SBAC x TAAC: Kinship and Collectivity in Contemporary Art Practice

Organized as part of the exhibitions (be)loved by the Southwest Black Arts Collective (SBAC) currently on view at the Fechin Studio at Taos Art Museum and Taos Abstract Artist Collective’s Fall Community Exhibition, FEX25, at the Taos Center for the Arts, this panel offers a unique opportunity to examine the modes of relationality, kinship, and collective care that shape contemporary artistic production in the Southwest.

Moderator Bradley Petty will guide a conversation that foregrounds how artistic collaborations function as intentional kinships—formed not by bloodline, but by shared practice, ideology, and geography. The panel will feature SBAC’s Elizabeth Burden and TAAC’s Lauren Dana Smith, whose work reimagines relationality through art, collaboration, and geographic rootedness in the Southwest.

The discussion will further respond to Claire Bishop’s and Grant Kester’s ongoing debate about participatory and collaborative art.Rather than framing collectivity as inherently ethical, the panel will probe its complexities: How are roles distributed? What compromises are required? Who holds power?

Also check out other Arts events in Taos, Fine Arts events in Taos, Exhibitions in Taos.