Bernadette Vigil

Bernadette Vigil (born 1955) is an American artist and illustrator whose work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and abroad. She has produced permanent public artworks in the form of fresco murals for the cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has been commissioned to create religious frescoes in churches in New Mexico, and has been called a "master of the art of buon fresco" in the Santos Tradition. In 2002 it was published in Spanish as El Dominio de la Conciencia, and in 2005 it was published in German as Das Geheimnis der vier Versprechen.

Education Vigil attended the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico where she studied buon fresco and received her BA in 1980.

Collections City of Albuquerque Public Art Program, Sueño Entre Sueño, (Fresco), 1994. Albuquerque Public Art/South Broadway Cultural Center, Oneness of Dance, 1995. Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM, Los Musicos #6, 1989 Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM. La Transcion, oil on canvas, 1992 An archive of her papers is held in the Smithsonian Museum and the Archives of American Art.

Artwork Oneness of Dance Vigil's mural Oneness of Dance (1994) is a permanent public artwork commissioned by the City of Albuquerque 1% for Art Program. The cultural references of the work include representing women, history, spirituality, mythology, and dream symbolism. Oneness of Dance is considered a fresco mural depicting dance as a form of universal language understandable by all nations.

Spiritual Warrior Within Spiritual Warrior Within (1995) was a mural, commissioned by the city of Santa Fe Arts Commission for the exterior of City Hall. According to a publication of the City of Santa Fe, the fresco depicts "symbols of friendship, the struggle for good and evil...and the healing power of humans." Although this mural was painted as a permanent artwork for the city of Santa Fe, it no longer exists, having been destroyed by a contractor who was overseeing renovations of City Hall. The destruction occurred without the approval or knowledge of the artist, the Santa Fe Arts Commission, nor of the Historic Districts Review Board. The latter agency has authoritative oversight of all exterior alterations of buildings earmarked within the Santa Fe downtown historic district. There is debate whether or not the destruction of the mural was a political action against the mayor who had commissioned it, Debbie Jaramillo, Santa Fe's first female mayor, whose administration was marked by controversy. Vigil authored the book, Mastery of Awareness: Living the Agreements, published in 2001 by Simon & Schuster/Bear & Company. The Roswell Museum published an exhibition catalog, Bernadette Vigil: The Spirit's Inner Journey, in conjunction with her one-person show in 1997.

Exhibitions Solo All one-person shows cited in the chapter on the artist in Latin American Women Artists of the United States: The Works of 33 Twentieth-Century Women unless otherwise noted. 1990 – Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, New Mexico 1990 – Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 1993 – Milagros Contemporary Art Gallery, San Antonio, Texas 1997 – Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM

Two-person shows 1992 – Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM. Bernadette Vigil & Luis Tapia: Paintings & Woodcarvings

Group All selected group shows cited in the chapter on the artist in Latin American Women Artists of the United States: The Works of 33 Twentieth-Century Women unless otherwise noted. 1987 – Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1987 – St. John's College Art Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1988 – Albuquerque Convention Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1988 – Governor's Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1989 – Bottger Mansion Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1990 – Chicago Art Expo, Chicago, Illinois 1990 – Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 1991 – Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, New Mexico 1991 – National Museum of Ethnography, Warsaw, Poland 1991 – Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, Texas 1992 – Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana 1992 – Headley-Whitney Museum, Lexington, Kentucky 1992 – Plains Art Museum, Moorehead, Minnesota 1993 – Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1994 – Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico 1994 – Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1996 – University Art Museum, Cinco Pintoras, Albuquerque, NM