12th SITE SANTA FE International: Once Within a Time

Among the most demanding challenges were the exhibition didactics—commissioned texts, limited wall space, and bilingual content in English and Spanish—were critical design factors. With nearly 300 works at SITE alone, the volume of labels was significant. APFEL used two typefaces, in a two-column layout, to distinguish the languages and balance the varied column lengths.

The solution, developed by London-based design studio A Practice for Everyday Life (APFEL) in close collaboration with the curator, and SITE SANTA FE’s in-house team, was to treat the space itself as a design medium. The heart of the exhibition was at SITE, a former warehouse that was converted in 1995 into a contemporary art space and significantly renovated in 2017 by SHoP Architects. Rather than constructing additional walls in SITE’s galleries, APFEL built a mesmerizing environment with color, light, materiality, and typography.

Once Within a Time takes its name from a film by Godfrey Reggio. The exhibition, like the film, is centered on circularity and storytelling, weaving New Mexico’s layered histories through the lives of more than 20 local figures: mythical beings, reclusive artists, distinctive writers, and charismatic healers. The visual identity holds this duality throughout—the real and imagined, the historical and contemporary—built on gradients, abstracted photography, and a bespoke typeface that sits between the organic quality of handwriting and digital precision.

The exhibition left no wall bare or floor-space underutilized. Working with Maharam, APFEL developed a custom fabric to match the gradients in the visual identity. These translucent curtains were suspended from overhead fixtures, dividing the open floor plan into legible zones without obscuring the art within, and producing a subtle moiré effect that deepened the sense of discovery. Lighting carried the gradient into the architecture: colored track lighting in blues and oranges washed the ceiling and walls, while focused task lighting drew attention to individual works of art.

APFEL also designed a suite of exhibition furniture, including wall shelves, tables, and floor-to-ceiling structures the team called “bus stops,” which held historical objects and digital screens. Fabricated on-site in steel by SITE’s preparators, these pieces brought the exhibition’s material language off the wall and into the room.

As for material substrates, vinyl was ruled out early: Santa Fe no longer had a vendor with the capacity to cut that volume of text in time for opening. APFEL made a decision that shaped the feel of the galleries: every standard label would be printed and mounted on styrene to match the backing wall color. However, mounting on a substrate with depth revealed a white edge on what was otherwise meant to be a seamless design approach. In the days before the public opening, SITE staff hand-painted the edges of every label to match their face color. Nobody who walked through would have known it—yet less visual noise, and clearly presented information successfully delivered to those who craved it.

Working with DCL Boston (over 2,000 miles away), the figure-of-interest labels were painted with matching Benjamin Moore wall colors and then direct-printed onto aluminum, allowing them to be embedded into the exhibition furniture for material continuity.

Standardized in width and type design, all else was variable: height, color, and an instructed flexibility in material—like a Sol LeWitt mural. This design solution to a monolith of text proved successful and fed into all editorial projects: from maps to short guides, and the catalogue.

The curatorial vision, design excellence, and labor to create Once Within a Time drew roughly 40,000 international, national, and local visitors to New Mexico between June 27, 2025 and January 12, 2026, and received coverage in more than 60 publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and Art in America, bringing sustained international attention to Santa Fe’s artistic and cultural community.

Design Team

Cecilia Alemani (curator)
Marina Caron (assistant curator)
A Practice for Everyday Life (lead design firm)
Maxwell Holmes (director of exhibitions, SITE SANTA FE)
Shannon McLean (graphic designer, SITE SANTA FE)
Carolina Franco-Glenn (director of external affairs, SITE SANTA FE)

Collaborators

SITE SANTA FE
DCL Boston
Graphic Sky
FastSigns
Big Color Printing (Resolution Graphics)
Blackout Graphics
Pronto Signs & Graphics (physical fabrication)
JuanPablo Talfur
Damon Griffith
Sabrina Griffith
Bonnie Lee
Samantha Manion-Chavez
Taylor Walsh

Photo Credits

Brad Trone, Erik Benjamins (photography)

Open Date

June 2025