Petroglyph City

Petroglyph City

"Petroglyph City: the Road to Modernism" is an art installation of 45 oil paintings by Steve Elmore, curated by David Rasch. The installation is on view at Elmore Contemporary through Summer 2021. View this short video with the artist, Steve Elmore, and the curator, David Rasch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wZ0_hLNzXo

“Petroglyph City” creates an environment that connects the viewer to the past through the presentation of ancient symbols of graceful abstractions of flight and nature. With its varying wall colors and eleven panels of unique groupings of paintings, the installation is cheerful and uplifting. “I’m hoping to connect the beginnings of human consciousness with our present sensibilities,” says Elmore, “The installation celebrates our surviving the pandemic, with its social isolation and reliance on virtual reality, and our rejoining the natural world and reclaiming our rightful place in time and space.”

Elmore’s work clearly connects his own New Mexico origins to the powerful symbols of the region’s ancient canyons. Created over the last 25 years, the paintings display a range of expression. “Many of my paintings are influenced by Nampeyo’s abstract designs, or other Pueblo pottery themes. My work is a fusion of Native American art and prehistoric art with Modernism.”