Armando Alvarez Compean, who lived in Gallup for more than 20 years, died June 1 in Descanso, Calif. He was 79.

Born in Mexico, he came to the United States at an early age and worked as a businessman for many years in Brownsville, TX before starting a career as a painter.

He came to Gallup to visit his brother, Alex Alvarez, who was a golf pro here, and decided to stay. While here he married his third wife, Gaye Brown, who worked as a writer and copy editor for the Gallup Independent.

A year after coming here, he secured a contract with the City of Gallup to build a sculpture to reflect the nature of the city and its people. The $100,000 contract resulted in the creation of the...

Artist shares his heart-opening journey with depression

For Steve Marti, overcoming obstacles in his life all began with the simple art of making things out of clay and other materials since he was a child. The love of pottery making began in high school, but soon this love affair fell to the wayside amongst the array of a busy life.

With fear being his biggest enemy, and having gone through his own traumatic ordeal, he quickly rekindled his passion for the arts. He realized that fear had stopped him from doing things and going places, but since becoming an accomplished pottery artist – fear no longer has a place in his life and he now passes this healing trade to...

gallupARTS is proud to present “Challenge Gallup: A Native Artist Group Show for Social Justice” at ART123 Gallery. Opening July 14 from 7 - 9pm (during ArtsCrawl), and running through Aug. 4, Challenge Gallup spotlights 11 Native artists whose work tackles timely and relevant social justice issues, from homelessness to diabetes to environmentalism to stereotypes.

For example, Diné painter Adam Maria calls attention to (in his words) “the epidemic of Type 2 diabetes in the Navajo community” by juxtaposing food contributors to diabetes with natural lifestyles. In his painting “Type 2,” he contrasts a crushed soda can with a blue bird.

“My aim is to depict chaos and...

Friday, June 1

Pollentongue Poetry Night

6 - 8pm

ART123 Gallery

6 - 7pm: Bring a poem to workshop.

7 - 8pm: Open mic.

www.galluparts.org/poetry

 

Friday, June 8

Artist Reception

6 - 9pm

ART123 Gallery

Artist Shannon Gurley O’Donnell opens “Little Treasures: A Collection of Small Paintings” at ART123.

 

Saturday, June 9

ArtsCrawl: Out of Hand

7 - 9pm

Downtown Gallup

Artist demos, hands on workshops, live music.

Facebook @ArtsCrawlGallup

 

Saturday, June 9

2nd Annual Doin’ Dylan: Gallup’s Bob Dylan Tribute Concert

6:30 - 9pm

Gallup Downtown Conference Center

Feat. McManus & Juda, Daniel Plays Dylan, and Joe West & Friends...