September 2021 Artist of the Month

Each month in 2021 – The Year of the Artist, a different arts category will be highlighted with an artist in that field being celebrated as the Artist of the Month. 

The Arts Council is excited to highlight the career of Marcus Chormicle for the month of September 2021.

Marcus Xavier Chormicle is a lens-based artist from the Southwestern region of the USA. His work focuses on family, memory, and the intersection of class, race, and history in the Southwest. He received a Bachelor’s of Journalism and a Minor in Digital Marketing and Studio Art from the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University located in Phoenix. He recently returned home to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to work as an artist and focus on community engagement and education. Chormicle currently works with the Picacho Arts District, a community-driven arts institution that focuses on uplifting and empowering the people of Las Cruces.

In 2020 he founded the Cristian Anthony Vallejo Memorial Gallery (CAV), dedicated to his late cousin. The gallery aims to create a space for artists whose work drives cultural and communal conversation beyond art for the sake of art to generate real change. The gallery was recently relocated from the Garcia Building to 128 S. Main St., Unit B, in Downtown Las Cruces.

There will be a reception for the opening exhibition titled Tú Eres Tú on Sept 3, 2021, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The exhibition title references Alburquerque: A Novel by New Mexico author Rudolfo Anaya (1937-2020). “The show carries themes from the novel around self-definition of identity amidst a backdrop of cyclical narratives of family,” Chormicle said. “The group show will feature works by artists from New Mexico, as well international artists working in photography, sculpture, painting, and video.”

According to Chormicle the works celebrate positive cycles of identity formation passed down by family, such as resemblance, heritage, and tradition, as well as critiquing negative aspects of these cycles, like the systematic loss of language, abuse, and addiction. “Ultimately, the show aims to create space for individuals to define themselves in relation to their own families, both by blood and choice, through the breaking and claiming of cycles, said Chormicle.

CAV will also be open from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept 4, 2021, and run until Oct 1 by appointment. Patrons may email marcuschormicle@gmail.com or contact Marcus through his Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/chormicle/ to book a time to visit the gallery. Please visit www.cavgallery to find out more about Chormicle’s work.