Featured Artists

Painting

Rooted in urban and natural elements, Shakti Kroopkin channels spirit and sound to drive their creative vision. Their intuitive process transcends logic and gravity, balancing real and imagined realms. Viewers are invited into multidimensional spaces that explore transformation, memory, and emotion. 

Shakti Kroopkin (she/they), born in Chicago in 1976, began oil painting at seven and earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. Now based in Los Cerrillos, NM, with her son and many animals, she directs Mad Contemporary Gallery and Art Center. Exhibited in over 50 shows and internationally collected, Shakti currently shows with Walter Wickiser Gallery (NY), Jezebel Gallery (NM), and the Santa Fe Society of Artists.

Painting

Joseph Comellas, a resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico was born in Upstate New York.  The frequent trips to the museums and galleries in New York City, influenced Joseph at an early age to study art and begin a life long journey as a professional artist. Then at the age of 15, Joseph moved with his family to Austin Texas. There in 1974, Joseph met famed artist, Amado Pena and a long term apprenticeship was formed. Joseph began selling his artwork professionally in galleries and traveled with Peña to art shows throughout Texas at the ages of 16 to 20.   He attended Southwest Texas State University on a full paid art scholarship from the Beard Foundation.

Joseph moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1982 . By 1985 Joseph was showing and selling his art in art galleries and shows throughout the American Southwest. Comellas’ art has been represented in galleries in Santa Fe, Taos, Sedona, Scottsdale.  

As a colorist these paintings are created to resonate and lift the spirits of the viewer. As the light changes so do the paintings in magical ways that continue to delight on a daily basis. The shapes in the greater body of art has in themselves developed the identity of the paintings. There is a language in the shapes, a stillness and peacefulness that comes from that sense of place and belonging. 

Painting

And so it goes…The story of a dreamer in focus, the "little man" larger than life, a metamorphosis of sorts, the juxtaposition of color that lives in the fiesta, echoes of music ranging from a bordello virus spilling into the backstreets of our minds, an ethereal world groove laced with American roots and the raw tap-tap of the dancer…and the word. Before I touch upon the word it is necessary to address my subconscious instinct and the evolution of being a self-taught painter. Jean Dubuffet might refer to it as art brut, others would say outsider art, to me it is this…. A word spawns an image, the image dances across the canvas to the beat of it's own drummer and colors lead the way to new discovery.

Painting

Calling himself a “recovering ad man,” Tony’s commercial art and design experience grounds him in the practical aspects of being a fine artist. He now takes inspiration from his fascination by the human figure and portraiture, and the shapes and underlying structure of compositions.

“I am drawn to both the human figure and portraiture, and to capturing the expressiveness of human nature. Rather than representing exact reality, I prefer to merge representation, abstraction, and self-expression to depict the complexity of the human condition.”

Tony finds influence in the works of contemporary artists he admires, including Michael Carson, Melinda Cootsana, Andrew Salgado, and Michael Steirnagle, among others. He draws, sketches and paints every day from his home studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with his wife Carrie and their Jack Russell Terrorist, Cilantro, and their Beagle Parsley.

Painting and Jewelry

Lori Swartz began as a metal smith, creating sculpture, furniture and jewelry.  She is also a painter, writer and a performer of circus arts (acrobatics, trapeze, aerial fabric and aerial chain).  Working as a multi-media artist has allowed her to express herself in ways that are both private and public.  She does not have divided loyalties.  She has one loyalty (art), with multiple expressions.

Ceramics

Richelle Moskvichev (rumbird) is a part time artist living in Santa Fe, NM. Originally from Hawaii, she draws much inspiration for her vessels from the organic forms that come from the islands’s unique flora and fauna. Richelle enjoys creating one-of-a-kind miniature ceramic creatures that have personalities of their own. She also enjoys helping others gain confidence in their art skills by teaching. 

Ceramics

For nearly two decades, working with clay has been both my passion and therapy. I first discovered hand-building, and over time, my focus shifted to wheel-throwing. Once I’ve formed the shapes, I find great joy in the decorative process—it’s both meditative and exhilarating to see the pieces come to life with my unique marks and designs. My work typically includes vases, bowls, and mugs, blending both function and artistry.

It is truly an honor to share my creations with the world, and I hope they bring a touch of joy to those who encounter them.

For the past 30 years, I’ve had the privilege of living in the expansive skies and stunning landscapes of Santa Fe, NM. Currently, I am pursuing an Associate in Arts, Fine Arts - Ceramics degree at Santa Fe Community College.

Ceramics

The goal of my work is to encapsulate the beauty of living in New Mexico through the simplicity and elegance of my ceramics. The work itself relies on the subtlety of the form. Rarely using flashy colors when glazing, I incorporate tones of the landscape.

Similar to living in New Mexico, functional ceramics is a unique medium where, over time, the user can notice small details that add to its beauty. I focus heavily on the quality of the work and the feel for the functional pottery. Each piece is made with the intention of being functional, durable, elegant, and most importantly, comfortable to use. I view my most successful pottery as the ones I gravitate towards on a daily basis. These are the pieces I choose to replicate and showcase.  

Ceramics

After 13 years of running my own professional photography business, I retired from photography in 2016 ready and committed to embark on a whole new creative adventure! When you are a professional photographer, your computer screen can suck up hours of your life. In the couple years leading up to my retirement, my desire to draw, paint, and get messy was rapidly bubbling very close to the surface and I needed an outlet! In 2017 I had the opportunity to take a ceramics class at ODU in Norfolk, VA. I had always longed to try my hand at ceramics, but for some reason it seemed so far out of reach. So, when this opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance and I haven’t looked back since!

I spent two semesters with two very different professors soaking up all I could about clay and glaze making, and I started to find some strong footing as my knowledge grew. 

As I considered my next journey, a scouting mission to New Mexico in 2019 had me walk into a warm and welcoming pottery studio called Green River Pottery. During that visit, I instantly got the vibe that there is an incredibly rich and diverse ceramics community here, including hundreds of other talented and dedicated artists working and living their creative passion. I knew at that moment that this was a place that could foster and nurture my own creative journey. After moving here and spending about a year working at Green River as the studio manager, I have since branched off on my own, working and spending my days in my own studio on my 6 acre homestead just south of Santa Fe. Here I spend my weeks, days, and hours fully immersed in teaching myself new techniques and letting my intuition guide my making. I am never married to one style for too long, preferring instead to jump around and continue to play and explore the boundaries of my own imagination.

Fiber Art

As a painter initially, my work was always about color, shape, and pattern. Since moving to the desert, raising kids, and the pandemic, my art has surprisingly reemerged in the form of textiles. Working with textiles enables me to distill my art to its essence: color, pattern, and design. 

The quilting process begins with “piecing” or sewing shapes together. The shapes are inspired by other contemporary quilters, like Cindy Grisdela’s freehand, curved, piecing and Tara Faughnan’s more simple geometric shapes. My color choices are intuitive. On the design wall, I play with placing colors together and see what sings. I photograph the process in black and white, to check that the values are contrasting, and continue moving pieces and playing until the combinations feel right.

The piecing of the fabric often inspires the final quilting choices. If the piecing is geometric, I tend to use “free motion” quilting to create more organic, intuitive shapes. Free motion is a process where the sewing machine allows the fabric to move in any direction; like drawing by holding the pencil still and moving the paper. This process involves using one continuous line, very much like the mazes I loved to draw as an adolescent. Straight line quilting is another technique used in some of my pieces to echo and accentuate shapes. 

For me, quilting is a way of creating art, love, and security in crazy, uncertain times. And while everyone might not have a place for a painting, everyone has a place for a quilt.

Leather

R. Melinda Hoffman studied fine art, and fashion design at School of The Art Institute of Chicago, then went on to design clothing for women & children for 25 years. On the side she made accessories re-purposed from found objects, which she sold at art shows and markets.

Having a wanderlust spirit and a passion to travel the open road, she decided in 2013 to quit her job and follow her bliss! When she couldn't find accessories to accommodate her new lifestyle, she designed ones to fit her every need. Thus, modernmuse61 was born.

She is now a Leather Artisan and Vintage Dealer, who travels from coast to coast, finding inspiration from old school technology, vintage industrial gadgets, architectural artifacts, and especially from the folks she meets on the road.

Mobiles

Objects are forever accelerating towards the center of our planet at about 30 feet per second squared.  I briefly delay the inevitable collision in esthetically pleasing ways.

Glass

Douglas Ostroff is an artist working in a glassblowing technique to produce his works. Currently based in Santa Fe, Doug has 30 years of experience working in hot glass with a foundation in Venetian-style glassblowing techniques. Doug’s training in glassblowing includes studies at Corning Museum of Art, Tyler School of Art, Urban Glass, R.K.S Glass, and Bucks County Community College. Doug has exhibited widely and his glass works are included in the permanent collection of the Henry Ford Museum. He is an avid teacher of glass art to students of all ages and has a background assisting teachers, developing workshops, and is currently a glassblowing instructor at Prairie Dog Glass in Santa Fe. Doug draws inspiration from nature and a foraging practice to create his glass sculptures.

Lithography and Collage, Metal 

Kim graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA with a BFA in Jewelry and Glass in 1996. She made and sold silver-smithed, semi-precious stone jewelry at art fairs in the eastern half of the US. In 1998, she created The Metal Quilt, adding luminous, translucent color to copper by kiln firing a thin layer of vitreous, powdered glass enamel to copper in a 1500-degree kiln. She ran a full-scale business, with multiple assistants, selling through galleries, corporate art reps and national juried art shows. By 2010 she tired of the business, went solo and began to play with mixing media; painting, printmaking, encaustic, cold wax medium, oils and metal sculpture. Kim’s intaglio printmaking work was nature-inspired. Monoprints floating atop rich earthy colors felt like ethereal, Polaroids from another planet. Kim hand-pulled the prints and mounted them on wooden canvases that were stained, collaged and sealed in encaustic wax. By 2015, nature imagery gave way to human-scale figurative work. Kim carved and hand-printed large format linocuts, creating a printmaking series with a midcentury Pop art vibe. In 2016, she collaborated with a partner to create Rustbird Modern, a metal sculptural business. They designed a body of sculptural metalwork highlighting the juxtaposition between the industrial nature of steel and the translucent properties of kiln-fired enamel. Select pieces from rustbird modern are still available at Mad Contemporary, even though the series is no longer in creation. 

Lithography and Fine art Reproductions

Illustrating wildlife and the wilderness of the High Desert of New Mexico, Kat Kinnick works to inspire a culture of connectedness to nature. She's inspired by the magic and inexplicable qualities of childhood and is drawn towards expressing playfulness and curiosity with a folk art  / fine art inspired aesthetic. Her work is a celebration of the unique ecology in New Mexico and its abundant diversity. Kat mainly works as a painter, illustrator, printmaker and ceramicist. Born in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, NM, her parents, both of whom had backgrounds in craft & design, ran their own business restoring and appraising Navajo rugs. She received a BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture with a concentration in Sustainability & Social Practice at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland. She currently lives near Lone Butte and the Cerrillos Mountains, south of Santa Fe. 

Collage

Megan Goldberg (known as m.gold in the art world) has been living and creating art in New Mexico since 1999. She works full time as an American Sign Language interpreter and is the director of the non-profit interpreting agency RGC Access, yet she is always creating art!

Drawing from a large collection of vintage books, m.gold creates mixed media collages that explore the quiet absurdities hidden within everyday objects and animals. Her work captures small, surreal moments that invite curiosity, humor, and wonder. Each piece is a tiny narrative, an open-ended puzzle where reality and imagination meet. 

Metal

This body of metalwork highlights the juxtaposition between the industrial and elemental nature of raw steel and the translucent properties of kiln fired enamel. The fold formed steel combined with the depth and transparency of vitreous glass enamel on copper creates a modern aesthetic which is rustic yet refined. We are exploring the gritty nature of human dwellings and the rise (and fall) of industrial technology and the effect on the human heart and sense of being.

Jewelry

Strawberry Lightning is run by Carolina Fojo, a proudly queer, latina artist based in Santa Fe, NM. Never quite having fit neatly into any single "box", Carolina creates jewelry with the intention of uninhibited self-expression. She encourages her clients to wear the pieces that speak to them most-- even if (or, especially when!) the piece feels a little "too bold" or "too loud". That piece was meant for you! 

Carolina works in silver and brass, selecting stones for their beauty and also spiritual meaning. You'll notice a mix of influences in her work-- not only the traditional southwestern style, but also aspects of her latina identity, and you'll also see people of all genders wearing her jewelry. Jewelry is self-expression, and that's for everyone.