Strata Gallery Embarks on a New Journey:
Relocating to Santa Fe's Historic Plaza District

When: August 4, 2024 from 5-8pm
Where: 125 Lincoln Avenue, Suite 105, Santa Fe, NM 87501

Strata Gallery is pleased to announce “Strata-sphere: A Special Celebration” in conjunction with “David Olivant: Whether or Not Something Bad Has Happened.” The inaugural exhibition will take place in the new Historic Plaza District, Lincoln Avenue location. The celebration will include an artist talk by Founding President, David Olivant.

This event is a double whammy and “something bad” hasn’t happened – Quite the Contrary! Popular two-year-old non-profit - Strata Gallery has outgrown its premises in the Design Center and celebrates its new space in the plaza area with an inaugural reception that doubles as an opening for a solo show by founding president, David Olivant.

Here's the story -

As you might know, Strata Gallery is a 501c3 nonprofit. Our aim is simple - to bring diverse, quality art to Santa Fe with no commercial strings attached, no curatorial agenda, no giving in to trends or popular ideologies of the moment, and no compromise in terms of quality! Helping artists thrive is the foundation of our gallery.

Strata Gallery was founded in August 2021 in the height of Covid-19 by David Olivant, Jennifer Van, and Stephanie Jacinto. How did the three meet? At California State University Stanislaus located in central California. In 2019. David Olivant was a Professor of Painting for 25 years. Jennifer Van was working toward her BFA in Graphic Design and BA in Art History and Stephanie Jacinto was working toward her BA in Art History. It was during this time that the three began to discuss what the next steps are after higher education? How do artists and curators move toward the next steps of their careers? What opportunities are available? All three of them were low-income first generation college students and knew the struggles artists and curators face outside of the academic world. Potentially great artists and curators stopped in their tracks, largely from lack of support at a critical moment in their careers. We only hear about the successes; we will never know the toll to our collective cultural wellbeing due to lack of support. These discussions were the start to Strata Gallery.

The three contributed hundreds of volunteer hours to get Strata off the ground. Strata was named after the layered rock formations of the region, while emphasizing and building a community from different layers of artists careers, artistic practices, and backgrounds. Strata has two different forms of memberships: Established Artist Members who pay monthly dues to fund the gallery and have solo shows, and Emerging Artist Members who free of charge are provided with mentorship and support and have solo shows. Our Established Artist Members typically have strong links to academia, a system that leaves them free to make work as a form of research. The Established Artist Members vote on incoming Emerging Artists and provide mentorship through the program. Strata now has a call posted for the third annual cohort of Emerging Artists. Showing in Santa Fe, one of the largest art centers in the United States makes a significant difference for five Emerging Artists annually. With more enlightened support from grant agencies Strata could help many more. 

In the last two years we have had 18 solo shows, 3 member group shows, 3 juried shows, 10 Emerging Artist Shows, for a total of 34 exhibitions! Our mission is to highlight artists from all around the world and to give Emerging Artists a learning experience. Artists learn how to curate their show and receive mentorship to navigate their artistic careers. The proceeds from our Calls go back into the running of the gallery to help fund the opportunities that we provide. Our Gallery is about feeding the artistic community.

We are beyond grateful to the Santa Fe community who have been nothing but supportive of our cause. We want to take the opportunity to celebrate with you, our supporters, on August 4th! Here is to another two years of artistic achievements, creativity, and community! 

David Olivant is retired and lives in Santa Fe, NM. Jennifer Van is currently in the MFA Photography and Related Media program at California Institute of the Arts. Stephanie Jacinto is currently in the MA Art History program at University of New Mexico.