DAVID BACA

David Baca is a native of New Mexico, born in July 1961.  In 1983 Baca decided to suspend his formal studies at the University of New Mexico in attempt to focus fully on painting.  Initially, he worked heavily in pastels, utilizing his drawing skills as a foundation for his exploration in color.  In 1986, Baca participated in a monotype workshop given by Dan Vigil in Taos, New Mexico.  Learning the Monotype process, a value in its own, served as a transition into painting for Baca.

Baca moved to New York in 1987.  In an effort to maximize the impact that this move would have on his painting, Baca arrived without any of his previous work. The idea was to strip himself of what he knew and begin again. About a year into his exploration of the visual force of urban life, images and surfaces in his paintings were arriving with a powerful momentum. While in New York, Baca was awarded the Blackburn Printmaking fellowship, and in 1990 he was the recipient of grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Sheldon Berg Foundation (London).

In August of 1990, the building that Baca was living in burned to the ground and his studio was destroyed. A five painting commission to the Rowan Company had recently been completed and the paintings shipped just two weeks before the fire. Although his lost almost everything, he took a new studio within a week and was able to continue his now "fire powered  work in his new studio at the RAPP Arts Center on East 4th Street in Manhattan. Using this experience as a positive catalyst for expression, Baca surged forward -- producing an almost violent but poetic body of work that includes images of ghostlike figures that seem to offer an expression of life in a soul felt effort to communicate fear and hope in a single gesture. 

In November of 1990, Baca moved from Manhattan's cultural intoxication to the serenities of New Mexico in order to focus more intensely on his painting and to get closer to nature.  In his new work, images are interpreted by an energized expressionistic style that is his assimilation of modern abstract idioms.  Since his return to New Mexico, Baca has created an enticing body of work that demonstrates his continued interest in developing new imagery. In September 1993, Baca was asked to art direct a music video (Directed by Larry Jordan KRT Howlin' Productions) for The Damn Yankees. This new venue for creative visual expression for musicians and the music industry has given Baca the opportunity to utilize a more complete spectrum of his visual skills and talents through a film making process.

Since this initial film-making project, Baca has established a report as a production designer/art director in the Country Music Film Industry, working on projects for artists John Michael Montgomery, Neal McCoy, Daryl Singletary, Pam Tillis, Travis Tritt, and David Ball and directors Martin Kahan, Jim Hershletter, Michael Macnamara and Roger Pistol among many others. These collaborations with directors, producers and artists and has added new dimension to his continued visual development. The physical realities of set design and construction has certainly influenced elements in the structure of his paintings  His involvement in these creative projects  has given him a valuable developmental outlet related to and yet separate from his work as a painter in his studio.

In his newest work, an energized expressionistic style reflects Baca's assimilation and interpretation of modern abstract idioms.  Informed by influences such as Cubism, Fauvism, Surrealism, the galvanizing work of the Abstract Expressionists, Richard Diebenkorn, the post-modern imagery of the Italian Neo-Expressionists, Baca acknowledges the past while moving inexorably to the future.  The space of his paintings is often a tantalizing hybrid: part interior, part exterior--they extend from the forms within the confines of the artist's studio to a distant urban horizon.  Despite his intense engagement with abstraction, Baca has maintained his grounding in the representational. The imagery of his paintings frequently centers around one totemic visual motif: an empty rowboat, an abstracted flower form, the architectural expanse of a table top, a solitary Everyman, a receding Chirico-esque colonnade. These images communicate with the weight of the . while suggesting a narrative content that lies in wait, just below the surface.

David Baca's work is in numerous private and corporate collections in the United States and  Europe.  His images are reflected by the spirit of experiences that return as energy and are focused on the visual.

Born: 1961  Albuquerque, NM

Solo Exhibitions:

1999 Bettcher Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
1998 Expressions in Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1998 Bettcher Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
1996 Bettcher Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
1995 Bettcher Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
1992 Live Paint Project at Luna, Santa Fe, NM
1990 Gallery 63, New York, NY
1989 Live Paint Project at Limelight, New York, NY
1987 Dartmouth Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1987 Taos Company, Taos, NM
1986 Taos Company, Taos, NM
1986 Westwind Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1985 Galeria del Sol, Albuquerque, NM

Group Exhibitions:

1998 Aid and Comfort Benefit Auction, Santa Fe, NM
1998 Museo de las Americas, Bemefit Auction, Denver, CO
1997 Aid and Comfort Auction, Santa Fe, NM
1996 Live Paint Project at White Rocks, Philip Morris, Albuquerque, NM
1995 Gallery 10, Santa Fe, NM
1995 Gallery 10, Scottsdale, AZ
1993 Copeland Rutherford Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1993 Gallery at the Rep, Santa Fe, NM
1992 Turner Carrol Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1991 Gallery 10, Santa Fe, NM
1991 PBS Fine Arts Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1991 Hello Gallery, New York, NY
1990 PBS Fine Arts Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1990 The Printmaking Workshop, Brooklyn, NY
1988 Enthios Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1987 Tally Richards Gallery, Taos, NM
1987 Dartmouth Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1987 Festival of the Vacant Building, Albuquerque, NM
1986 Kimo Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1985 New Trends, Santa Fe, NM
1984 Galeria del Sol, Albuquerque, NM

Film Projects-Art Director:

1998 Gunfighters of the West, Television Documentary Series, DVTV
1998 Confederate Railroad Music Video, The Collective
1998 T.G. Shepherd Music Video, The Collective
1998 Tracy Byrd Music Video, The Collective
1997 Clay Walker, Music Video, Think Pictures
1997 T.G. Shepherd, Music Video, Think Pictures
1997 James Taylor, Music Video, Big Eye Productions
1997 Kenny Chesney, Music Video, Think Pictures
1997 Buffalo Club, Music Video, Think Pictures
1997 River Road, Music Video, Think Pictures
1996 Mindy McCready, Music Video, Picture Vision
1996 Melissa Ethridge, Music Video, Paloma Films
1996 Daryl Singletary, Music Video, Hyper Films
1996 Neal Mc Coy, Music Video, Think Pictures
1996 John Michael Montgomery, Music Video, Think Pictures
1996 Graham Mc Hugh, Music Video, FM Rocks
1996 Daryl Singletary, Music Video, FM Rocks
1995 DWI Task Force, Educational, Little T Productions
1995 Rick Trevino, Music Video, Think Pictures
1995 Toyota, Commercial, Bond Films
1995 Little Texas, Music Video, DCA
1995 Woody Lee, Music Video, Think Pictures
1995 Rick Trevino, Music Video, Think Pictures
1994 MidSouth, Music Video, Think Pictures
1994 Marilyn Martin, Music Video, Think Pictures
1994 David Ball, Music Video, Think Pictures
1994 The Wiggins, Music Video, Think Pictures
1992 Damn Yankees, Music Video, KRT Howlin' Pictures

Awards:

1990 The Sheldon Bergh Award, London
1990 Pollock-Krasner Award, New York
1989 Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Fellowship, New York