Jugnet + Clairet's NM Exhibition at Mayeur Projects, Las Vegas, New Mexico

Mayeur Projects, a private institution founded by Christian Mayeur in 2016 in Las Vegas, New Mexico (distinct from Las Vegas, Nevada), is housed in a former store near the Plaza Hotel, a site familiar to Coen brothers fans from No Country For Old Men. The venue also functions as an artist and writer residency. Mayeur, known for his platform Entrepart bridging business and contemporary art, has previously presented works by Virginie Mossé, Ross Caliendo, Zoe Crosher, Frank Perrin, Jill O’Bryan, and Charles Ross, creator of the land art piece Star Axis. The current exhibition, titled NM (for New Mexico), features French artist duo Jugnet + Clairet, who met in New York in 1995, began collaborating in 1997, and relocated to New Mexico in 2005, now residing in Lamy. Their practice encompasses drawing, painting, video, and neon sculpture, focusing on overlooked details and signs—clouds, twilight light, cigarette burns on film, atomic mushroom silhouettes, UFO images, and cliché phrases. They describe their work as exploring the peripheral, the marginal, and the background. The exhibition includes Square Roots, acrylic paintings of local plants on gradient backgrounds evoking desert light, and Pendeloque #5, a neon wire sculpture inspired by an 18th-century crystal from a New Mexico chandelier. The artists emphasize concision, avoiding the spectacular, maintaining a liminal significance, and confronting viewers with the essence of form.