You stumble through the library, city after city, and it’s more or less the same old same old:  a bunch of books and computers.  Right? Wrong.  In Santa Fe, The City Different, home to many things art, the Main branch (situated in the Plaza and steps from art galleries, storefronts and Native artisans selling their wares at the Governor’s Palace) hosts some tasty eye art food every month.

On this particular fine day, I happened to catch the last moments of a beautiful installation by Santa Fe photographer Mario Ruiz.  In general the library art exhibitions range from “emerging” art work to “outstanding.”  Ruiz’s photographs are in the outstanding/fantastic/sweet-Jesus-I-hope-this-man-exhibits-somewhere-again-really-soon category.  Simply put, he has a knack for capturing the day-to-day life in a myriad of geographic places (the majority of the April exhibition was shot in India).

For the aspiring local artist, and/or the artist with uber supportive friends who want to see their peeps get their stuff out into the world, the exhibit application is available online and current work may be reviewed for evaluation the first Wednesday of each month, at the Main Branch.

So check it, the next time you pass through the media room (for all you netflix defectors), remember to spy the treasures hanging on the walls on the second floor of 145 Washington Avenue.

PS: The Southside (i.e. the newest branch of the three) recently posted a shout out on the library blog, requesting art.  Submit!

http://santafelibrary.blogspot.com/2012/04/call-for-artists-for-southside.html

http://www.santafelibrary.org/art.html