Exhibition - Tar, Time, & Travel: Mediations on the Mother Road
Tar, Time, & Travel: Meditations on the Mother Road
October 3st through October 24, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 3, 10 - 5pm
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO – Weems Gallery is pleased to announce our upcoming group exhibition titled Tar, Time, and Travel: Meditations on the Mother Road. Following months of city-wide celebration and exploration of the famous Route 66, this show features more than a dozen artists and their differing array of perspectives on the 2,448 miles that defined a century.
For artists Ed Gebhart and Andrew Rodriguez (Laguna), the prompt inspired the go-lucky optimism often seen in the tourism and travel campaigns, encouraging everyday folk to adventure beyond their everyday. Dan Stouffer (Watercolor Honor Society), avoiding the man-made elements of the road, revisits Mother Nature’s breath-taking attractions across New Mexico, inspired by his early trips off the route as a plein-air painter.
Image: Dan Stouffer
Yet, the road isn’t always bright for happy reasons. BC Nowlin, showing works rarely seen, paints the aftermath of accidents, with overturned cars aglow with fire and the air choking with smoke. His motel series lives in the dusk, as vacancy dwindles at made-up locations, and muddy lots show remnants of rain.
Image: Studio visit with BC Nowlin
Cheryl Godin’s tightly cropped paintings reveal the rust and wear of our beloved signs: much adored by roadside admirers, but not always cared for. Nicholas Ioan Lazaroae, recipient of the 2026 Into the Meridian Prize, demonstrates why chrome is almost made for black-and-white photographs, streaks of reflections that flash the edgy energy of joyrides and roadtrips. Darren Henkel transfers photographs to glass, or illuminates via lightbox, infusing eerie, ghost-town patina to diners and roadside stops.
Images: Cheryl Godin
Other artists drew their attention to the metal and mechanics required to move bodies (and materials) across the road. Artesian artist Andrei Joseph Palmer’s sculptures are replicas of mid-century cars from aluminum, fabric scraps, and duct-tape, with functional hoods, trunks, lights. The seams and corners where his materials meet harkens to the rough manufacturing of heavy steel frames and car bodies of the time. Renowned painter Renee Marz-Mullis contemplates life alongside the road, using delicate pastel to bring life to creaking, rolling steel of the railroad, complete with marks of contemporary graffiti.
Images: Andrei Joseph Palmer
Also includes works by Paul Murray, John DeSpain, Lyndy Bush, Stella Hanamori, and Sally Harris. In this show, The Mother Road is a mood that shifts easily with the quality of light, and daybreak makes different promises than twilight.
For inquiries, contact weems@weemsgallery.com.