Kramer with his painting. Courtesy photo
SAVE THE CHIMPS NEWS RELEASE
Santa Fe’s arts scene and animal protection community will merge for the opening of a 6-week exhibit spotlighting the artistry of apes and New Mexico’s peculiar history with chimpanzees:
Date/time: Saturday, July 13, 4-7pm
Place: Jen Tough Gallery, 4 N. Chamisa Drive, Santa Fe
Admission: Free to the public: RSVP via this link
On the eve of World Chimpanzee Day, the Jen Tough Gallery will launch Interspecies, an exhibit of abstract paintings on which human artists, including Hollywood power couple Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, collaborated with ape artists from Save the Chimps. The Florida sanctuary is home to 224 chimps, most rescued from New Mexico’s infamous Coulston lab.
“We hope these paintings will raise much needed funds for Save the Chimps and deepen people’s appreciation of these intelligent apes,” say Phoenix and Mara in a joint statement. “Chimps are our closest relatives in the animal world. They share 98% of our DNA, so it’s no surprise that some chimps find it therapeutic to paint, much like some humans do.” 100% of sales benefit Save the Chimps.
Images of some of the paintings and artists can be found here.
Gallery owner Jen Tough curated a Santa Fe Collection, for which the chimps used a variety of beautiful desert tones. Andy Warhol photographer Karen_Bystedt donated large format prints of Warhol for the chimps to paint on – much like Warhol created art by painting on photos of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe. There will also be stylized portraits of chimpanzees by painters Leslie Folksman, David Heatwole, and Parmiss Mass, and wildlife photographer Jeff Gale.
An inspiring photo timeline will showcase New Mexico’s unique role as both the hub of experiments on chimps since WWII and the hotbed of activism that helped free most of them to sanctuaries. Speakers from Animal Protection New Mexico will give updates on efforts to free the 28 chimps still held at the Alamogordo lab, an effort covered last month in The New York Times.
Event sponsor FedEx donated the shipment of the 35 paintings from across the country. The exhibit will run through August 25, and is free to the public.
Save the Chimps, a 150-acre refuge in Florida, provides vet care, nutritious meals, and social enrichment to 224 chimpanzees rescued from labs, the pet trade, and the entertainment industry.