Artist-in-Residence: Alex Traube
image courtesy of the artist
In Residence: June 2, 2024 – June 30, 2024
Dee Ann McIntyre in Memory of Scotty McIntyre Artist Studio
Alex Traube is the fourth recipient of the artist-in-residence program at the Vladem Contemporary. He was born in New York City. His father’s family were Hungarian Jews; his mother was Latina, from New York and Mexico City. Much of Traube’s family-oriented photographs and writing evoke memories of his parents. Traube has lived and worked in New Mexico for fifty years.
He attended American University, where he fell in love with photography. Subsequently, he got a master’s degree at Ohio University. He also studied with renowned photographer, Minor White. In 1971, Traube joined the Center for Photographic Studies, Louisville, as Associate Director. In addition to teaching, he started the Center’s publishing program and directed a photography lecture series at the Speed Museum.
In 1974, he left Louisville and moved to Santa Fe to concentrate on his own photography. In 1976, thanks to his memoirist series, “Letters to My Father,” he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. In 1977, Traube had solo shows at Robert Friedus Gallery, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston.
In 1991, Traube enrolled in a graduate program at the Institute of Design, Chicago to study digital imaging. His thesis project was called “Family Album.” As was true with his “Letters” series, this project was an outcome of his lifelong obsession with family life and was a forerunner of the 2024 Families/Familias residency at the Vladem Contemporary.
Traube has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of New Mexico, Santa Fe Preparatory School, Santa Fe Community College, the Center for Photographic Studies, and in the New Mexico Artist-in-the-Schools program. In 1997, he founded New Mexico CultureNet, an organization best known for its statewide Poets-in-the-Schools program.
Alex Traube’s photographs are in the permanent collections of more than fifty museums, including the Australian National Gallery, National Gallery of Canada, Amon Carter Museum, Center for Creative Photography, MFA Houston, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, L.A. County Museum of Art, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. In 1983, the University of New Mexico Press published a book of his photographs: Las Vegas New Mexico: A Portrait.
Family Photos / Fotos de Familias
Traube’s residency, Family Photos / Fotos de Familias, is a celebration of diverse New Mexico family life: traditional, or self-defined. New Mexico Families are invited to come to the new Vladem Contemporary to have their free family portraits taken on four Sundays in June: the 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd, between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. No appointments are needed. Participating families will receive a free Museum of New Mexico day pass, courtesy of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, and a digital copy of their family portraits. Traube and his team will create an online gallery of family portraits at https://traubephoto.com/families/
photo by Mariah Haussman
The artist-in-residence program is generously supported by a grant from the Frederick Hammersley Fund for the Arts at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.