Arts in New Mexico date back to the Ancient Puebloans, and their mastery of textile arts. Their artistic skills have been passed down to, and continued by, the Pueblo modern culture. New Mexico is, and has been, home to several artists, including those in the Taos art colony.

Albuquerque

Some of the local museums, galleries, shops and other points of interest include the several arts and history museums around Old Town Albuquerque. Since 1961, the New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair, a non-profit show, exclusively for New Mexico artists and held annually in Albuquerque.

Santa Fe

The city and county have a high concentration of artists. Most of the early artists traveled to the area to capture the natural beauty of the landscape, the flora and the fauna. One of the most well-known of these New Mexico–based artists was Georgia O’Keeffe, who lived for a time in Santa Fe, but primarily in Abiquiu, a small village about 50 mi (80 km) away. O’Keeffe’s friend, western nature photographer Eliot Porter, died in Santa Fe. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and the New Mexico Museum of Art own several of her works.

Art galleries

Canyon Road, east of Santa Fe Plaza, has the highest concentration of art galleries in the city, and is a major destination for international collectors, tourists and locals. The Canyon Road galleries showcase a wide array of contemporary, Southwestern, indigenous American, and experimental art, in addition to Russian, Taos Masters, and Native American pieces. Old Town Albuquerque is home to several arts museums and galleries, including the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History.

Cartoons and Comics

The Chuck Jones Studio Gallery Santa Fe showcases the artworks of Chuck Jones, and several other cartoonists. There are original animation cels from Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the Peanuts’ specials, and several others.

The city of Albuquerque has more comic shops, per capita, then any other city in the United States.

Cartoonist Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, grew up in Albuquerque, and attended St. Pius.