From the 'shadow' comes the 'light': Vladem Contemporary set to become another pillar in Santa Fe Railyard

When the New Mexico Museum of Art opened in 1917, there was no conception of where contemporary art would lead beyond World War II.

Enter Vladem Contemporary, the 47,053-square-foot, $19.7 million addition planted in the Santa Fe Railyard. The new museum is slated to open to the public on Saturday, Sept. 23.

Funded by 50.4% donations and 49.2% from the state of New Mexico, plus 5% from grants, Vladem was needed because the state’s art collection outgrew the New Mexico Museum of Art on the Plaza, said Mark White, New Mexico Museum of Art executive director.

“It’s too small,” he said. “You can’t even hook up data cables. No one envisioned where contemporary art would go after World War II.”

Construction started in 2021, after the pandemic delayed the original 2020 starting date. The cranes left in August of 2023.

The architect Devendra Contractor designed the building as an adaptive reuse renovation of the 1936 New Mexico State Archives building. White described the style as “brutalist,” focusing on preserving forms of geometry.

Vladem will kick off the opening with the inaugural exhibition “Shadow and Light.”

Key members of the Transcendental Painting Group, including the acclaimed New Mexico artists Emil Bisttram and Florence Miller Pierce, launch an arc unfolding as contemporary artists explore the legendary New Mexico light that drew so many of them here.

“In many ways the exhibit is about that dichotomy between light and shadow,” White said. “The works are quite diverse.”

Famed Cochiti Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz has designed an installation featuring film and large ceramic characters based on his ongoing sci-fi-meets-Native-history project “Pueblo Revolt 1680/2180.”

The storyline transports the viewer back more than three hundred years to the historical events of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt and then hurtles forward through time to the year of 2180, introducing a cast of characters along the way.

Continuing with the light theme, a multimedia chandelier by the South Korean artist Lee Bul hangs 8 feet off the ground in the large gallery.

“When you start looking at it closely, there are little constructions that give almost a landscape effect.”

Santa Fe artist Angela Ellsworth created constructions based on traditional Mormon clothing.

“They’re all produced with pearl-topped pins, so they almost have a mosaic quality,” White said.

Southern California artist Helen Pashgian created five spheres resembling giant marbles.

“They are resin, and they capture the light in interesting ways,” White said.

Pierce’s triangular “Mons 2” features a reflective resin with plywood backing.

“She studied with Emil Bisttram in Taos in the 1930s and spent a good portion of her career in New Mexico,” White said. “She was interested in getting ahold of light as her primary medium.”

Pierce discovered the luminescence of resin when she accidentally poured it on foil.

“When she held it up to the light, it was full of life,” White said.

Japan’s Yayoi Kusama became famous for her stainless steel pumpkins flecked with polka dots.

“She thought they were humorous and warm,” White said. “The polka dots became her standard motifs. It’s a work you can literally see yourself in.”

The old mural painted on the original building by Gilberto Guzman was reproduced as a 24-foot-long duplicate.

“That is on display in the public area, where it will be installed in perpetuity,” White said.