Santa Fe, NM.- The New Mexico Museum of Art is pleased to present “James Drake: Salon of a Thousand Souls” on view through April 22nd 2012. Throughout his career, James Drake has examined the theme of humanity in all of its triumphs, failures, and follies—including war; love and desire; greed, gluttony, and vanity; and the realities of life along the U.S.-Mexico border. The New Mexico Museum of Art exhibition James Drake: Salon of a Thousand Souls includes 19 sculptures and works on paper by the Santa Fe-based artist spanning nearly 25 years. The contrast of baroque embellishment and hard-edge geometry characterizes Drake’s work as a whole in the exhibition, whose title suggests a meeting place where ideas and images are gathered for discussion. Salon of a Thousand Souls highlights the recurrent use of guns, mirrors, and vehicles of industry to explore modernity’s impact on human civilization. It also includes examples of Drake’s use of appropriation and allegory as strategies to underscore the cyclical nature of history.