by Joshua Rose on
IF YOU VENTURE farther down a blue highway, around a secluded canyon pass, or onto a quiet rural road, you will discover that creativity is deeply woven into the fabric of every corner of New Mexico. From galleries housed in historic adobes to festivals that transform entire villages into open-air studios, the small towns of New Mexico cultivate art scenes as varied and inspirational as the people who live here and the land they call home.
In the art-centric town of Carrizozo, the weekly pop-up called MoMAZoZo funnels more creativity into one hour than many organizations do in an entire month. Housed in a historic building on 12th Street near the comprehensive Tularosa Basin Gallery of Photography, MoMAZoZo takes place every Friday between noon and 1 p.m., with activities that have included tumbleweed races, bonfires, film screenings, holiday card-making, and Immersive Research Sessions (IRS), where all are invited to “discuss immersive technologies and their philosophical implications.”
“MoMAZoZo is rooted in hospitality, curiosity, and the transformative potential of creative practice,” says visual artist Paula Wilson, who founded the space in 2010 with her husband, woodworker Mike Lagg. “By fostering place-based connections, it serves as a cultural meeting place where artists, neighbors, and visitors gather to share conversation, creativity, and play for one hour each week.”
Northwest of Ojo Caliente, El Rito’s deeply rooted Spanish colonial history centers around San Juan Nepomuceno Church, built in 1830. The El Rito Art Association organizes an annual studio tour comprising about 30 artists working across traditional mediums including painting, pottery, tinwork, leatherwork, weaving, and wood carving. El Rito Studio Tour takes place September 12 and 13, celebrating its 39th year.
“This year’s tour provides a great opportunity to see how the beautiful El Rito campus of Northern New Mexico College is coming back alive, after being largely dormant for several years, with a popular pottery studio and letterpress print shop,” says Vicky Broadus, president of the El Rito Art Association. Visitors can also walk from studio to studio on Main Street.
Southwest of El Rito is Abiquiú, a historic and culturally diverse community overlooked by the basalt-capped, flat-topped mesa of El Pedernal. An art center for millennia—well before its most famous resident started painting its canyons, mesas, and yellow and orange cliffs—the Abiquiú valley and the tree-lined banks of the Chama River are home to many artists. Once a year, they open their doors for the Abiquiú Studio Tour, now in its 32nd year, which takes place October 10–12.
A landscape painter’s dream year-round, Abiquiú comes close to heaven in the fall with golden cottonwoods and glorious yellow aspens. The studio tour “offers visitors a chance to experience the creativity and character of northern New Mexico by meeting artists where they create,” says Becca Fisher, vice president of the Abiquiú Arts Council. Guests can explore 26 studios, galleries, and creative spaces featuring 58 artists working in a variety of mediums.
In the 1970s, Gallup was a cross-cultural marketplace bustling with trading posts, artist studios, and galleries selling jewelry, paintings, and other art forms, mainly from the nearby Navajo and Zuni communities. Lyndon Tsosie grew up in that culture but shook off the trading post mindset to establish his own downtown studio, the House of Lyndon, where he creates his signature silver pieces under the watchful eyes of his studio cats and sells directly to visitors and collectors alike. “We are a regular mom-and-pop shop,” Tsosie says of the 25-year-old studio. He has also started the Lyndon Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to passing along Navajo silversmithing skills to the next generation.
Tsosie prizes his studio’s location off historic Route 66, especially during Gallup’s monthly Arts Crawl. “They close off the streets and everyone from town shows up. There are food trucks, people selling baked goods, jewelry, art. It’s a great time.”