A friendly crowd donning free VIP stickers lingered in the rooms at RULE Gallery Friday night to survey the works curated in the “second non-annual” Martha Invitational pop-up event held in conjunction with the MarfaMUST Artist Weekend, which aimed to center and celebrate Marfa artists past and present.
The first Martha Invitational was held in 2023 at artist Martha Hughes’ then Marfa studio during that year’s Marfa Invitational Art Fair weekend. This year’s pop-up was again curated by Hughes, who now lives in Santa Fe, at RULE Gallery, and included work by Hughes; past Martha Invitational collaborators and Marfa artists Leslie Wilkes and Diana Simard; and former Marfan Bettina Landgrebe, who drove in from Pueblo, Colorado. According to RULE Gallery owner and director Valerie Santerli, each artist chose their own work independently with some guidance from Hughes and installed the art themselves. Works were on view Friday, May 29, and Saturday, May 30.
In a front room of the gallery, large, lush botanical works from Hughes’ Garden series were paired with Wilkes’ kaleidoscopic gouache paintings in spring hues. Across the entry hallway, Landgrebe’s Strange Blooms, mixed media sculptures featuring gilded chicken and duck eggs in otherworldly botanical arrangements, accompanied Don’t Let the Smell of Gasoline Dull Your Senses of the Sublime, 10 new works by Simard. Dream-like visions of Chihuahuan Desert landscapes, Simard composes the works layer by layer, applying etching inks, base layers and mica dust to create an almost mystical glow.
Hughes has been working with RULE for 11 years, according to Santerli, and approached the gallery about collaborating on the event. MarfaMUST’s Jeanhee Yu organized their event alongside, inviting fellow former Marfa resident Carolyn Macartney to showcase her artwork in the organization’s art-centered weekend, emphasizing for both events the theme of Homecoming.
Santerli estimated about 100-120 people turned up for Friday night, with more the following day, and hopes to do the event again next year, with an idea to make it “an even larger, town-wide participatory event.”
“[The artists] each have their own little fan club, so it was so touching; it was amazing,” Santerli said. “As a gallery owner, I felt really proud to host a local, artist-run event that felt so alive and connected to the community.”
“I’d love to see the Marfa Arts Weekend idea keep growing … in a Marfa way–with more spaces opening up, more artists making things happen, and more people coming together,” Santerli added.