About

Jeannie Ortiz & Kyle Cunningham

Artists and Adventurers. We live in sunny Truth or Consequences New Mexico, moments away from the banks of the Rio Grande and in the foothills of the Greater Gila region. We search out the wild corners of the world, exploring and learning, bringing back stories and impressions and then set ourselves fast at work to create objects to share.

The modern is ancient in our work. We live inside the rhythms of the world not outside and apart from them. We remember that nature exists and we are merely but human, small creatures on this great piece of rock hurtling around the sun. Nature is the best guide.

Jeannie and Kyle each maintain personal websites at the following: https://jeannieortiz.com and https://kyleparkercunningham.com.

A Story (of many)

Jeannie and Kyle met towards the sunset of their college years in Bozeman, Montana. We set out together on a grand adventure which took us to India and all over the American West. We settled in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico as a place to build out studio and share it with the world.

Truth or Consequences Contemporary is the physical space we occupy in our minds. A refuge for the arts supporting a laboratory to answer the questions of "what is relevant as we move into this new world."

Truth or Consequences Contemporary is the continuation of an 12 year project in TorC NM. We have had 4 distinct iterations of this space so far: first with Olin West at Mud Mountain Studio and 100th Monkey Gallery, followed by Sebathe hip hop party world art factory which then morphed into Desert Archaic, a creative vortex in the oasis. Truth or Consequences Contemporary is the culmination of everything we've learned over the past decade and two years and takes rural art to international levels.

The two artists

Jeannie Ortiz and Kyle Parker Cunningham met in Bozeman, Montana in 2006, lived for years in Dharamshala, India and on the road across the American West, and first arrived in Truth or Consequences on foot, walking the Grand Enchantment Trail from Phoenix. In December 2011 they bought a house here and stayed.

Jeannie Ortiz is a weaver and maker of adornment: handloomed scarves and textiles, natural dyes, and adornment in stone and raku. Her work and writing are at jeannieortiz.com, with her full catalogue at archive.jeannieortiz.com.

Kyle Parker Cunningham is a painter and printmaker: paintings, intaglio and drypoint prints, books and film. His work and writing are at kyleparkercunningham.com, with his full catalogue at archive.kyleparkercunningham.com.

Every summer the two of them leave the gallery for Fieldwork, living and making art in the wild. What comes home in the fall becomes the winter's exhibitions, books and much of what is in this shop.

The gallery

The gallery lives in the Luchini Electric Building at 312 Main Ave, standing since 1916. Jeannie and Kyle bought it in 2023, renovated it for nine months and opened it as Truth or Consequences Contemporary in February 2024 with the exhibition Home. It is the latest form of a project they started in this town in 2012: Mud Mountain Studio, then Seba, then Desert Archaic, then Intentionally Confusing. The full story is on the history page at torc.art.

Each winter season, October through May, the gallery runs a theme through exhibitions, installations and performances. Around it there is a community etching press, a small book imprint, Agile Meteor Press, a membership for people who want to support the work directly, and a growing list of projects.