Briefing: New gallery on Mountain opens Friday / The definitive guide to the new 'Church of Music' mural at 7th and Central

Briefing:

New gallery on Mountain opens Friday
The definitive guide to the new 'Church of Music' mural at 7th and Central
For a few days, paying for parking at an Old Town lot was both mandatory and impossible

New gallery on Mountain opens Friday

This work by local artist Venae Warner will be part of the inaugural show at the Ricochet Gallery.

A new gallery focused on local art and southwest flavor is set to open this Friday evening at the corner of Mountain and 11th.

Ricochet Gallery is the brainchild of Downtown Neighborhoods resident Michael Lakoff, who retired last summer from a job working as regional director of sales for the Inn and Spa at Loretto, a Santa Fe property owned by Heritage Hotels & Resorts, which also runs Hotel Chaco and Hotel Albuquerque.

The main room at the gallery, which was formerly home to the Albuquerque Shambala Meditation Center, will feature a monthly show spotlighting a particular artist, with Venae Warner taking the inaugural posting. A separate smaller room will feature other work, and in between the two Lakoff will have his own studio, a kind of home base for making his own art, greeting visitors, and generally keeping an eye on things.

Pandemic-permitting, he plans to book regular musical guests, particularly for First Friday events. But even on slower weekdays, he hopes the gallery evolves into a kind of community hub, offering informal brown-bag-lunch classes in addition to the usual mix of small-dollar retail items and larger pieces from artists who live within an easy driving distance - if not walking distance.

"I think there's enough well-deserved talent just in our own community," Lakoff said.

The definitive guide to the new 'church of music' mural at 7th and Central

The mural, only part of which is shown above, is located behind the El Rey Theater.

A sprawling new mural near 7th and Central is a big collective love letter to music meant to buck up a local scene that has been hurting badly since the start of the pandemic, curator Nazario Sandoval, who paints under the name wemfer, told DAN.

Dubbed "The Church of Music," the mural features contributions from no less than 43 artists and features depictions of a wide array of musicians, from local acts to international megastars to fictional characters like a saxophone-wielding Lisa Simpson. It is located on the back walls of the El Rey Theater and Launchpad, two prominent local musical hubs.

"The wall was available and I had my eye on it for a while," Sandoval said. "We're just trying to show support for the music venues."

There's much more to the story of the mural's creation, a tale well-documented by the writer Karie Luidens on Medium and by this edition of the Downtown Arts and Cultural District's newsletter. But today, thanks to a solid 45 minutes spent with Sandoval and a legal pad in the adjacent parking lot a couple of Saturdays ago, we present the definitive guide to what exactly the collaborative shows and who was behind its component parts. (Note: Some of the painting does not represent a musical artist, and some of the muralists prefer to remain anonymous.)

PART ONE
(high-res original photo)

(1.) Bill Withers, a singer, by irotism
(2.) A colorful stained glass effect meant to bolster the "Church of Music" theme by wemfer
(3.) Cookie Monsta, an electronic music pioneer, by skelz.
(4.) Mac Miller, a rapper, by santo_samurai.
(5.) MF Doom, a rapper and producer, by papas_redtacos.
(6.) A logo used by Nipsey Hussle, a rapper, by papas_redtacos
(7.) Sean Price, a rapper, by Anonymous.
(8.) Empty Pocketz, a local apparel company and band, by perishtnr
(9.) SpongeBob SquarePants, a cartoon character with a penchant for singing, by elcmon
(10.) Painting by alec.segura
(11.) Beavis and Butthead, amateur cartoon music critics, by shennon33
(12.) Ritchie Valens, a singer, by skindian_art
(13.) Painting by Anonymous
(14.) Animal, the drumming muppet, by shennon33.
(15.) Painting by maybaby_mona
(16.) Wake Self, an Albuquerque hip-hop artist, by _klause_
(17.) Painting by chrisgrill

PART TWO
(high-res original photo)

(18.) Johnny Cash, by diegowestonart
(19.) Juice Wrld, a rapper, by nb.artistry
(20.) Painting by nia_reyna
(21.) An image used by Chicano Batman, a band, by fewturecc
(22.) Painting by nia_reyna
(23.) Painting by alicia_sosapro_art
(24.) Painting by sir_jeliot
(25.) Lady Gaga, by paths01
(26.) David Bowie and Prince, by voyagercrafts
(27.) Painting by bon_las_art
(28.) Kali Uchis, a singer, by littlelady_wolf
(29.) Painting by Anonymous
(30.) Al Hurricane, a New Mexico singer, by heckironcloud
(31.) Felix the Cat, a noted whistling cartoon feline, by Anonymous.
(32.) Lisa Simpson and Schroeder, the pianist from Peanuts, by shennon33
(33.) The Pink Panther, by warzonemateo
(34.) Painting by lovegallegos

PART THREE
(high-res original photo)

(35.) Painting by itsbearface
(36.) TBD
(37.) Lauryn Hill, a singer, by jaderaquelh
(38.) Painting by abqbenz
(39.) Painting by Anonymous
(40.) Selena, by velaart
(41.) Painting by Anonymous
(42.) Painting by Anonymous

For a few days, paying for parking at an Old Town lot was both mandatory and impossible
The signs are clear: You must pay to park in a city-run lot along Central between San Felipe and Romero (map), at the southern edge of Old Town.

But a mission to quickly upgrade the pay stations appears to have been interrupted by the recent week of on-again-off-again snow.

"It was the Parking Division's hope to seamlessly make the swap between the old pay stations and the new ones, but unfortunately they encountered unfavorable weather," city spokesman Johnny Chandler told DAN.

That led to a stretch of several days where signs admonished visitors to pay at stations that did not exist, a confusing state of affairs for which the Parking Division apologizes, Chandler said.

The new stations were eventually installed around the middle of last week, albeit with notices announcing that they were not working yet. Someone also took down the pay-to-park signs. For the time being, at least, the lot is free.

Downtown Albuquerque News covers greater Downtown, which we generally define as the area created by I-40, the Rio Grande, and the railroad tracks. We publish weekdays except for federal holidays. If someone forwarded DAN to you, please consider subscribing. To subscribe, contact us, submit a letter to the editor, or learn more about what we do, click here. If you ever run into technical trouble receiving DAN, click here.