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In Santa Fe, a Vibrant Contemporary Scene Has Been Taking Shape for Decades

From digital galleries to contemporary indigenous art, the city’s off-Canyon offerings are as vital and surprising as any in the country.

The last time I was in Santa Fe, I found myself standing before a tall digital display that, every few minutes, shuffled to a different still from Google Street View. I saw a man sitting at the roadside in a white plastic chair in Serbia; a dog-walking woman on a leafy Los Angeles street; the bare ass of someone who must’ve spotted the tech company’s can’t-miss camera car and decided to put on a show of his own. The piece rotated through the images for more than an hour. Nine Eyes of Google Street View by Canadian artist Jon Rafman was one of the cornerstone pieces at the Thoma Art Vault, a 3,500-square-foot digital-art gallery, the only one of its kind in the American Southwest. The Art Vault and SITE Santa Fe (one of America’s largest and most well-known contemporary art museums) are two of the biggest attractions in the city’s Railyard District, the former train depot that has become a burgeoning arts area and is home to more than half a dozen galleries, all focused on modern and contemporary art.

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One of the world’s most robust art hubs, this small city of just over 150,000 reportedly counts more artists and creative institutions per capita than anywhere else on Earth. Yet it has a reputation, well-earned to be sure, as a hub of more traditional and, often to a fault, southwestern art. It’s a place where a large oil painting of a Native American warrior might run well into the five-figure range—many of Santa Fe’s more traditional galleries showcase art directly inspired by New Mexico’s most famous cultural denizen, Georgia O’Keeffe.

Except O’Keeffe was anything but a traditionalist and, in a roundabout way, you could arguably draw a line from Rafman to O’Keeffe. If the Railyard Arts District had existed back in her day, maybe O’Keeffe would have found her gallery home there. Maybe not. I am neither an........

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