Manitou Galleries | August 7-30, 2020 | Santa Fe, NM

Kim Wiggins: Into a New West

Kim Wiggins will present his new work at a solo show, Into a New West, opening August 7 at Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Art is many things to many people, but one aspect is often forgotten: Art is an escape. Art is looking into a picture and being transported to another time and place. To a place that brings smiles to viewers’ faces.

“That’s probably one of my main compliments I receive about my works,” says New Mexico painter Kim Wiggins. “I’ll often hear, ‘I don’t know what it is about your work but it makes me happy.’ Maybe you’ve had a long day at work or you’re going through difficult times, like we’re all going through now, but art becomes very valuable to people because it allows them to step into the painting for a few minutes, to enter a dream world depicted before them. People connect to that.”

A Sun-Drenched Land, oil, 9 x 12”

Wiggins will present his new work at a solo show, Into a New West, opening August 7 at Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wiggins, whose paintings are often described as a merging of Southwest Modernism and regionalism, is excited to show collectors his newest dream-like works, many of which offer romantic views of the Southwest. In Santa Fe Night Downtown, for instance, Wiggins paints his undulating skies above the Santa Fe Plaza, which is busy with people walking past various shops and the La Fonda Hotel. The colors pop out of the picture, and the wavy design of the architecture gives it a playful quality.

Sunset Along the Pecos Valley, oil, 24 x 36”

“The church and all the people there, it’s a festive experience and it strikes back to my childhood,” Wiggins says. “I grew up in Santa Fe and this is what it was like, but it’s also what Santa Fe is still today. The vehicles have changed, but it’s all still there. And that’s one of the beauties of the Southwest—it is this magical, almost lyrical, place.”

Santa Fe Night Downtown, oil, 24 x 30”

As for the color, always vibrant in every one of his pieces, Wiggins wants viewers to get hungry looking at his colors. “I love that Technicolor palette. I used to be so afraid of color, but then I would walk in the studio of my uncle, Bill Wiggins, and my mouth would water. It reminded me of being in a candy store,” he says. “And ever since I haven’t been afraid to push the color. I want to appeal to people’s sense of taste…and touch. I want them to want to touch and feel the canvas.”

Lovers in the Golden Dawn, oil and gold leaf, 16 x 20”