August 13 - September 18, 2004

Opening Reception: Friday, August 13, 6:30-8pm

ArtsCrawl Reception: Friday, August 20, 5-9pm

Gallery talk with artists:
Wednesday, September 8, 6pm


at 516 Magnífico Artspace

Magnífico Honors

Each year, Magnífico's Visual Arts Advisory Committee selects a few Albuquerque artists to recognize not only for their outstanding artistic achievements, but also for their contributions to the arts community. Magnífico's committee selects both well-known and lesser known artists to be highlighted as creative leaders and visionaries at the forefront of our arts community.

This year, Magnífico is proud to honor three artists who have been active in Albuquerque's contemporary arts community for many years: Kim Arthun, painter and mixed media artist; Anne Cooper, mixed media artist; and Jim Jacob, painter and printmaker. These artists are featured in a three-person show at 516 Magnífico Artspace in conjunction with Magnífico's fifteenth annual regional exhibition at the Albuquerque Museum called Albuquerque Contemporary.

Anne Cooper was born and raised in the Houston, Texas, area, and moved to New Mexico in 1984. She has shown her work throughout New Mexico and regionally. Her work has been shown in Santa Fe at Charlotte Jackson Fine Arts and is in the collections of the Museum of New Mexico and the Albuquerque Museum.

Cooper is well known for her use of raw materials to produce very refined and ordered sculptural pieces. She uses wax, wood, clay and metal; all of which she fashions from their raw state. She also uses live grasses and images of growing things in order to convey the presence of organic life. Besides being an artist, she has been actively involved in community environmental efforts. She was involved in the monumental effort to save Anderson Field from development, working with local and state politicians and the community to save this piece of land in the North Valley, which ultimately became Los Poblanos Farms, an open space dedicated to agriculture and maintenance of wildlife. She has also served on Albuquerque's Arts Board.

Jim Jacob is known for his paintings, drawings, and prints. Currently a lecturer at the Department of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico (UNM), he is also the director of their graduate studies program. He has lived in Albuquerque for 30 years and has taught at UNM for over 25 years. He is a mentor to many students, and is particularly interested in encouraging them to seek out alternative ways of creating and showing their work.

Jacob has been involved in many collaborative projects, one of which is "Culturas del Sol", a talavera tile mural installed in the UNM Center for the Arts and a the University de las Americas, Puebla, Mexico. His work has been seen in museums and galleries in many countries, including Barcelona, Spain; Santiago, Chile; Morelia, Mexico; as well as around the region. About his work, the artist says that he "moves easily between painting, drawing, and printmaking, each media making accessible a new way of describing the world."