A New Way To See Santa Fe: 12th Site Santa Fe International – 1v1 Video Chat & LIve Streaming & Influencer Subscription

By Chadd Scott Contributor Godfrey Reggio

SITE SANTA FE.
Nick Merrick © Hall+Merrick 2017

With nearly 300 galleries, a dozen world class museums, and artwork on display and for sale in every nook and cranny across town, Santa Fe can make for an overwhelming destination for art lovers. How to see everything? Impossible, of course. A new project, however, offers something of a visitor’s guide.

The 12th SITE SANTA FE International opened June 27th and runs until January 12, 2026. Hosted at more than a dozen prominent and little-explored locations, the exhibition introduces guests to The City Different by way of global and local contemporary art along with historic work from prominent New Mexico artists. Along the way, visitors will be introduced to the city and state, and their histories, through a cast of characters living and dead, real and imagined, via more than 70 artists.

Titled “Once Within a Time,” this edition of the International is grounded in the lives and stories of over 20 “figures of interest” with strong ties to New Mexico and the region. Not Georgia O’Keeffe. Exhibition curator Cecilia Alemani went deeper than that.

Best known for her work curating art along New York’s beloved High Line and the 2022 Venice Biennale, Alemani’s research into the Land of Enchantment led her to Doña Tules, a notorious 19th century saloon owner known as the “Queen of Sin;” Chester Nez, the last surviving member of the so-called “Original 29” Navajo Code Talkers; acclaimed writers Willa Cather and Vladimir Nabokov; Lilli Hornig, a chemist and scientist who contributed to the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, NM; the fictional healer Ultima, conceived of by the writer Rudolfo Anaya; and La Malinche, an enslaved Nahua woman and translator for the Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés. For starters.

Eschewing an overarching theme, Alemani has chosen to tell a multitude of individual stories using more than 300 artworks spanning mediums from etchings, drawings, photography, painting, film, sculpture, and installation. Many are spectacularly strange. Makers come from as far away as Taiwan, India, and Bosnia; others call Santa Fe home.

The 12th International takes its title, “Once Within a Time,” from the most recent film by Godfrey Reggio, the legendary Santa Fe-based experimental filmmaker who is also a participating artist in the exhibition. Reggio’s Once Within a Time (2022), on view at SITE SANTA FE, intertwines fairytale atmospheres with apocalyptic landscapes, blending the fantastical and the mundane.

Alemani was a fan growing up in Italy. Evidence of Santa Fe’s influence on the international art world, and the international art world’s interest in Santa Fe.

SITE SANTA FE / Railyard Arts District

Simone Leigh sculpture (foreground) with Helen Cordero storyteller ceramics (background) installed at SITE SANTA FE as part of 12th SITE SANTA FE International.
© Brad Trone

SITE SANTA FE is a non-collecting art institution founded in 1995 to establish the first international contemporary art biennial in the United States. It has grown to include a dazzling physical location with free admission hosting world-class temporary exhibitions and events in the city’s Railyard Arts District. The International has no starting or ending point, but beginning at SITE makes sense. Be sure to pick up the exceptional guide detailing each artist and their work along with a locations map upon arrival at any of the locations.

Simone Leigh’s (b. 1967, Chicago) monumental sculptures celebrating Black women and their traditions make a dramatic first impression. Leigh represented the United States at the Venice Biennial Alemani curated. Placing one of her figures with Helen Cordero’s (1915–1994; Cochiti Pueblo) ceramic storytellers makes an inspired pairing.

Alemani stated that Cordero’s storytellers were an essential early “get” when conceiving the International. Cordero was one of the first to innovate this style of Pueblo pottery depicting children sitting on an adult ready for story time. The motif has become exceedingly popular.

While the 12th International is an exhibition of global contemporary art, gratefully, it honors elder Indigenous artists from what is now called New Mexico. The old-school, mid-20th century “Flatstyle” paintings of icons Pablita Velarde (1918–2006, Santa Clara Pueblo), Awa Tsireh (b. 1898–1955, San Ildefonso Pueblo), Pop Chalee (1906–1993, Taos Pueblo), and Julian Martinez (1879–1943, San Ildefonso Pueblo)–Maria Martinez’ husband–feel as fresh and lively as anything produced this year. Exceptional examples of all are on view at SITE for the International. Anyone visiting Santa Fe via the Albuquerque Sunport airport, be sure to notice the two Pop Chalee murals beside the elevator.

N. Scott Momaday’s (1934–2024; Kiowa/Cherokee) Plains Indian warrior shield etchings displayed in a gallery with Leigh’s sculptures and Cordero’s storytellers are a revelation. The color. The detail. The cultural significance. Momaday lived in Santa Fe and is best known as poet. Literature serves an important supporting role for the International. New writing and poetry commissions are featured. Writers expanding their creativity to visual arts are found throughout the exhibition.

D.H. Lawrence’s (1885–1930) “banned in Britain” “erotic paintings” from the late 1920s made their way to Taos, NM, 70 miles north of Santa Fe, where the provocative author–“Lady Chatterley’s Lover” (1932)–spent 11 months over three visits. They make a rare public appearance at SITE for the International. As do Vladimir Nabokov’s (1899–1977)–“Lolita” (1955)–lepidoptery sketches on loan from the New York Public Library. He visited New Mexico in the summer of 1941 to indulge his passion for butterflies, staying at the El Rey Court hotel in Santa Fe. Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather (1873–1947) visited the Southwest six times between 1912 and 1926. What she saw there inspired 1927’s “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” based on the life of the first bishop of the diocese of Santa Fe. Her circa 1924 Santa Fe tourist map, “The Most Wonderful 50 Mile Square in America,” is a gem.

Before leaving SITE, spend time with Agnes Pelton’s (1881–1961) delicate, cosmic, ethereal paintings of the New Mexico desert. She was associated with the short-lived Transcendental Painting Group working around New Mexico between 1938 and 1942.

Plan on spending an afternoon at SITE and the Railyard. Be sure to visit Railyard Park, Blue Rain Gallery for contemporary Native American art, and Tomasita’s for New Mexico cuisine (expect a wait).

The Plaza / Downtown

Maja Ruznic murals installed inside St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art as part of 12th SITE SANTA FE International.
© Brad Trone

Consider a visit to the Plaza compulsory when traveling to Santa Fe. Surrounding it are a universe of galleries, boutiques, restaurants, and museums. Those museums include the New Mexico History Museum (and the O’Keeffe Museum). NMHM’s campus includes the circa 1610 Palace of the Governors, the oldest public building constructed by European colonizers continuously in use in the continental U.S. The building dates to the area’s Spanish Colonial period. It is easy to recognize for the Native American artists selling their work outside 365 days a year. All artists are registered assuring authenticity.

Inside the Palace of Governors, sharing a wall with the Native artists on the outside, find a presentation of original artwork from, and historic items sourced by, Daisy Quezada Ureña (b. 1990, Anaheim, CA). Among them, one of the great artifacts of American history: bell fragments from the old Spanish mission at Jemez Pueblo.

The first American revolution took place in the Southwest, not along the East Coast. Its leader was Po’Pay, not George Washington. United were more than 45 pueblos, not 13 colonies. The enemy was the Spanish, not the British.

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 vanquished a colonial overlord nearly 100 years before the events of 1776 on the other side of the continent. It remains the only successful Native uprising against a colonizing power in North America.

When the residents of Jemez booted out their Spanish colonizers, they broke up, scattered, and buried the church bell that rang telling them when to wake up, work, and eat. Amazingly, remnants of that bell were subsequently found. The fragments are typically on view at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, but Ureña received special permission from MIAC and the Pueblo of Jemez to incorporate them into her project. She also received special permission from NMHM to open a wall in the Palace of Governors in which to place the artifacts.

Think–deeply–about what you’re seeing when you see these bell fragments. Think about resistance, freedom, colonization, survival, ancestors. Think about the pueblos and Pueblo people across New Mexico. The people selling their artwork on the other side of the wall.

Across the street from the New Mexico History Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art displays Maja Ruznic’s (b.1983, Brčko, Yugoslavia (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) stunning contemporary murals responding to Donald Beauregard’s (1884–1914) historic murals inside the St. Francis Auditorium. All these references to saints and Catholicism across New Mexico are remnants of Spanish colonialism.

Ruznic’s feminine, pagan, witchy, green, abstracted paintings are a delightful contrast to Beauregard’s dogma. The soaring room has never looked better. Be sure to glance up at the ceiling. The thick, painted, carved timber beam ceilings throughout the NMMA are a wonder.

Several days could be spent exploring the shoppes, eateries, and historic sites within a couple blocks of the Plaza. Multiple “Once Within a Time” venues surround it. See Zhang Yunyao’s (b. 1985, Shanghai, China) small-scale drawings inside Shiprock Santa Fe, a second-story gallery specializing in museum-quality vintage and antique Diné and Southwestern tribal textiles, jewelry, and pottery. Shiprock refers to a peak and town on the Diné (Navajo) reservation in northwest New Mexico.

Two blocks from the Plaza, Santa Fe Village’s Unit 13 provides one of the International’s most unusual “galleries.” Recalling a historic trading post, way in the back corner in what feels like a cellar, Amol K. Patil (b. 1987, Mumbai, India) found a space reminding him of his native Mumbai. His automated light installation is worth a quick peek. Adjacent to Santa Fe Village on the Plaza side, be sure to stop in at Keshi gallery to admire the authentic Zuni fetishes.

Museum Hill

Raven Halfmoon sculptures displayed outside Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian as part of 12th SITE SANTA FE International.
© Brad Trone

The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian was the first institution in Santa Fe to collect contemporary Native American art. That’s its contribution to the International.

Raven Halfmoon’s (b. 1991, Caddo) monumental ceramic female figures installed outside greet visitors to the Museum. One, Soku & Nash (Caddo – Sun & Moon) (2022), faces Sun and Moon Mountain. Museum Hill offers some of the best views in Santa Fe.

Inside, paintings from Emmi Whitehorse (b. 1957, Navajo), a video from 2022 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Sky Hopinka (b. 1984; Ho-Chunk/ Luiseño), delicate needlework textiles by Cristina Flores Pescorán (b. 1986, Lima, Peru) resembling her organs, and a room-filling Nora Naranjo Morse (b. 1953, Kha’P’o Owenge (Santa Clara Pueblo)) fabric sculpture composed of discarded items sourced in the Jornada del Muerto (Dead Man’s Journey) region of Southern New Mexico are in service to John Chee Arviso (1910–2005, Navajo), the Wheelwright’s “person of interest.”

The cattle rancher worked as Museum founder Mary Cabot Wheelwright’s local Diné bizáád-to-English translator beginning in the late 1940s. He’d eventually drive her across the Southwest on multiple expeditions, photographs of which are displayed in a family album in the gallery.

Before leaving, make sure to peep the world’s finest collection of Southwestern jewelry and Naranjo Morse’s daughter Eliza’s mural leading downstairs to the Case Trading Post. The retail shop recreates an old Southwest Native American trading post and sells authentic vintage and contemporary Native American art by masters and emerging artists, including pottery, jewelry, textiles, baskets, fetishes, and paintings.

At the Museum of International Folk Art, visitors who can pull themselves away from the gonzo installation of more than 100,000 folk art pieces installed in the Girard Wing will be astonished by the cave-like environment Zhang Xu Zhan (b. 1988, Xinzhuang, Taiwan) has created in a lower-level gallery. Enclosed in a “paper skin” of local newspapers, Zhang Xu’s spectacular stop motion video and the astoundingly intricate character figures used in the film defy belief.

The New Mexico Military Museum has free admission and Karla Knight’s (b. 1958, New York) pictograph, glyph, extraterrestrial communication-inspired paintings as a highlight. Check out the schedule of indy, art house, foreign films, and documentary screenings along with live performances at the Center for Contemporary Art next door.

Korakrit Arunanondchai ‘Nostalgia for Unity’ (2024) installation as part of 12th SITE SANTA FE International.
© Brad Trone

Six miles north of downtown near the Santa Fe Opera, the small town of Tesuque–pronounced “tuh-sue-K”–presents the exhibition’s most bizarre artworks, free of charge. Put “1508 Bishop’s Lodge Road, Tesuqe, NM” into a GPS to locate Korakrit Arunanondchai’s (b. 1986, Bangkok, Thailand) hazy, smokey, spooky, haunted-house-like installation Nostalgia for Unity (2024) featuring a spongy floor partly comprised of ashes from Santa Fe’s annual burning of Zozobra.

Occupying an abandoned foundry building, Arunanondchai’s artwork combined with Max Hooper Schneider’s (b. 1982, Los Angeles) entombed monkey in an adjacent room will make visitors wonder if they’ve stumbled onto a horror movie set as extras.

Back towards the road at the main building, Guillermo Galindo (b. 1960, Mexico City, Mexico) has crafted a magnificent suspended sculpture using charred wood from a 2024 New Mexico wildfire in a gallery room adjacent to David Horvitz’ (b. 1980, Los Angeles) 4,550 glass marbles. flock of wingless birds (2025) remembers the 4,555 men imprisoned in Santa Fe as part of the barbaric system of concentration camps set up to detain American residents and citizens of Japanese descent across the Western U.S. during World War II. The artist’s grandmother was interned in a similar ad hoc prison known as Camp Amache in Grenada, CO.

Unaffiliated with the International, the Tesuque Glass Works next to 1508 Bishop’s Lodge Road is worth a look. Don’t head back to Santa Fe without grabbing a bite at Tesuque Village Market.

There’s a lot to see in “Once Upon a Time.” There’s a lot to see in Santa Fe. You haven’t even made it to Canyon Road yet.