This group exhibition at Form & Concept Gallery in Santa Fe, curated by Wild Pigment Project founding director Tilke Elkins, gathers pigments, artwork and stories from people who’ve engaged with the project since its inception. It traces the project’s extraordinary path, starting in Elkins’ home on Kalapuya lands (also known as Springfield, Oregon) and branching out across the world. This ambitious exhibition, featuring the work of over two dozen international artists who pair their unique and sometimes ephemeral artwork alongside the foraged pigments which form their personal libraries, Wild Pigment Project is presented in conjunction with Elkins’ solo exhibition Records of Being Held. Join the curator and artists for a virtual celebration and story-sharing event on Zoom on Tuesday, October 11 at 2pm (MT).

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Initiated by artist Tilke Elkins in early 2019, Wild Pigment Project sprang from a question: what does it mean for artists of all kinds to work with materials they gather themselves in wild places—remote, rural and urban—and how do the artists’ personal, ancestral histories interact with the histories held in the land where they forage? For the first time, the artists who have made this project possible will be exhibited together. This is a rare opportunity to experience not just the dynamic range of expression possible through these wild pigments, in painting, textiles, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture, but also the ‘behind-the-scenes’ workings of the pigment-centric studios, fields, forests, vacant lots, kitchens and backyards where these works are produced.

All artists in the show are contributors to ‘Ground Bright,’ the monthly pigment subscription that supports Wild Pigment Project and generates monthly funding for land and cultural stewardship organizations. Through Ground Bright, the project has raised over $25,000 in reciprocal offerings to land and community organizations, and reached more than 2,000 subscribers in 17 countries. The project, with an Instagram following of 40,000, also provides an international listing of pigment artist/educators called the Pigment People Directory, offers Reciprocal Guidelines for working with wild pigments, hosts an online gallery, and generates regular funding for educational support for artists in global pigment study.The exhibit is the result of countless hours of dialog between the pigment practitioners represented and artist Tilke Elkins, who founded the project and runs it solo, with support from her partner, Noelle Guetti, who fulfills the Ground Bright subscriptions each month. Tilke Elkins and form & concept will join in donating 22% of the proceeds from this exhibit to the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA).

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Melonie Ancheta, Stella Maria Baer, Karma Barnes, Julie Beeler, Brittany Boles, Amanda Brazier, Lorraine Brigdale, Catalina Christensen, Iris Sullivan Daire, Nina Elder, Caitlin ffrench, Heidi Gustafson, Sarah Hudson, Ashlee Weitlauf, Lucille Junkere, Melissa Ladkin, Thomas Little, Daniela Naomi Molnar, Marjorie Morgan, Sydney Matrisciano, Nancy Pobanz, Teri Power, Adi Blaustein Retjo, Caroline Ross, Joshua Rudder, Natalie Stopka, Scott Sutton, Hosanna White.