Roxanne Swentzell's Tower Gallery
Contemporary Pueblo art that speaks to the heart
Welcome to Postcards from New Mexico! I share the beauty, history, and culture of this region that has been my home since 2008.
Today I’m doing a ‘re-run’ from the early days of Postcards of New Mexico. I recently learned that Roxanne Swentzell’s Tower Gallery will be closing at the end of 2024. I’ve added a bit more content to the original post and also include information about a closing ceremony at the end of December. The Tower Gallery is such a beautiful place that it felt important to let you know about it (again, for some of you longtime readers) and encourage you to visit before it closes. You won’t regret it.
Roxanne Swentzell’s Tower Gallery, located in Pojoaque (about 15 minutes north of Santa Fe) needs to go on your must-see list!
Swentzell is an artist and visionary based in Kha’p’o Owingeh (Santa Clara Pueblo). She comes from a lineage of artists and scholars. Her mother, Rina, was a well known architect, potter, and teacher. Her father, Ralph, was a philosophy professor.
As a child, Swentzell had a speech impediment that affected her ability to communicate with words, so she found another way to convey her emotions: clay. You’ll feel the rich emotional content that comes through her work when you view her sculptures, which are overflowing with heart, wisdom, sorrow, and humor.
The Tower Gallery features her work, and occasionally that of other artists as well. The building itself is gorgeous—it can be seen as you’re driving by on Highway 285, the main road between Santa Fe and Española. The cylindrical tower that forms the main part of the gallery is made of adobe and the exterior walls are finished off with a micaceous clay that glistens in the sunlight. Swentzell and her family hand-built the tower in the 1990s; it was finished and ready to open in 2006.
Roxanne’s work has also been featured at Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Cartier in Paris, the British Museum in Lond, and the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, among others.
If you visit the gallery, make sure to head down to the basement and watch the video that documents Roxanne’s life and journey as an artist.
The Tower Gallery is scheduled to close at the end of 2024. A farewell ceremony with Roxanne is scheduled to take place at the Gallery on December 28, 2024, 1 - 5 pm.
How to find the Gallery:
To: 78 Cities of Gold Rd, Santa Fe, NM
From Santa Fe, take US-285 N/US-84 N for 12 miles, to Pojoaque.
Turn right at W Gutierrez St
Exit the roundabout at first exit and follow road past store to parking lot on right side of the road directly behind the Poeh Cultural Center. Follow sign from there to Tower Gallery.
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