¡ENCANTADA! 2025 Annual Juried Exhibition

Expo New Mexico • Hispanic Arts Gallery
300 San Pedro Drive NE, (Gate 3 Entrance), Albuquerque, NM 87108

Exhibition Open to the Public: Friday, November 7 – Sunday, November 30, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Exhibition Closed: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thanksgiving

Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony: Friday November 7, 5:30 – 8:30 pm

Deadline for entry submission is September 7, 5 pm.

¡ENCANTADA! is an annual juried exhibition promoting the sale of original paintings, drawings, artisan prints (e.g., lithographs, etchings, engravings, silkscreens, monotypes), collage, sculpture, metalwork, woodwork, ceramics, batik, weaving, jewelry, or other 2D or 3D artwork. ¡ENCANTADA! is sponsored by the Rio Grande Art Association (RGAA), which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education and promotion of fine art in New Mexico. Our focus is on creativity and originality. All styles are welcome from traditional, representational, and abstract to non-traditional, contemporary, and avantgarde. 

Awards

Standard 2D Artwork Category: $1000 first place; $700 second place; and $500 third place
Small 2D Artwork Category:  $500 first place; $325 second place; and $275 third place
3D Artwork Category: $500 first place; $325 second place; $275 third place
Several cash merit awards will also be given in all categories.

¡ENCANTADA! 2025 PROSPECTUS RGAA Jurying and Judging Best Practices

For questions, contact the Show Chair at showchair@rgaanm.org.

Regina Held

Regina Held lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was born in Germany and arrived in the United States at 23 years of age. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Texas at Austin, and her Master of Fine Art from the University of New Mexico. In 1996 she founded New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery, one of the world’s first completely non-toxic professional printmaking studios. In 2007 Held opened Matrix Fine Art, a contemporary gallery located next to New Grounds in Albuquerque’s Nob Hill. For 15 years, Regina represented artists from both venues at international gallery fairs, elevating their work to a global audience. Held sold both Matrix Fine Art and New Grounds in 2016.

Since then, she first served as the curator, and since 2020 as gallery director, for Gallery with A Cause located inside the New Mexico Cancer Center where she organizes four major shows/fundraisers a year each featuring about 380 works of art by 17 New Mexico artists. She has greatly increased visibility and sales during her tenure at the NMCC. 

For 30 years, Held has curated exhibitions for various organizations, private homes and businesses. In addition, she has juried numerous exhibitions, organized two major retrospectives, and handled art estates. She served as board member and vice president for Albuquerque United Artists and the Albuquerque Business Organization. She received the Magnifico and Bravo Award for her contributions to the Albuquerque art community and is often invited to speak on the topics of printmaking, collecting prints, and the business of art. She is the author of a book on non-toxic etching, New Grounds – The Handbook on Non-Toxic Printmaking, which continues to sell nationally and internationally. WEBSITE

Diane Arenberg

Diane Arenberg is a multidisciplinary artist based in Santa Fe, working in pastel, oil, encaustic, watercolor, printmaking, and metalsmithing. Inspired by the rugged beauty of New Mexico’s canyons, her work spans from representational to abstract, always rooted in a deep connection to nature, texture, light, and landscape.
 
Diane has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the U.S. She is an artist member of the Palette and Chisel in Chicago, a signature member of the Pastel Society of New Mexico, and actively involved with Plein Air Painters of New Mexico. Her award-winning work is included in both private and corporate collections, as well as the Booth Museum of Western Art in Cartersville, Georgia. 

A dedicated arts advocate, Diane co-founded Estudio Corazón, an artist residency at Ghost Ranch, where she also served for eight years as Governing Board Member and past President of the National Ghost Ranch Foundation. WEBSITE

Dianna Shomaker

Dianna Shomaker is committed to the philosophy that art feeds the soul while growing the spirit and developing the eye, all coordinating for the artist toward a final composition. She recognizes the value of experimentation and criticism, and the magical process of an artist's expression as intimately related to the view's appreciation. Guided primarily by intuition, she creates abstract art, described as lyrical, organic, and fluid, through a wide range of media: oil, acrylic, and encaustic. The results have been rewarded with accolades and prizes, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Dianna grew up on a small farm in western Washington. A child of the Depression, she created enjoyment from the ordinary things of nature and cast-off objects at hand. The instinctive inclinations of those days sparked a process that has continued to grow throughout her life of wonder, education, and expression. She had searched for answers to many questions, and found some in art, some in nursing, and some in anthropology, with art as the primary thread connecting these disparate sources of understanding.

Dianna's education includes an Associate’s Degree in Art; a Diploma, Bachelor’s, and Master’s Degrees in Nursing, and a Doctorate in Anthropology. Since 1973, New Mexico has been home, where she has found equally superb and diverse artistic development. She retired as a professor emerita from the University of New Mexico in 2000. Her current professional life is devoted entirely to art. Her work hangs in Blade’s Bistro in Placitas, in the Encaustic Art Institute near Cerrillos, outside Santa Fe, and in private collections in the U.S. and abroad. Dianna believes in giving back to the community that supports her and frequently offers art for charitable causes.  WEBSITE