Coded
Ira Greenberg is always looking for something new
Having already trained as a painter and illustrator, Santa Fe/Texas-based artist and educator Ira Greenberg found himself drawn to digital arts and the early-aughts Adobe software programs that made such a practice possible.
“What happened was that it sort of bothered me, because I felt like I was using somebody else’s art,” he says of those programs. “I didn’t want to have my work exist on the back of some corporate engineering team.”
So he learned to code his own programs. Of course, in those days it wasn’t as simple as enrolling in a coding bootcamp, attending lessons online or even signing up at your local community college—Greenberg forged his own way, which led to his own computing programs through which he continues to create pieces to this day. He also wrote what might be the first book on the topic of coding for fine arts, 2007′s Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art. In other words? He’s a bit of a badass, and he’ll open a show at Strata Gallery next week dubbed Toward a Post-Computational Practice.
In short, the exhibit culls from the past five-ish years of Greenberg’s practice across physical and digital mediums, including interactive pieces, possible some 3D printing as well as work he’s done in the NFT space. Now, Greenberg readily admits the NFT world is one of confusing terminology, corruption and scams, but he also says it’s a space in which artists looking to push their practices can thrive and evolve. It’s also a chance to take computational, generative art work out of the niche spaces.
“Some of us have been working with code for a long time and have never had a marketplace or venue outside of the online communities,” he tells SFR. “We all had two or three other jobs and we just sucked it up—that’s just what life was if we wanted to do this kind of work.”
Of course, he says, it’s the wave of the future, and there’ll be plenty of room for more serious fans and collectors outside of the meme-ified milieu. Greenberg will even help folks who buy certain physical pieces set up their own digital wallets for limited run NFT mints when he appears in Santa Fe next week. Think of it like getting a download code with that new vinyl you just purchased. And think of Greenberg like that artist who subtly pushes things forward while remaining an eminently enjoyable and accessible practice. That’s magic, basically. (Alex De Vore)
Ira Greenberg: Toward a Post-Computational Practice: 10 am-5 pm Tuesday, July 14. Free. Strata Gallery, 418 Cerrillos Road, (505) 780-5403
Draw Dropping
Haven’t mind-melded with extraordinary art pieces lately? It’s a good thing you live in Santa Fe, where you can check out the Group Glass Exhibition at the Railyard’s Blue Rain Gallery. There you’ll find new pieces from Santa Fe’s own Shelley Muzylowski Allen, one of the establishment’s leading represented artists. Kudos to Blue Rain for working to highlight local artists alongside more national names like Preston Singletary, Vivian Wang, Rik Allen and more. Even a cursory glance online shows the entirety of the show’s roster consistently redefining the standards of the glass medium and pushing their creative capacities to the extreme. Whether a first-time visitor or a longtime fan, don’t be surprised if your jaw falls open upon walking into the exhibit. We’re not kidding. (Taya Demianova)
Group Glass Exhibition Opening: 5-7 pm Thursday, June 9. Free. Blue Rain Gallery, 44 S Guadalupe St., (505) 954-9902
Family Values ... Or Something
As the 1970s come to a close, Marvin, the patriarch of a New York-based Jewish family, blows up his ostensibly wonderful life for a same-sex relationship with a fellow named Whizzer. Marvin’s wife Trina winds up with the psychiatrist; their son, Jason, gets stuck someplace in the mix, and so it goes across the small but powerful Falsettos from writer/composer James Lapine. Recent New Mexico School for the Arts grad Theo Kutsko pops on the ol’ director hat for this one with the Santa Fe Youth Collaborative Theater—a lifelong dream, Kutsko once told SFR—just before they head out of town for some serious higher education. Musical fans will find a lot to love in this progressive-for-its-1992-premiere show, and pretty much everyone will learn a thing or two about why classics never go out of style and young people make the theater worth attending. (ADV)
Falsettos: 7 pm Friday June, 10 and Saturday June 11; 2 pm Sunday, June 12. $10-$15. Teatro Paraguas, 3205 Calle Marie, (505) 414-1601
The Momo You Know
One thing the anime faithful understand that the haters do not is the medium’s ability to transcend genres in service of creative pieces which skirt ideas of love, friendship, family, comedy, tragedy, drama and all points in between. It’s not unusual for a single anime film to cover myriad topics in a short runtime, and 2011′s A Letter to Momo has all that in spades. In the most simple terms, we follow a young girl who is forced to move from the home she’s known following her father’s death but, upon discovering a letter from her deceased dad, finds herself thrust into a world of lovable characters, bittersweet lessons and a little bit of that...wait, what’s it called? Ah, yes! Growth! Ugh, just ask your kids. Anyway, you’ll find Momo screening free in Railyard Park this week, so take the family and some snacks or something and you might wind up feeling closer. (ADV)
A Letter to Momo: 8 pm Saturday, June 11. Free. Railyard Park, 740 Cerrillos Road, (505) 316-3596