Erin Currier, Taos Fiesta Queens VI, mixed media, 36 x 48 inches. Left to right: Jenni Alyssa Medina, Bianca Claire Silva, Anna Eloisa Vasquez (La Reina), and Andrea Bibiana Mondragon.
Erin Currier moved to Santa Fe a year or so ago, but a large part of her heart remains in Taos. She recently completed a love song to the town, Taos Fiesta Queens VI, and delivered it to Parks Gallery, her long-time local representative.
“I moved to New Mexico from New England nearly twenty years ago,” she says, “and almost immediately was deeply impressed by Taos’s Hispanic culture with its traditions, particularly its respect for its ancestors, elders, and family, for its sense of community. It seems to me that the Fiesta Princesas and Reina reflect and embody these values. As a socio-political artist, it was, and is, important to me to support and pay homage to these values and to these young women. And I love Fiestas! I go most every year, and every year I find that the Reina and Princesas are stunningly beautiful. This is the sixth year I’ve painted them and it always feels like an honor.”
“Erin has been important to me, to the gallery and to Taos art in general since I first discovered her — scores of people make the same claim — at the Southside Bean more than a decade ago,” says gallery owner Steve Parks. “Since our down-sizing earlier this year, we’re unable to stage her major exhibitions, as we did for so long, and she’s gone on to exhibit in the wider art universe. But she’s extremely loyal and continues to get us new work as she’s able, and this new piece is as strong and beautiful as anything she’s ever done.”
Taos Fiesta Queens is on view through the end of November at Parks Gallery, 110-A Paseo del Pueblo Norte. A portion of the sale of Taos Fiesta Queens VI will be donated to the Fiesta Council’s scholarship fund. For more information call 575-751-0343.
