Studios Available!

We currently have 2 band studios and 2 art studios available!

Studios Available Downtown: (musicians/band location)

Studio #10: 11.5 x 13′ room, big enough for a 5-6 piece band, $250 per month, $250 deposit.

Studios #17: 10.5 x 11.5′ room, enough room for a 3-5 piece band, $225 per month, $225 deposit.

Contact Aaron at 505-908-1392 for more info.

Studios available on Central: (artist location)

Studio #2: 10 x 20′ room with a wall of north facing windows, $360 per month, $360 deposit. Available June 1st.

Studio #11: 10 x 20′ room, no outside windows. $315 per month, $315 deposit. Available Now!

Contact Paula at 505-259-6320, Aaron at 505-908-1392 or email at plewis11@comcast.net.

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Call for Artists!

We are in full planning mode for our upcoming ChromaFEST on Saturday, April 8th. What is ChromaFEST, you may ask? It’s a music/art festival and a fundraiser for Chroma Studios. We plan to make it an annual event, but this year is extra special. You may have seen our Big Announcement a couple of months ago. Now that 2017 is here, we are in full swing fundraising/planning mode. This year’s event will be at The Cell Theater in downtown Albuquerque. We will know more about times once we get the band/music lined up. There will be live music, food truck/s, a silent auction and of course, an art market!

We are looking for artists who would like to set up a booth to show/sell their work. The term artists is used in a broad sense here as we are open to any kind of creative handmade items. Fine Art, jewelry, photography, fiber arts, really ANYTHING handmade by YOU. This will be an outside show, so you may need a canopy for shade. You will need to bring your own set up; tables, chairs, easels, canopy, etc. Since this is a fundraiser show, we are asking each artist to donate a piece for the silent auction. In return, we will be eternally grateful to you!

What we need you to submit is 4-10 photos of your work, a bio/artist statement, and a $10 application fee. If you rent a studio from us, the fees are included in your rent. If you are not a Chroma Studios artist, the booth fee will be $25 in addition to the $10 application fee. This is a one day, Saturday show that may go as late as 10:00pm. Booth fees will be collected after you are accepted to the show. There is limited space, so unfortunately we can’t accept everyone. 😦 The deadline is February 15th and we will notify artists by March 1st.

Please send your submissions to chromastudios@comcast.net and pay your $10 application fee by paypal to plewis11@comcast.net or by check/money order mailed to Chroma Studios, 1606 Central Ave SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106.

Please email if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from YOU!

Our BIG Announcement!

Good afternoon! If you follow Chroma Studios on facebook, you may have seen some recent posts about a big announcement coming soon. Without further ado, here it is!

First of all, we are planning ChromaFest for next year. April 8th is the date, the Cell Theater (on 1st street between Roma and Lomas) is the place. We will know the hours once we know how many bands will perform. This is going to be a music and art festival that we hope to hold annually. The first Chroma Fest happened several years ago and was a lot of fun. This is going to be a MUCH better and bigger festival. The space at the Cell will hold up to 1,800 people. We will showcase live music from the bands who currently reside in our studios as well as bands who have previously called Chroma Studios home. We will have artist tables for our current and past artists to set up and show/sell their work. Depending on how much participation we have from Chroma artists/musicians, we may also bring in other bands and artists to fill in. We will have food trucks set up. ChromaFest will be a fundraiser for Chroma Studios.

Why a fundraiser you may ask? April 2017 marks our 9th anniversary in business. It is also the end of our long term leases in both locations of Chroma Studios. Aaron and I have made the decision to take the leap in making Chroma Studios a more permanent part of the Albuquerque scene. We are going to purchase a building! Currently, we lease both our spaces which gives us little to no control over what happens in and around our space. We plan to move into a space where both artist studios and music studios will be in the same location. We are currently split between two locations, art and music. We plan to soundproof all the music studios and have ventilation and natural light in all the art studios. In the future, we plan to add a performance space, art gallery, classroom and recording studio. We are hoping to have enough parking for everyone! Our biggest hope is that we will be able to lower our rents too! The reason we need to do fundraising is simple. Aaron and I are not independently wealthy. We work as full time artist and musicians in addition to running Chroma. Although it is our business, the move will improve things for everyone!

In addition to ChromaFest, we are setting up a crowdfunding campaign to help raise additional funds. There will be lots of Chroma merchandise for rewards, but we hope to get donations of CDs and artwork from the artists and musicians of Chroma. Tickets for the festival, compilation CDs and ChromaFest posters will also be included as rewards. Stay tuned for more information on the Crowdfunding campaign and the ChromaFest line up!

 

Prime Artist Studio Available!

North facing windows. With the door hanging system taken down.

This is one of our prime studio spaces! It has been continuously occupied for the entire 8 1/2 years we have been here. The last time it was available was 6 years ago! The space is 10 x 20′, which is our largest room size. The windows wrap around 180 degrees and the majority of the windows are north facing.

West side of the room with the hanging doors up

One of the previous tenants made the cool door hanging system you see in front of the windows, for hanging art, since the windows take up lots of wall space. This space rents for $360 per month with a $360 deposit. Rent includes utitilities, wifi and reserved parking. Contact Paula at 505-259-6320 for more information or to schedule an appointment to see this great space! No doubt it will rent fast! 🙂

East side of room with doors hanging

Chroma Open Studios: Saturday, Sept. 17, noon-5pm

Reception area at Chroma Studios

This Saturday from noon to 5pm I will be opening my studio to the public. Not just my studio, but 3-4 other artists in my building will also be here to show their work! It’s been years since we opened Chroma Studios to the public and I am so excited to share all the color and energy with you all! We have 11 studios in all, though not everyone is able to be open this time around.

We have 2 studios that are currently being moved out of, so we also have 2 studios opening up for new artists at the beginning of October. If you are looking for an art studio, stop by and see what we have available! We are always happy to welcome new artists into the Chroma Studios fold. 🙂

Mixed Media by Dee Alexandria

I recently moved into a new studio that I’m sharing with another artist. Dee Alexandria has been a friend since we first met selling our art at the New Mexico State Fair almost 10 years ago! We decided to share a studio because neither of us needed a big studio to ourselves. Plus, it’s nice to have company in the studio. So often, artists are isolated from their peers. That is one of the things about Chroma Studios that makes it so nice! We have a community of artists here that help each other out. Mine and Dee’s work compliments each other perfectly as we both love color, flowers and spirals!

Landscape painting by Cynthia Zeedyk

Cynthia Zeedyck is another artist who will have her studio open this Saturday. She is a lifelong artist with 45 years of training and experience in the arts, including: Fine Arts, Appalachian Arts, Poetry, many styles of Dance, Wildcrafting Herbs, and Poetry. Cynthia was awarded with an Apprenticeship Grant from Ohio Arts for Traditional Heritage Basket Making. Her works sold both nationally and internationally. She was the largest female producer of Heritage Berry Baskets in the world. Her designs and creations include landscape paintings, floral and contemporary. Newest works in Scrimshaw. Cynthia has been a Chroma Artist since 2014.

Mixed Media by Robert Medina Cook

Robert Medina Cook has been a Chroma Studios artist off and on for at least 5 years. He began his journey in the creative arts over forty years ago in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A native New Mexican whose local family roots go back centuries in Northern New Mexico, in 2012 Robert was one of 7 artists honored for their excellence in the arts by being proclaimed a “Local Treasure” by the Albuquerque Art Business Association. Featured in several publications, his artworks have won numerous awards and can be found in corporate, museum, public art and private collections throughout the US and abroad.

Mixed Media by Phillip Vigil

Phillip Vigil (Jemez Pueblo/Chiricahua Apache) is a fourth-generation artist residing in Jemez Pueblo. He is new to Chroma Studios. He is a self-taught artist and has been working seriously on his art now for several years. He always had a love of art since he realized at a young age that the paintings on the walls were done by members of his family. He is highly influenced by the abstract modernists of the early and late 20th century. He works a lot on paper with oil pastels, oil sticks, oil paint sticks, spray paint, oil and acrylic paint as well.

Open Studios Event!

Starting in September, we will have a monthly open studios event at our Central Ave. location. This is the place where we have our art studios. There are 11 studios with 8 artists, at least 4 of us will be opening our doors to the public on the 3rd Saturday of the month, from 12 noon to 5:00pm. We are located at 1606 Central Ave SE, Suite 201, very close to UNM, about a block west of University Ave.

The first open studios is happening on September 17th, hope to see you there! 🙂

Going Strong at Three Years old!

Today marks the third anniversary of Chroma Studios! April 1, 2008 we opened the doors as an art studio space. We had 10 studios in our original location at 1606 Central Ave SE, suite 201. Since then, we have gone through several changes. We grew into a large 12,000 square foot space and then downsized to a more manageable 6,000. After a two year gallery run, we are back to being just studio space again. Only now, we have two locations. The original Central location has 11 studios populated with painters, photographers, a web designer, a sculptor and a writer. The downtown location has 17 studios and is quickly becoming our band/musician location with a few artists mixed in for fun!

We have enjoyed the ride and would like to thank Albuquerque for help in making Chroma Studios a success!

November 1st Friday: Photos

Betty Dore with her Diptych painting

Justin Thor Simenson, one of Chroma Gallery’s art photographers, came up with a wonderful idea for our 1st Friday in November and these are a few of the photos he took during the opening. Justin recently found a wireless memory card for his digital camera that sends photos directly to his computer as he takes them. So for the opening Justin set up his computer and had a slide show playing of the photos as he took them. It was a fun idea and people really got a kick out of seeing the photos he took right away. We will most likely do that again for future openings. Thanks Justin! (Click on images to see larger)

Aaron and Travis in performance space

Watching the photos as they appear on the computer

Looking at the gallery from the back corner

Betty and friends in featured gallery

Entry way looking at and talking about the art

Aaron, Paula and Travis performing

Heather White and Te Zins

Brendan Gould's paintings/drawing

In the spotlight this week at Chroma Studios: Timothy Anderson and Peter White

 

Tim Anderson's "Bessage Nude 7725" 16x20" photograph

This week’s featured artist is photographer Timothy B. Anderson.

 

Anderson has photographed a wide variety of subject matter, but capturing the image of the female form, whether it be a geometric nude or the angular curve of the neck, attracts and inspires his artistic focus. Most of his current work is in black and white, although he has recently taken a foray into color, using subtle tonality (much like a painter) to bring out the texture of the human body.

A selection of his fine nude portraiture is on display at Chroma Gallery throughout this final week of our Photography Show.

 

Also something to look forward to this week: And intimate concert with Peter White This Friday the 24^th at 7pm.
Peter White has been making fine stringed instruments for over 30 years. He studied violin-making in Poland, under esteemed Polish luthiers Jan Pawlikowski, Rajmund Swirek and Wladyslaw Stopka. He also studied in America with John Honeycutt and Sid Fleming.
Since 1982, he has been a working partner with Ken Keppeler of Silver City, New Mexico.
Additionally, he now works with fine arts student and painter Cedra Woods, who illustrates classic Italian violins and violas.

Peter is the director of the New Mexico Musical Heritage Project at the University of New Mexico, and we are honored to be hosting him here at Chroma tomorrow evening (Friday the 24th). See you there!

This Week’s Featured Artist

Raine Klover is a photographer and founding member of the Wooden Cow Gallery and Art Space. Raine moved to New Mexico in 2004, and ever since she has been capturing all that she loves about the state through her beloved camera. She uses a variety of techniques, including digital collage and manipulation of her own photographs. More recently, she has been working with a collection of found vintage photography.

A selection of Raine Klover’s work is on display at Chroma Gallery throughout July. Her talent with a camera offers a view of New Mexico that is not to be missed!

My photography is not about capturing a moment – it is about capturing emotions and creating visual allegories. I love sitting at my computer and layering disparate images on top of each other – until something leaps out of the screen at me – and I recognize the story these images are trying to tell me.  — Raine Klover