Traces: Known and Un-Known opening with live music by Lone Piñon

About this event

Christy Hengst exhibition opening with live music by Lone Piñon SANTA FE, NM — The Historic Santa Fe Foundation (HSFF) is pleased to present Traces: Known and Un-Known, a solo exhibition of new works by Santa Fe artist Christy Hengst. The exhibition will be on view at The Gallery at El Zaguán, located at 545 Canyon Road, from November 6 through November 28, 2026. Widely recognized for her public art installations—including several bus shelters and permanent play structures, as well as surprising and sometimes sneaky installations —Hengst turns her focus in this exhibition toward archetypal imagery, dreams, and the lingering presence of what has come before. Traces: Known and Un-Known weaves together diverse media, combining lithography, silkscreened rice paper, text, direct drawing, and the sensuous pairing of fired porcelain and beeswax. "As I paint, I look for ways to weave meaningful content together with visual decisions," notes Hengst. "Layering images and materials allows for a dreamlike quality and an element of time to slip in. Recently, I've been exploring memory and the lasting influence of things and people long gone. I’ve become more aware of cause and effect: the traces of everything, from physical remnants to memories to the unmeasurable... Life is mysterious. I hope a person is reminded of that through this work." The exhibition highlights several distinct series that bring these concepts to life through tangible forms. Delicate porcelain slip-dipped pieces preserved in beeswax stand as physical shells of original objects that burned away during the firing process, leaving behind pure form. A series of triptychs inspired by Hengst's parents bridges the intimate space between personal grief and collective recollection, while her Attic Dream series draws directly from the memory-adjacent collective unconscious. Anchoring these explorations is The Archetypal Grid, which utilizes lithographs as a structural foundation to probe universal images that evoke an instinctive bodily response, inviting viewers to suspend conventional categorization into the known and un-known. About the Artist: Christy Hengst’s work ranges from community-oriented public art projects across several countries to intimate studio paintings created in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Shortly after graduating from Amherst College in 1989, Hengst traveled westward to Santa Fe, where she met her future husband and creative collaborator, German blacksmith Helmut Hillenkamp. Together they have collaborated on numerous public and private endeavors. Hengst's site-specific public art installations include three bus stop shelters in Santa Fe, a collaborative plaza sculpture with a volcano in Ecuador, two Haiku paths, a climate change-focused playground boat, the four-year traveling international installation Birds in the Park, and the clandestine, map-linked project Art in the Loo. Her paintings layer printmaking, drawing, encaustic, porcelain, and text. They have been exhibited at galleries and museums internationally, including solo shows at Ellsworth Gallery, Box Gallery, and El Zaguán in Santa Fe; the BBK Gallery in Aachen, Germany; the Museum of Modern Art in Cuenca, Ecuador; the Museum of Fine Arts in Las Cruces, NM; and the IX Bienal of Painting in Ecuador. Her creative investigation into present-moment awareness and sensing is deeply informed by a long-term meditation practice. Read about additional exhibits realated events and more at: Read More https://www.historicsantafe.org/hengst Contact: Anne Kelly at anne@historicsantafe.org or call 505.983.2567 for more information.