Santa Fe, NM
Manitou Galleries, June 14-July 8
Hib Sabin, Spirit Within, bronze, 11 x 4 x 4.
This story was featured in the June 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art June 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
THIS MONTH, the Canyon Road location of Manitou Galleries presents recent works by Hib Sabin and David Frederick Riley. The show opens with an artists’ reception on Friday, June 14, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. While the two artists are vastly different in their back-grounds, styles, mediums, and approaches, visitors who meet them or view their work are likely to discover that both men plumb rare depths of meaning through images inspired by the animal world and human nature.
Now 84 years old, Sabin has long been admired for his juniper-wood sculptures and bronzes. All of them, he says, “use animals as surrogates for the human experience.” His imagery is often informed by his in-depth studies of mythology and shamanism; driven by his dedication to social and political justice; and inspired by lines from such favorite poets as T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Ted Hughes, and Leonard Cohen.
The show features 15 to 20 of Sabin’s pieces, according to the gallery’s associate director, Cyndi Hall. Highlights include the hauntingly beautiful bronze THE SLEEP OF REASON—a nod to the Goya etching of a similar title—in which bats and owls menacingly swoop over a slumbering falcon as a visual representation of the fact that “we live in very disturbing times,” says the Santa Fe-based artist.
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- Hib Sabin, Bear Mask, bronze, 12 x 7 x 7.
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- Hib Sabin, Dreaming Owl II, bronze, 4 x 8 x 4.
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- David Riley, Conspiracy, oil, 60 x 48.
At the reception, says Hall, some of Sabin’s works may even lead the artist “to pick up a piece and really show people how he was inspired to make it. There’s a bit of a performer in Hib.” During the hour before the reception begins, Sabin holds a book signing for his recently published career retrospective, entitled The Other Side of Silence, The Far Side of Time.
Painter David Frederick Riley is still in the relatively early days of his fine-art career, after working for 10 years as an illustrator and teacher following his graduation from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Now based in Park City, UT, the 41-year-old Riley—who has also painted portraits on commission—brings 10 to 12 large oils of western animals, Native Americans, and cowboys. He aims to make them “ethereal, dreamlike encounters that are impactful and pull the viewer in,” he says. “My goal is for people to get lost in the paintings.” Riley achieves this by cropping in tightly on his subjects and rendering them with realistic precision, while blurring the edges and the abstract backgrounds with watermark-like blooms he creates by laying the works flat and dripping mineral spirits on them. “Then I go back again and pull out details where I want the viewer to look,” he adds. In this way, says Hall, “David more than just renders the images of his subjects. He captures their souls.”
Works by Sabin and Riley are likely to stir the souls of those fortunate enough to attend the show, especially since the pieces are displayed together in the same gallery space, as if communing. Adds Hall, “Their works speak deeply for themselves.” —Norman Kolpas
contact information
505.986.0440
www.manitougalleries.com
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- David Riley, Out of the Mist, oil, 80 x 40.
This story was featured in the June 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art June 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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