Robert Wilder Nightingale, the owner of Wilder Nightingale Fine Art first came to Taos to visit an old high school friend who had moved here.
“I loved it,” he says now, over twenty-five years later.
“I liked the variety of art, I liked the eclectic vibe – in fact I liked everything about it so I went home, quit my job, packed up my car and moved here.”
“I studied art at Columbia College in Chicago,” he tells me,” and after graduating I was thrust into the work force, but not in the art world, so the move to Taos was very serendipitous.”
“I got a job at a local gallery,” he continues, “and soon after, I met a new friend and we decided to open our own gallery.”
Eleven years ago Rob became the sole proprietor of the space on Kit Carson Road, which has since become one of Taos’ foremost Contemporary Art Galleries.
These days Wilder Nightingale Fine Art represents over thirty-five leading regional artists. The works are as eclectic as the space they are housed in. Rob’s background as an artist himself, serves him well. His eye for great work, is flawless.
Traditional landscapes in oil, pastel and watercolor hang beside Encaustic Abstractions and the wonderful shifting images of Suzanne Betz’ horses.
Other works by artists Stephen Day, Peggy Immel, Margaret Nes, Valerie Graves and 2006 New Mexico’s Governors Award for Excellence in the Arts recipient, the late Rory Wagner, also hang on the gallery walls, making it a destination spot for art lovers visiting Taos.
Be prepared to spend some time in here when you come – the gallery itself is composed of several rooms in a historical building that lends its own charm to the installations.
Wilder Nightingale Fine Art is a relaxed and comfortable environment – in fact Rob’s office is more like a gentleman’s study set up in the center of this warren of rooms.
His approach to dealing Art is as relaxed as the space he has carved out to work in. It might appear to an outsider that he’s just sitting comfortably at his table sipping coffee, but the phone ringing off the hook, and the files and piles of paperwork sitting beside the computer indicate clearly that this is a man who gets the job done.
One of the artists who is represented by Wilder Nightingale is Jonathan Sobol, who currently has a one man exhibition at the Fechin Museum. I will profile Jonathan here on the blog tomorrow.
To find out more about Wilder Nightingale Fine Art and the artists represented by the gallery, please visit their site linked below this post.
All photographs, including images of Suzanne Betz and Jonathan Sobol’s work, care of Wilder Nightingale Fine Art.
