Note from the Director

January 2023

by Patricia Cream

Happy New Year! The gallery is looking forward to another successful year. Thank you for your continued support throughout 2022.

Ushering in a new year comes with an enormous amount of excitement, anticipation, and champagne. At my house we will ring in the new year with champagne, and I always proclaim a new year’s resolution. This year I want to be healthier, happier, and more inspiring to others. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.

The Gallery ABQ is excited to have the 2022 MasterWorks Awardees Salon Show again this year.  We missed holding this event last January because the MasterWorks show in 2021 was virtual. MasterWorks 2022 was back in person, and The Gallery ABQ selected four artists  from all  the entries at MasterWorks, one from each of the following four disciplines: oil/acrylic, pastel, watercolor, and miniatures. The artists selected for this special show are Sarah Blumenschein, pastel; Tom Cassidy, watercolor; Daniella Willett-Rabin, oil; and Ruth Andrews Vreeland, miniatures. Unfortunately, Daniella Willett-Rabin will not be able to be in the January salon show.

The Featured Artist for January is  Craig Frankowski, oils. Craig is new to The Gallery ABQ, so this will be his first show with us. See the interview with Craig by Linda Weiss. The First Friday Artist Reception is on January 6, 2023, from 5-8 pm. Tractor Brewing is sponsoring the alcohol at this event. Refreshments and hors d’oeuvres will also be on hand.

Call for Artists: If you are a local artist looking for a Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery to show your art, please go to our website (link below) to get more information about our gallery. The application is online.  If you are interested, please send in your application, and we can set up a jury date. 

In the Salon in January

2022 MasterWorks Award Winners

The Gallery ABQ Featured Artist

for January is

Craig Frankowski

Featured Artist for January 2023

Craig Frankowski

By Linda Weiss

Craig Frankowski (oils) is the Featured Artist at The Gallery ABQ First Friday reception on January 6, 2022, from 5-8:00 pm. This First Friday reception will be sponsored by Tractor Brewing, promising a fun night. Hors d’oeuvres will also be provided.

Craig, who moved here in March 2022, was educated in many aspects of art in Ohio, starting with pastels and then moving to oils. He attended programs such as The Toledo Museum of Art, Bowling Green University, and others. He studied, worked, and painted, until he was able to paint full-time in the 90’s in Arizona, where he spent 38 years. Craig refers to the various styles that he paints as Pictorial Illustration (or realistic), whimsical, or combined realistic and whimsical. For the whimsical, and realistic and whimsical oil paintings, he combines several canvases into one painting.  This process involves stretching the canvas, taking the old canvases off, putting the canvases together like a jigsaw puzzle, and creating a tapered frame for the canvases. He is also getting back into pastels.

When asked what inspires him, Craig says that it’s something in his soul. “People have to listen to their hearts—when an idea comes, write it down.” 

Come to The Gallery ABQ on January 6, 2022, from 5-8:00 pm, to meet Craig and the other artists, and to have an enjoyable evening out.   

Creativity Quote

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle