Full Spectrum and Summer Market

Full Spectrum: NM Pastels and Summer Market
Opening Saturday, June 13, 2026, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Closing August 3, 2026

2026 marks the 26th and final in-person conference of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS), which has been held every other year in Albuquerque, New Mexico. To celebrate their accomplishments and influence on New Mexican artists, Gallery Hózhó is hosting an exhibit of contemporary pastels with works by artists, including Julia Lambright, Vasili Katakis, and Sarah Blumenschein. These artists demonstrate the adaptability of the medium to create something beyond the usual landscapes and ballerinas associated with pastels, showing how the media can capture abstract forms even in a figurative image.

Pastels have been used for many centuries, but they emerged as a popular medium with the Impressionists, especially when chalk pastel were mass-manufactured in the late nineteenth century. Their unique qualities to convey bright colors that can be left as lines or smudged allowed artists like Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to capture fleeting moments. As seen at IAPS in the last few years, artists have pushed the medium in many different directions.

Julia Lambright started using pastels during the pandemic. As a painter trained in egg tempera, a notably laborious and time-consuming process, she wanted to challenge herself to work in a different way, connecting with the image through her hands, yet her images remain true to her aesthetic. In works such as Haydn in a Minor Key, Lambright’s deep introspection and fascination with the mind and memory, reflecting how the act of seeing is altered by preconceptions and biases. The drip lines running across this self-portrait obscure her face, illustrating how perception changes vision. This piece demonstrates how a pastel can produce different marks, from hatched lines to thick rivers of color.

To show the dreamscape world of Vasili Katakis, the artist embraces the deep coloration possible with pastels. Influenced by Transcendental artists like Agnes Pelton and Georgia O’Keeffe, Katakis achieves a sharp definition in his images, which combine the natural world with imaginary machinery from a Steampunk vision. For example, in Emerging Serenity, Katakis shows his unique ability to blend multiple colors to form a deep rich spectrum of color with soft transitions between value, hue, and chroma. His dramatic, intimate images encourage the viewer to explore the world in a microcosm.

In her pastel works, Sarah Blumenschein turns the quotidian into an exercise in geometric abstraction. Her still lifes and landscapes illustrate the underlying abstract elements in the world around us, offering a physical, almost three-dimensional vision of the world. Her Lemon Yellow and Lavender is a study in contrasts: circles and squares, purples and yellows. Blumenschein transforms an everyday scene into basic elements, blocks and balls, highlighting the structures underlying physical objects.

For the opening for Full Spectrum, Gallery Hózhó will host a Summer Market along with our neighbors in the Sawmill area, XOL Originals, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Indigenous traditions through handcrafted fashion, cultural education, and economic empowerment,
and Lost Cultures Tea Bar, a non-alcoholic beverage bar rooted in tea culture, fermentation, and intentional hospitality. Artists Ira Lujan and Russell Frye will demonstrate their glass-blowing technique from their travel furnace while sculptor Mark Feldman will show his carving skills. Global Apothecary’s Kelsey Norris will share her bespoke organic skin care. Andrea Platero owner of Andie’s Baked Goods will bring her delicious treats. And Marina Hartwig will have her colorful jewelry available. Join us for a fun summer day!

Contact:  
Suzanne Fricke
info@galleryhozho.com
505.306.2977

Social Media: 
@galleryhozho.com
https://www.facebook.com/galleryhozho
https://www.instagram.com/galleryhozho/ 

About:
Gallery Hózhó at Hotel Chaco is a fine art gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico, featuring work by contemporary New Mexican artists. Our aspirations are described in our name, hózhó, the Diné (Navajo) word for harmony, order, health and well-being.