographs of the American Ranch Rodeo. Approaching the subject as an observer with a strong visual and narrative sensibility, he focuses on the populist celebration of history, tradition, and family found within working ranch communities. Distinct from the commercial spectacle of professional bull riding, the American Ranch Rodeo reflects real families and working people living their traditions in an atmosphere shaped by strong community spirit. Selections from this developing essay are included in the exhibition.

Also featured is a curated group of Southwest landscapes. Living in New Mexico continues to inspire Donnelly’s engagement with the fragile and dramatic environment of the region. His photographs reflect an awareness of humanity’s place within the landscape and the shared responsibility to honor and care for the land.

Michael Donnelly is a Santa Fe resident, self taught photographer, and cinema professional who has exhibited in California, New Mexico, and Mexico City. This exhibition marks his first solo show in New Mexico.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

In The Eyes
Taylor Thomas
April 28 - May 8, 2026
Reception: May 1, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents Emerging Member solo exhibition, In The Eyes by Los Angeles based artist Taylor Thomas. The exhibition opens April 28th, with a special reception on May 1st from 5-7pm. The exhibition will be on view from April 28 - May 8.

Sourced from her grandmothers’ photo archives and the archive of Film & Television media, Taylor Thomas questions the influence of external representational systems on the Black family. In her paintings, Thomas paints the skin of her subjects with chrome paint, a nod to television static and the ambiguous nature of knowing an “other”. Thomas’ collages explore the relationship between skin and body and interiority and exteriority as she abstracts the faces of members of Black Hollywood along with members of her own family into pixelated squares. 

While within the context of Film & Television, pixilation and static signal moments of visibility disrupted, Thomas uses these tools to encourage viewers to recognize their active participation in the function of perceiving as a bridge to connection despite complete understanding. She references the parts that make up the whole, and the spaces between legibility and abstraction that might inspire connection. 

Thomas began her career developing feature films. However, a lack of diversity drove her to the visual arts. She earned her MFA from CalArts in 2025. This is her first solo show in New Mexico.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Stratas of New Mexico Art 2026
Juried Exhibition
April 7 - April 24, 2025
Reception: April 10, 5-7pm

Santa Fe, NM | Strata Gallery presents Stratas of New Mexico Art, a juried exhibition featuring artists living and working across the state. On view from April 7 through April 24, with a reception on April 10, the exhibition brings together a range of practices that reflect the breadth of New Mexico’s contemporary art community.

Selected through an open call, the exhibition highlights artists working across a variety of materials and approaches. Sculpture, painting, and photography appear alongside experimental processes and unexpected forms, offering a snapshot of the ideas and investigations shaping artistic practice in the region today.

Ben Utigard’s Cactus Shoes transforms a familiar object into an unconventional sculptural form. Coated in hydrocal plaster and acrylic paint and covered in cholla cactus spines, the work merges humor with a distinctly Southwestern material language. Utigard’s practice centers on creating one-of-a-kind non-traditional objects that reflect his observations about technology, communication, and the environment.

Carol Lujan, a clay and glass artist and citizen of the Navajo Nation, lives and works in New Mexico. Her fused glass piece Grandmother’s Legacy Series draws inspiration from traditional Navajo weaving and the designs of her grandmother’s rugs, as well as historical Navajo textiles from the mid-1800s. By translating these patterns into fused glass, Lujan brings traditional Indigenous design into a contemporary medium, creating work that honors cultural knowledge while expanding its material possibilities.

Frances Seward’s Intergalactic Hydrothermal Vents explores light, perception, and the subconscious through abstraction. Using photographic processes and translucent materials, Seward creates luminous forms that appear suspended in space. The resulting image suggests an interior landscape shaped by light and movement.

Working across sculpture, painting, photography, and mixed media, the artists included in Stratas of New Mexico Art offer a range of perspectives and approaches. Together, the exhibition reflects the ongoing energy and experimentation within New Mexico’s artistic community.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Exhibiting Artists:

Angela Kirkman, Ben Utigard, Carol Lujan, Choro, Dara Mark, Dave Volden, Debora Ratliff, Deborah Auten, Diane G. Rolnick, Donna Fleetwood, Duane Monczewski, Estelle L. Roberge, Frances Seward, Francesca Yorke, Gary Chaffin, Jenna Ritter, Jerry Defrese, José-Luis Hurtado, Karina Hean, Karl Orozco, Kevin Bartlett, Kevin Black, Leah Hardy, Liz Obert, Lysha Montiel, Patty deGrandpre, Phyllis Gunderson, Rebecca Pyle, Robert Hoerlein, Sandi Ludescher, Stephanie Baness, Terrie Mangat, Timothy Nero, and Vanessa Gonzalez.

Selected Images:

Shimmering Gloom
Brianna Tadeo
March 24 - April 3, 2026
Reception: March 27, 5-7pm
Workshop: March 28, 2-4pm

Strata Gallery announces an Emerging Member solo exhibition Shimmering Gloom by New Mexico-based artist Brianna Tadeo, on view March 24th through April 3rd. The public is invited to a reception on March 27th from 5-7 pm at Strata Gallery.

Join us for a free unique workshop on March 28th from 2-4pm for an immersive experience exploring the captivating world of silver gelatin paper and the impermanence of photographic art by Brianna Tadeo. Reservation required on Eventbrite.

Brianna Tadeo (they/them) is a visual artist whose work explores impermanence and transformation through experimental photography. Utilizing analog and digital techniques, Tadeo embraces fragility, inviting images to crack, fade, and disintegrate in pursuit of unexpected beauty. Their practice is rooted in curiosity and the quiet magic of light and material change.

Shimmering Gloom invites viewers into a world where photography is not just about capturing a moment, but about transformation and the shimmer that appears amid change. Tadeo offers a poetic meditation on light, loss, and the beauty found in impermanence.

Tadeo holds a BFA from California College of the Arts and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. Their work has been exhibited nationally and recognized by SF Camerawork’s FORECAST 2025 and Lenscratch as one of the "Top 25 Students to Watch."

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Emerging Artist Program:
This project is supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Traveling Through
Jeannine Spooner Kitzhaber
March 3 - 20, 2026
Reception: March 6, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents Traveling Through, a solo exhibition by Twin Cities-based artist Jeannine Spooner Kitzhaber, on view March 3 - 20, with a reception on March 6 from 5–7pm. In Traveling Through, Kitzhaber translates digital mapping systems into tactile mixed media and assemblage works. 

Kitzhaber creates work about how we experience landscape from GPS systems. “We have all experienced landscapes in some digital way as we travel,” explains Kitzhaber. “Technology reshapes how we connect with these places. My goal is to reimagine these experiences in a tactile way, translating the digital into something tangible.” Her process involves integrating GPS and other related mapping imagery with found objects related to home design and construction, in combination with painting, drawing and screen printing. She weaves together the rigid structures of urban and suburban grids through sight and memory, translating place into a blend of geometry, abstraction, and intuition.

The work exhibited in Traveling Through is inspired by Kitzhaber’s daily commutes and her observations of rapidly shifting landscapes, where woodlands and prairies give way to expanding housing developments. This ongoing series captures not only the changing terrain but also the artist’s personal journeys within it. The result is a body of work that acknowledges the evolving landscape while celebrating the unexpected joy of discovery along the way.

Kitzhaber earned a BFA and MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of MN-Twin Cities and taught college art for 25 years. Her thematic exploration of maps has earned her numerous accolades, exhibitions, and grants, including recognition from the MN State Arts Board. She maintains a studio in the historic Northrup King Building in Minneapolis, where she exhibits her work. Her artwork has been displayed throughout the United States and in Canada, and a variety of collections—from private residences and corporate environments to leading Twin Cities design firms such as Martha Dayton Design and Metropolis Design Group. Traveling Through marks her first solo exhibition with Strata Gallery.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

89 Seconds to Midnight
C.J. Rosenthal
February 10 - February 27, 2026
Reception: February 13, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents an Established Member solo exhibition, “89 Seconds to Midnight,” featuring paintings completed since 2020 by New Mexico based artist C. J. Rosenthal. The exhibition opens February 10th, with a special reception on February 13th from 5-7pm.

The central issue in C. J. Rosenthal’s art is the relationship of humanity to nature and the way our understanding of that relationship mediates the way we move about and engage the world around us. In the last decade, Rosenthal has added more topical themes, engaging with an increasingly divisive political and social landscape.

C. J. Rosenthal stated, “I feel that I have truly been at the top of my game for the last five years or so. Through my work I wish to enlighten, to anger, to upset and pro- voke. Perhaps I can inspire the viewer to wonder and learn, to consider the world and the creatures we share it with, or help them to see the folly of falling for the tricks used by the super wealthy and those in power which allow them to divide us, that doing so plays directly into their hands and only serves to make all of our lives more difficult.”

C. J. Rosenthal’s work has been exhibited in London (UK), La Rochelle (France), Ska-gaströnd and Kringlumýri (Iceland), New York City, Los Angeles, Tucson, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. This is his first solo show in New Mexico.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

reflect
Diana Noh
January 27 - February 6, 2026
Reception: January 30, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents an Emerging Member solo exhibition, reflect by Chicago based artist Diana Noh. The exhibition opens January 27th, with a special reception on January 30th from 5-7pm.

Diana Noh’s photography reconstructs distressed images of abandoned spaces and landscapes to confront the trauma of growing up between cultures. Her work is grounded in a process of destruction and repair—tearing, burning, stitching, and restoring photographs to visualize emotional recovery. She uses architectural structures as metaphors for the body, transforming fractured imagery into sites of introspection and healing. Through the material tension between hand-stitching and machine-sewing, her practice navigates the boundaries of control and surrender. The resulting layered, semi-sculptural works offer a space of refuge and reflection, where the act of rebuilding mirrors the reconstruction of self.

Diana Noh stated, “I’m deeply grateful to be part of Strata Gallery and to share my practice within the Santa Fe community. My work revolves around the act of refracture—a medical term describing the intentional breaking of a bone to heal it correctly. Through physical interventions, I reconstruct images as a metaphor for cultural and emotional recovery. My process transforms fragmentation into resilience, offering spaces of reflection and restoration.”

Diana Noh earned her MFA in Photography, with an elective concentration in Architecture, from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited across Asia, North America, and Europe, at venues including Space HNH (Seoul, South Korea), South Bend Museum of Art (South Bend, IN), Evanston Art Center (Chicago, IL), and Editart (Geneva, Switzerland). Her work is included in the collections of Jennifer and Dan Gilbert, Kyungil University, and numerous private collections.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Small Works
January 6 - January 23, 2026
Reception: January 9, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery is pleased to announce the third iteration of its annual juried exhibition, “Small Works.” The exhibition will be on view from January 6 through January 23, 2026 in Santa Fe’s historic district. A public reception will take place on Friday, January 9 from 5:00PM to 7:00PM.

This year’s exhibition highlights artists working across various mediums, including painting, photography, mixed media, and sculpture. Although modest in scale, the selected works invite close looking and demonstrate how small objects can hold expansive ideas. The exhibition reflects Strata Gallery’s commitment to thoughtful material exploration and diverse creative approaches.

Among the featured works is Consecration by Graham Cassano, a photographic assemblage that breaks a single architectural moment into a grid of stark, fractured images. Cassano’s practice draws on historical printing processes and spatial disruption, revealing the instability of perception. The resulting composition becomes a visual excavation, offering a glimpse into what resides just beyond the visible surface.

Marie-Pier Frigon’s Obfuscate embraces the intimacy and imperfections of instant film. A subtle sweep of marks partially obscures the portrait, evoking the shifting nature of selfhood and the tension between interior life and outward expression. Frigon’s work uses the tactile quality of analog photography to reflect on vulnerability and human connection.

Lars Westby’s ceramic sculpture Eukaryotic examines the relationship between the hand and the objects it shapes. Through textured surfaces and assertive geometric forms, the piece considers labor, materials, and the tools that extend human creativity. Westby’s work celebrates the act of making and the physicality of clay.

Emily Rankin’s mixed media diorama Vinegar presents a small domestic space captured in suspended moment. Scattered papers, leaning books, and a patterned couch create a scene that feels both familiar and dreamlike. Rankin’s practice explores how internal states intertwine with lived environments, and this intimate construction invites viewers to contemplate memory, narrative, and subconscious associations. 

This exhibition demonstrates the power of small scale to command attention and convey meaning. Through material experimentation, narrative detail, and the reimagining of familiar forms, the exhibition encourages viewers to look closely and consider the relationships between perception, space, and experience.

Exhibiting Artists:

Allison Belolan, Amy Jordan, Amy Yoshitsu, Angie Zielinski, Anna Bush Crews, Brad Bealmear, Brenda Stumpf, Briar Craig, Camille Cunningham, Cheryl Crockett, Deborah Auten, Derek Chase, Egor Shokoladov, Emily Rankin, Fawn Brown, Gary Chaffin, Graham Cassano, Hailey Harvey, Jacqueline Mallegni, Jenna Ritter, Jessi Cross, Jessica Clark, Jessica Jeffery, Jim Allen, Jóh Ricci, John Decker, Julia Marcucci Wood, Keith Buswell, Lars Westby, Lilly Handley, Linda Barlow, Lysha Montiel, Maddie Hinrichs, Marcy Adams Nelson, Margi Weir, Marie-Pier Frigon, Mario F. Bocanegra Martinez, Michael Gallagher, Mikaela Guggino, Moira Garcia, Olivia Dawson, Rebecca Cohen, Robert Hoerlein, Rosalba Breazeale, Sabina Puppo, Sumeya Ali, Susan Allison-Hatch, Tamar Chameides, Thea Phillips, Zoe Wolfe (50)

Selected Images:

Gallery will be closed for the holiday break from December 23, 2025 through January 2, 2026.

Light and Motion
Elaine Duncan
December 2 - December 19, 2025
Reception: December 5, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents an established artist solo exhibition, Light and Motion by New Mexico based artist Elaine Duncan. The exhibition is on view December 2nd through December 19th with a special reception on December 5th from 5-7pm. 

Elaine Duncan approaches her abstract painting as a form of movement and rhythm, often incorporating sand for added texture and play. Lately she has been experimenting with solar printing directly on the canvas as well.

Elaine Duncan stated, “I find painting to be a dynamic, almost choreographic experience. It is a partnership between myself, the paint and the canvas - where rhythm, texture, and movement intertwine. Inspired by dance and bodily movement through space, I allow the medium to guide the creation process, minimizing conscious interference. This surrender to the moment is deeply gratifying”.

Elaine Duncan received her BFA in from New York University. Her work has been exhibited in Colorado, New Mexico and in various publications including Vogue Magazine, Aesthetica Magazine, Art Business News and Monochromica Magazine. This  is her first solo show at Strata Gallery.

Strata Gallery is open from 11AM to 5PM Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Gallery will be closed for the holiday break from November 18 through November 29, 2025.

TIL WE ARE FULL
claudia hermano
November 4 - November 14, 2025
Reception: November 7, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents TIL WE ARE FULL, a solo exhibition by emerging artist claudia hermano. The exhibition is on view from November 4 - November 14, with a reception on November 7 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.

For this exhibition, hermano brings together large-scale photographic portraits and poetic artist’s books that reflect on the complexities of identity and embodiment. Their practice combines photography, sculpture, and performance to explore how bodies are both lived experiences and cultural constructions. By addressing the intersecting biases of racism, colorism, sizeism, and homophobia, hermano reimagines the body as both subject and medium of resistance.

Working with self-portraits printed on fabric and rephotographed in layered compositions, hermano blurs the boundaries between flesh and textile, presence and representation. The resulting images resist fixed definitions of self, offering instead a vision of identity as multiple, fluid, and continually in process.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Echoes in Soil
Tulu Bayar
October 14 - October 31, 2025
Reception: October 17, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents Echoes in Soil, a solo exhibition by Pennsylvania-based artist Tulu Bayar, on view October 14–31, with a reception on October 17 from 5–7pm.

In Echoes in Soil, Bayar gathers fragments—both physical and symbolic—to explore the quiet persistence of memory and transformation. Working with handmade paper as a tactile ground, she incorporates debris, folds, layered transfers, and ghostly prints to create surfaces that are porous, fragile, and singular. These works, drawn from her projects Twine (2023), Cultivated (2025), and Mosaic: Immigration Stories (2025), appear together for the first time, tracing how landscapes—both inherited and adopted—shape the stories we carry.

“I think of my process as a form of listening,” Bayar says. “Each piece begins with what the land and the materials are already saying. I add my hand, but the work speaks in its own voice.”

Bayar’s practice has been supported by a Fulbright Scholar Grant, Puffin Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and Ténot Foundation, as well as residencies including the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (William Sackett Fellow), Ucross, and Foundation House Connecticut and Woodstock Center for Photography to name a few. She holds an MFA from the University of Cincinnati and has exhibited widely across the U.S. and internationally. Her work is in public collections including Belfast Exposed Photography, the Samuel Dorsky Museum, and the Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art in Istanbul. Bayar teaches art at Bucknell University. Echoes in Soil marks her second solo exhibition with Strata Gallery.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Familiar Faces and Places
Cody Kamrowski
September 30 - October 10, 2025
Reception: October 3, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery hosts a solo exhibition for New Mexican oil painter, Cody Kamrowski, a member of the gallery’s Emerging Artist program, from September 30th to October 10th, with opening reception on October 3rd 5-7PM.

Cody paints pictures of people and places near to him. Everyone in his paintings is a friend or family member, and almost every setting is in New Mexico.

Cody states, “Strata Gallery’s mission to celebrate art for art’s sake is an important one in today’s market. I’m honored to have been selected by my artist peers who run the gallery space. I hope my work reminds people that beauty is a matter of perspective – you don’t need to go anywhere special to witness or feel it. Our personal little worlds as mundane or ordinary as they seem are worthy of a closer look.”

Cody’s work has been shown and collected throughout the southwest, Minnesota, and England. This is his first solo show.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Gallery will be closed for maintenance from September 14 through September 27, 2025.

Raids on the Inarticulate
David Olivant
August 26 - September 12, 2025
Reception: August 29, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents Establish Artist Member solo exhibition, Raids on the Inarticulate by New Mexico based artist David Olivant. The exhibition opens August 26th and runs through September 12th, with a special reception on August 29th from 5-7pm.

David Olivant’s imagery is centered on the fundamental existential crises that define our humanity. Is our species capable of the necessary moral energy to reinvent itself from the ground up and to what extent is art the driver of such an effort? Olivant seeks an art that fights its way out of and through history, finding meaning in suffering and the fraught attempt to “complete” each other through fundamental difference.

Olivant stated, “In a time when compromise, complacency, confusion, complicity and the hegemony of the couch increasingly govern our actions I hope to point the finger as much at myself as at others in the fraught attempt to make historically and humanly answerable art despite circumstances.”

David Olivant received his MFA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions in New York City, Chicago, Brooklyn, Dusseldorf, Wuppertal, and New Delhi. His book “Bakhtin and the Prospect of a Methodology for Rethinking Visual Art” is scheduled for publication by Intellect Books, UK in Spring 2026.

50% OF THE PROCEEDS FROM ALL SALES OF ARTWORK IN THIS EXHIBITION “RAIDS ON THE INARTICULATE” BY DAVID OLIVANT WILL BE DONATED TO MSF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS.

Strata Gallery is open from 11am to 5pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website, Instagram, or Facebook.

People, Places, and Passion
Frank Trocino
August 5 - August 22, 2025
Reception: August 8, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents an Established Member solo exhibition, People, Places, and Passion by New Mexico based artist Frank Trocino. The exhibition opens August 5th, with a special reception on August 8th from 5-7pm.

Frank’s subject matter is primarily people and buildings. He explores how both entities entwine to enrich our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. The relationships we cherish are mirrored in the spaces we inhabit, and both serve as reminders of our own narratives - celebrating the joys, challenges, and connections that shape who we are. Through his art, he highlights the depth of these intertwined experiences, inviting viewers to reflect on the significance of their own relationships within the environments they call home.

“I feel that art is really about epic fantasy,” Frank explains, “the layering and depth of emotion and tension. Each of my paintings comes with a quote or a brief excerpt from a fictional back story that is pulled from the depths of my imagination. It acts as sort of a plausible scenario which prompts the viewer to use their own imagination and create a story of their own.

Frank Trocino is a retired architect turned painter currently residing in Santa Fe New Mexico. His path to Santa Fe began in New York, then to Oregon as a young child through College. After graduation he has lived in diverse and iconic locations including Italy, Los Angeles, the Middle East, Portland, and Austin. Frank’s work can be seen in galleries, hotels, and the homes of private collectors internationally.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Fifth Annual Group Exhibition
July 8 - August 1, 2025
Reception: July 11, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery is pleased to announce its Fifth Annual Group Exhibition, featuring new and recent work by a selection of its Established Artist Members from across the country. The exhibition opens July 8 and will run through August 1, celebrated with a public reception on Friday, July 11, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. This annual summer show highlights the range and vitality of artistic practices represented within the Strata community.

Founded in 2021 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Strata Gallery has established itself as an artist-run space dedicated to showcasing work based on merit rather than market trends. Located in the heart of Santa Fe’s downtown plaza, Strata provides a platform for artists who continue to push their practices in bold and thoughtful directions. Members are selected through a rigorous peer-review process led by professional artists and educators from institutions across the country.

This year’s exhibition features the work of fifteen accomplished artists:Bernice Ficek-Swenson (MN), Carlos Canul (TX), Charles Rosenthal (NM), David Olivant (NM), Elaine Duncan (NM), Frank Trocino (NM), Grant Johnson (CA), Jane Shoenfeld (NM), Jeannine Spooner Kitzhaber (MN), Lin Medlin (TX), Lita Kenyon (WA), Michael Donnelly (NM), Millian Giang Pham (AL), Shelby Shadwell (WY), and Susan Stephenson (CA).

The works in this year’s exhibition reflect a wide-ranging, deeply thoughtful engagement with the world we live in. Some artists respond directly to urgent global and political realities. Carlos Canul’s stark, poetic drawings address the violence unfolding in Palestine, while Grant Johnson’s photographs trace the visible effects of climate change on the natural world. Bernice Ficek-Swenson’s soil-based compositions echo the layered history of the land itself, reminding us of the quiet power of environmental memory. Michael Donnelly’s photographic essays explore shifts in American culture and the evolving nature of image-making.

Others turn inward, exploring identity, perception, and personal narrative. Millian Giang Pham weaves text and imagery into visual puzzles that examine cultural barriers, while David Olivant and Frank Trocino use shifting forms and emotional depth to explore what it means to connect with others. Material and process are central for artists like Jane Shoenfeld and Susan Stephenson, whose works hover between observation and abstraction, as well as for Lita Kenyon and C. J. Rosenthal, who embrace texture, spontaneity, and surface.

Elaine Duncan approaches painting as a form of movement and rhythm, often incorporating sand for added texture and play. Lin Medlin’s luminous landscapes evoke places of spiritual and emotional resonance, while Jeannine Spooner Kitzhaber’s refined compositions explore balance and formal tension. Shelby Shadwell’s hyperrealist drawings invite a visceral reaction, balancing the uncanny with the beautiful. Whether working in photography, painting, drawing, or collage, each artist brings a distinctive voice to this rich and thoughtful reflection on contemporary experience.

Join us this summer at Strata Gallery to experience a compelling range of perspectives and practices from artists committed to exploring the complexities of our time.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallerywebsite, Instagram, or Facebook.

All-Encompassing
Susan Stephenson
June 10 - June 27, 2025
Reception: June 13, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents “All-Ecompassing,” a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Californian artist, Susan Stephenson, an Established Artist Member of the gallery. The exhibition is on view from June 10th through June 27th, with a reception on Friday, June 13th, from 5-7pm.

Stephenson sees vivid color interactions everywhere, finding inspiration in widely acknowledged “beautiful” vistas as well as in the unexpected vitality of “ordinary” sunlit street signs. Celebrating the exuberant colors glimpsed during our day-to-day lives, Stephenson’s latest artworks are a dose of optimism in today’s world.

Stephenson stated, “Since moving to the West, I find an uncommon vibrancy in color relationships, as if the gift of abundant sunshine brings revitalizing energy. This luminosity encourages me to look for fresh methods of conveying sunlight and its sharp shadows. Addressing beloved subject matter with a different eye has made the entire act of painting feel new again.”

Originally from Louisiana, Stephenson earned her BFA degree from Louisiana Tech University and her MFA degree from Boston University. After living and teaching in New England for years, she now lives in California’s San Joaquin Valley and teaches at the California State University, Stanislaus.

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Collapsed Distances, Collapsed Bodies
Katie Simmons
May 27 - June 6, 2025
Reception: May 30, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents its Emerging Member solo exhibition Collapsed Distances, Collapsed Bodies, by Colorado-based artist Katie Simmons. The exhibition will run from May 27 through June 6, with a special reception on May 30 from 5-7pm.  

Katie Simmons creates drawings centered on the parallels she observes between the exploitation and commodification of the natural world and female bodies in the Anthropocene. Using natural dyes and fibers, Simmons works with materials in a way that promotes their agency and vitality. On top of dyed surfaces, Simmons then creates drawings of bodily ecosystems using a ballpoint pen. Simmons seeks to flatten hierarchies, embrace radical care, and explore making kin in our modern era.

Katie Simmons stated, “It is a privilege to be part of the emerging artists program at Strata Gallery and I am so excited to be involved in the Santa Fe Community. My work is about surviving abuse and commodification as a woman and seeing the same thing happening to other species and our planet. I see the Earth ravaged by man and feel a deep, shredding, hideous pit inside because I too know what it is to be raped, bought, and sold. My drawings are me seeking a path forward with other species through our shared experience of surviving man.” 

Katie Simmons is an artist, educator, and wildlife biologist from the Appalachian mountains in east Tennessee. She holds baccalaureate degrees in art history, visual art, and wildlife biology and her M.A. in education. Katie is currently an MFA candidate and instructor of drawing at Colorado State University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in group and  solo shows. This is her first solo show in New Mexico. 

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Drawings
Shelby Shadwell
May 6 - May 23, 2025
Reception: May 9, 5-7pm
Live Drawing Demo: May 6, 1-3pm

Strata Gallery presents an Established Member’s second solo exhibition, Drawings, by Wyoming based artist Shelby Shadwell. The exhibition opens May 6, with a live drawing demonstration on Tuesday, May 6, 1:00 – 3:00 pm, where the artist will be drawing in the gallery to show viewers how the work is made. There will also be a reception on Friday, May 9, 5:00 – 7:00 pm with an artist talk at 6:00 pm. 

Shelby Shadwell’s work consists of large-scale charcoal and pastel drawings of non-traditional imagery such as chunks of black anthracite coal, piles of cockroaches, and “space blankets” used in emergency situations to stay warm. The drawings may illicit feelings of disgust or revulsion and awe or ecstasy simultaneously due to the contrast between the vulgarity or ephemerality of the imagery juxtaposed with its meticulous, hyper-realistic, rendering. Shelby’s work allows viewers space to ask questions about low and high status in artistic subject matter and romantic tropes in contemporary western art.  

“I am very honored to share my work again with the Santa Fe community through Strata Gallery with its unique non-profit and educational mission.” – Shelby Shadwell  

The Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research provided support to help facilitate this  exhibition.  

Shelby is currently a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Wyoming. From Springfield, MO, Shelby received his BFA in 2003 from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in 2006 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His work has been exhibited throughout the nation at venues including the Portland Art Museum, OR, William Havu Gallery in Denver, CO, and Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. For more information on Shelby and his work, please visit his website at www.shelbyshadwell.com or Instagram @shelbyshadwell. 

Strata Gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata Gallery, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website and Instagram.

Stratas of New Mexico Art
Juried Exhibition
April 15 - May 2, 2025
Reception: April 18, 5-7pm

Strata Gallery presents Stratas of New Mexico Art, a juried exhibition featuring artists living and working across the state. On view from April 15 through May 2, with a reception on on April 18, the exhibition brings together a wide range of material practices and conceptual approaches, offering insight into how artists in New Mexico are engaging with place, memory, and transformation.

The dynamic show includes works by 31 artists, each bringing their unique voice and vision to the conversation. From abstract and conceptual explorations to intimate depictions of the local environment, the exhibition offers a multi-faceted view of how materials and mediums are used to convey different artistic expressions.

In her Chupadera Foothills Archive Book, Desara Boehm uses the landscape as a medium to explore emotional and sensory engagement with memory, time, and place. This deeply introspective piece captures moments in nature that mirror internal transformations, embodying Boehm’s practice of turning fleeting experiences into lasting visual narratives. The painting’s quiet and expansive nature uses light and texture as key tools, conveying a sense of reflection and stillness that defines her work. Chupadera Foothills invites viewers to reflect on the emotional resonance of the landscape as both a personal and collective memory.

DJ Barrett’s abstract works An Ideal Presence and Stumble offer a raw, personal language that challenges the viewer’s understanding of form and perception. Influenced by his background as a saxophone player and composer, Barrett’s work explores abstraction and improvisation, pushing boundaries to break free from predetermined artistic traditions. Barrett’s An Ideal Presence and Stumble both communicate a visceral, emotional language that calls upon viewers to confront their own internal landscapes.

Tate Rockwell Lithgow’s Where is the Friend’s House? explores the fluidity and impermanence of the psyche, using fractured, ornate structures to materialize the often intangible nature of human consciousness. Drawing on elements of architecture, philosophy, and psychology, Lithgow’s work challenges traditional ideas of permanence and authority, transforming these structures into abstract forms that reflect the malleability of memory and emotional experience. 

Working across painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media, the selected artists investigate personal and shared narratives through varied forms and processes. Together, these works offer a glimpse into conversations and inquiries shaping art across the state.

Exhibiting Artists:

Chase Ankeny, Jim Baker, DJ Barrett, Carol Belcher, Jo Bertini, Jacquelyn Blackstone, Desara Boehm, Jordan Caldwell, Elijah Chong, Anna Bush Crews, Jessi Cross, Patty deGrandpre, Mark M. Feldman, Michael Gallagher, Joan Grabel, Leah Hardy, Isabel Jerome, Justine Kablack, Katrina Lasko, Shana Levenson, Tate Lithgow, Lisa Miles, Lysha Montiel, Timothy Nero, Benjamin Normand, Andrea Polli, Mark Reynolds, Jenna Ritter, Estelle L. Roberge, Robbie Sugg, Carlos Sullivan

Selected Images: