Leading international and national contemporary iron artists are featured in an art exhibit at Highlands University that is part of Iron Tribe 2015, an iron art conference March 5-7 that is open to the public.
The Iron Tribe exhibit is in the university’s Burris Hall Gallery, 903 National Ave. The closing reception is at 4-6 p.m. on March 6. The international artists hail from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Estonia, Japan and Canada. Stateside, artists range from New York to New Mexico to California.
“This Iron Tribe exhibit of 60 professional artists could go to any city in the world and be recognized as a very thoughtful, dynamic and beautiful exhibit,” said fine arts professor David Lobdell, who founded the biennial Iron Tribe in 2001. “The artists are very diverse in their aesthetic and approaches to iron art, with the pieces ranging from conceptual to industrial. It’s a multimedia show, with paintings, large-scale photographs, and videography depicting the dramatic intensity of iron casting.”
New to Iron Tribe this year is a performance iron art form called Dashuhua that originated in ancient China during the Festival of Lights. Molten metal is flung against a wall to burst into a spectacular display like fireworks.
The Dashuhua performance will be at 6-8 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the parking lot at the northwest corner of 7th Street and Douglas Avenue.
The Iron Tribe exhibit also features four sculptors who graduated from Highlands in fine arts: Aaron Juarros, Isaac Sandoval, Lance Wadlow, and Matt Eaton. Fine arts professor emeritus Harry Leippe, who established the first art foundry at Highlands, is also featured.
Las Vegas artist Kim Reed-Deemer’s paintings of iron artists at work fill one wall.
For more information about Iron Tribe, contact Lobdell at 505-454-3570 or dlobdell@nmhu.edu.
