Davison Packard Koenig
Executive Director
Couse-Sharp Historic Site
Taos, NM
(575) 751-0369
couse-sharp.org
What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?
I’m excited about our first exhibition in the Lunder Research Center. Mark Maggiori: Taos Pueblo Portraits opening October 2. Mark is working with a body of some 6,000 studies E.I. Couse produced between 1902 and1930. Both artists studied at Academie Julian in Paris, and using the photographic record Couse left behind, Mark is stepping into his shoes some 100 years later—in a sense completing the work, with Mark’s own interpretation and sensitivity.
Mark Maggiori, Antonio Lujan, oil on board, 30 x 23"
What are you reading?
Sabino’s Map: Life in Chimayo’s Old Plaza, a fascinating account of village life in one of New Mexico’s last intact historic plazas. I’m also reading the unpublished manuscript of Taos artist Frank Hoffman’s biography, An American Artist, by his late wife Hazel Hoffman Sanders. An engaging look at the early art scene in Taos, when horses were the main means of conveyance, and English was a second language.
Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.
I must confess, I haven’t been getting out much these days. However, I’ve been following some truly exciting shows online. Glenn Dean’s Across the Divide exhibition with Maxwell Alexander Gallery showed some of his recent work from Taos.
I would say it’s some of the most engaging work I have seen of the Pueblo. Also I keep returning to the work of Josh Elliott, his current show Vagabond with Maxwell Alexander Gallery is pretty stunning, he captures both the intimacy and vastness of the
American West.
What are you researching at the moment?
My curatorial research has taken a back seat to the projects we currently have going at the Couse-Sharp Historic Site: The Lunder Research Center, construction of a 5,000-square-foot museum facility scheduled to be completed this summer; E.I. Couse Catalogue Raisonné; our Estate Art Program; and Taos Pueblo Arts Education Program, to name a few. But I’m always researching the artists of Taos, and the cultures and people that inspired them. They continue to inspire a new generation of artists.
What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
Our 2022 Couse Foundation Gala Exhibition & Art Auction will be part of the grand opening of the Lunder Research Center. It is in some ways a dream exhibition, including more than 30 contemporary artists who drink from the proverbial well of Taos—whose work is inspired by or embodies Taos. The exhibition will open March 5, 2022. The works will then be sold at the June 8 gala to support the vision and mission of the Couse-Sharp Historic Site: bringing the legacy to life.
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