Various locations, June 5-6 Taos, NM
E.I. Couse and Joseph Henry Sharp—good friends and two of the “Taos Six” painters who founded the Taos Society of Artists (TSA) in 1915—celebrated the Native people and cultures of northern New Mexico and the dazzling light (luz in Spanish) of the high desert town and its surroundings. Both men settled there with their families, and literally lived next door to each other. For more than a decade, the Couse-Sharp Historic Site, which includes the artists’ restored homes and studios; the 2-plus-acre garden Couse’s wife planted; and, since 2022, the 5,000-square-foot Lunder Research Center, dedicated to the TSA, has advanced the legacy of the two painters and their co-founders, as well as other artists past and present who portray the West and its peoples.
So, the site’s biennial fundraiser and art show aptly bears the title La Luz de Taos. “This is more than just a gala,” explains Davison Koenig, executive director and curator at Couse-Sharp. “It’s an exhibition that sheds light on a much more inclusive story of the artistic traditions coming out of the American West, a multicultural history going back more than a thousand years.”
The show, featuring more than 70 pieces by top artists working today, has been on view at the Lunder Research Center since April 17, and concludes there the evening of June 5 with an open house, art preview and reception. The morning of June 6 there will be a panel discussion moderated by Koenig, and that evening the artworks will be displayed at the nearby El Monte Sagrado Resort for the gala celebration featuring a fixed-price, by-draw sale. Collectors who cannot attend may buy absentee ballot slips and participate live online. Works not sold will remain available back at the historic site.
One of the many noteworthy paintings available is Eric Bowman’s SOUND EXPRESSION, in which the Oregon-based painter creates “an amazing union between the folds of the drummer’s garments and the folds of the landscape behind him,” says Koenig. New Mexican artist Sean Michael Chavez’s STAND OF ONE dramatically stylizes its portrayal of a horseback vaquero. The richly atmospheric TAOS LIGHT by Utah-based artist G. Russell Case features an old adobe rancheria against the backdrop of Pueblo Peak. David Kassan, an already respected portraitist who splits his time between New York and New Mexico, has more recently “shifted his gaze,” says Koenig, with works like RED WILLOW MOON TAOS, featuring Dwight Concha, great-grandson of Ben Lujan, Couse’s favorite model.
Traditional arts also find bold contemporary expression in the event. COSMIC CARRY-ON FOR ARLA by Arla Lucia (Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma) brings lively forms and colors to a beaded bag. Taos Pueblo potter Angie Yazzie’s micaceous clay BLACK JOURNEY BOWL dynamically abstracts traditional forms. And New Mexican silver jeweler Bernadette Marquez-López and her husband, wood sculptor Arthur López, collaborated on the necklace LA ABEJA EN EL JARDÍN (THE BEE IN THE GARDEN).
In all of the works, the spirits of both Couse and Sharp and the art society they helped found feel omnipresent. “Every one of these artists,” Koenig concludes, “speaks to our mission here, which is to try and tell a larger story not only of Taos but of our national identity.” —Norman Kolpas
contact information(575) 751-0369laluzdetaos.org
This story appeared in the June/July 2026 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.
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