(be)loved // Recall: Sculptural Myth and Memory - Exhibition Catalog by Harwood Art Center

(BE)LOVED

southwest black arts collective

MEMORY

RECALL: SCULPTURAL MYTH AND

lauren

dana smith

(be)loved by Southwest Black Arts Collective

In a world marked by division, injustice, inequities, and pain, how do we embrace the (BE)LOVED? Centered in the experiences of the artists as people of African heritage, this exhibition explores how (BE)LOVED exists within and extends beyond the personal realm. Using diverse mediums, the works unearth the multifaceted dimensions of “beloved”— the abiding feelings, attachments, connections, and entanglements we have with individuals and families, places and spaces, and memories (real or imagined). They invite you to consider how they shape our lives and the world around us.The featured artists are kelechi agwuncha, Alanna Airitam, Elizabeth Burden, Lizz Denneau, Amber Doe, bianca gabrielle goyette and Phoenix Savage.

The Southwest Black Arts Collective is creating connective and representative spaces for both emerging and established Black artists. Through diverse artistic practices, its members engage a myriad of themes, from cultural identity and heritage to the interplay between tangible and abstract elements in art. The collective illuminates the richness and complexity of Black artistic expression. Addressing the often solitary nature of art-making, the collective focuses on networking, collaborating on art creation, resource sharing, and cocurating exhibitions and public programming to connect with audiences in the Southwest and beyond.

kelechi agwuncha

Igbo-American artist kelechi agwuncha reanimates archival material, selfdocumentation, and moving images by using percussive force as connective tissue. As a former athlete, their work also explores athletic gestures & spatialities as a rehearsal of play. Their approach to visual media & sound often prioritizes live manipulations of the image and incorporates outdoor, public sites and the people occupying that site directly into the work in real-time. This practice reaches into our inextricable relationship to our environments and memories, so as to attune us to each other and create a new set of possible relations. They often use drum machines, 35 mm slide projectors, and various 1990s Panasonic video mixers to contemplate the image. kelechi has done live audio-visual performances through spaces including the Chicago Architectural Biennial, Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe Noise Ordinance, and Black Harvest Film Festival.

kelechi agwuncha, red omnibus, 1 channel digital video on 11 broadcast monitors (silent) and felted fleece, 5 minutes, 13 seconds, 11’x3’, 2024

alanna airitam

Alanna Airitam is a self-taught photo-based conceptual artist based in Tucson, Arizona, known for pushing the boundaries of traditional photography by incorporating materials such as metal, resin, varnish, and gold into her work. Inspired by the lighting of 17th-century paintings and the legacy of early Black studio photography. Her practice is based in the understanding that we must understand where we’ve come from to know where we are going and to be able to appreciate when we arrive. Airitam’s work has been exhibited and collected by prestigious institutions like the Center for Creative Photography, New Orleans Museum of Art, RISD Museum, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Airitam’s accolades include the 2020 San Diego Art Prize, the Michael Reichman Project Grant Award, and the 2023 Project Mesquite: New Works Grant. Committed to empowering emerging artists of color, she served on the boards of Medium Photo and Oakwood Arts, co-founded the Southwest Black Arts Collective, and is co-founder of The Projects, an experimental art space. Additionally, she mentors undergrad and grad students through the MFA Homecoming Program and supports emerging artists from low economic backgrounds in finding their voices and opportunities in the art world.

Alanna Airitam, Dueling Dogs, Ghosts, Archival pigment print on 100% cotton rag, mounted on Dibond, finished with archival varnish, 57” x 43”, 2021

elizabeth burden

Elizabeth Burden is a multidisciplinary artist blending studio work with social practice. She uses drawing, painting, video, sound, and other media in a process of artistic archivy to reflect on geographies, imaginaries, legacies, and vestiges of the future/past/present. She is intrigued by the pull of archives, the construction of histories, ephemeral inheritances, the role of memory and narrative, and the ways we make sense of it all. She seeks to create spaces of/for critical thinking, critical feeling, and critical reflection that lead to a reimagining of possibilities.

Elizabeth Burden, In this here place, we flesh, #1, Digital print on translucent vellum with embroidery handwork, 35” x 85”, 2024; Elizabeth Burden, In this here place, we flesh, #2, Digital print on translucent vellum with embroidery handwork, 35” x 85”, 2024; Images by Aziza Murray & Harwood Art Center, All Rights Reserved

lizz denneau

Lizz Denneau is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and art educator residing in the Sonoran Southwest. She obtained her teaching certificate and BFA in Art and Visual Culture Education through the University of Arizona and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a member of the Art21 Educators Institute and works with local community organizers, cultural workers, and colleges to develop practical models of social justice in art education. Her artistic practice involves ornate works that configure themselves into maximalist installations guided by her research into historical systems connected to respectability politics, its adjacency to White Supremacy and capitalism, and the duality of its effectiveness in the survival or dismantling of a people. She is the recipient of the 2024 WESTAF Bipoc Artist Award, MOCA Tucson Nightbloom Artist Grant, and the Arts Foundation of Southern Arizona’s 2024 stART: New Works Grant. She co-founded the Southwest Black Artists Collective and The Projects- art space located in Tucson, AZ. Both organizations serve a mission to bring visibility and support to Black creatives in the Southwest region.

Lizz Denneau, We Once Knew Everything, Wood, chain, rosaries, Florida Water, sage, Chickenfoot, Abalone shell, Toile, clay, cardboard, paint, beads, gems, chandelier pieces, 24”x18”x82”, 2023, Images by Aziza Murray & Harwood Art Center, All Rights Reserved

amber doe

Amber Doe is a multimedia artist who uses sculpture and performance to bear witness to the experiences of black women even as American society aims to render us and our lives as invisible and meaningless. Despite the prevalent “urban black” narrative, her experience is tied to the natural world, and Doe uses materials that reference her desert environment and lived experience as a black woman with Indigenous roots. All of her work is trans species ancestor worship.

Amber Doe (b. Washington DC) currently lives and works in Tucson, AZ. She holds a BFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is a recipient of the 2023 Night Bloom Grant via MOCA Tucson and the Warhol Foundation. The Arizona Commission on the Arts Research and Development Grant, 2023 Projecting All Voices ASU and Mellon Foundation Fellowship, and the 2021 Abbey Awards Fellowship. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, The LeRoy Neiman Art Gallery, and Untitled Gallery, New York, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids Gabriel Rolt Gallery, Amsterdam, La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires, UNREPD Gallery, Los Angeles, Pidgin Palace and Snakebite Gallery, Tucson.

bianca gabrielle goyette, a harsh or jarring sound (in f#.m), 308 hours of laser etching on handmade (by the artist) paper | cotton, 38” x 120”, 2024, Images by Aziza Murray & Harwood Art Center, All Rights Reserved

bianca gabrielle goyette

bianca gabrielle goyette is a visual and performing artist based in Angel Fire, NM.

She is a papermaker, a vocalist, a photographer working in still and moving pictures, a sculptor, and a writer. She uses overlapping words and imagery to erode the distance between the real and the imaginary, working with materials and processes that speak to the strength and fragility of the human condition. Her work focuses on the radical racial tradition and social issues centered around communication, language, and community (or the lack thereof).

bianca holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from Parsons School of Design. She has exhibited her work in Chicago, New York, and New Mexico, released three studio albums and six singles, and toured the United States. bianca is also a creative director and copywriter specializing in the fabrication of digital assets and experiences that shift how we interact with and perceive the world.

phoenix savage

Phoenix Savage is a Medical Anthropologist with an MFA in Sculpture. She engages in a research-based studio practice, creating objects and installations designed to evoke haptic experiences, seeking interactive viewer engagements. Each works of art are an invitation of exploration into the space between tangible and ethereal realms of existence.

She is one of the co-founders of the Southwest Black Arts Collective and of The Projects (Tucson, AZ). She has been an artist-in-residence at the Studios at MASS MoCA (2023), the Santa Fe Arts Institute (Revolution Residency, 2022; Truth and Reconciliation Residency, 2019), and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Trainings for the Not Yet, 2019). She was a Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellow (Arizona State University, 2020).

Recall: Sculptural Myth and Memory by Lauren Dana Smith

The sculptural relief paintings in the Recall series leverage intuition and memory, spatial relationship, physical tension and aesthetic awareness. Some viewers interpret the works as sinew, muscle, bone and respond to the surface tension created in the space. Others have felt haunted as if they were visiting another time in history. Both experiences hold truth. Created between 2021 and 2024 and utilizing tactile and textural media (plaster, gauze, upcycled materials such as paper, shipping/packing materials, plastics, cardboard, charcoal, oil stick, acrylic paint) on a relational scale, every piece in the series references both body and earth. Emotional tension and narrative is driven through the manipulation of structure, form and contrast.

Page 21: Lauren Dana Smith, Captiva (detail), wood, gauze, plaster, waxed sail twine, found paper, acrylic, charcoal 66 x 41 x 58, 2024, Image by Aziza Murray and Harwood Art Center, All Rights Reserved

Page 22: Lauren Dana Smith, Recall, Plaster, gauze, found paper

My relationship with plaster as a medium began more than a decade ago as an art psychotherapist in New York City, working in medical/ surgical hospital settings. In my therapeutic training and work, I was drawn to plaster as a symbolic modality for the support and transformation of both physical and psychological states. I learned how plaster is thermally responsive and warms up while you’re working with it and then cools before hardening completely. It is almost a mirror of one’s own experience in a body. I explored the material in my studio and also with my patients in the hospital. When engaging a patient with plaster, I introduced an organic process into an otherwise sterile hospital environment and connected them with an awareness of their own body contour and temperature. This was particularly relevant in the context of medical illness or surgical experiences where people frequently felt detached from their bodies or due to invasive procedures, felt an actual or perceived sense of loss of bodily autonomy or physical agency. There is a subversive quality in the material that I am drawn to: in repurposing the same plaster gauze used for mending broken bones in the emergency department I attempt to mend emotional wounds, traumas and psychological conflict through an arts-based, therapeutic relationship.”

During my experience working as a palliative care psychotherapist, I used plaster to support people transitioning from this life to the next. Plaster helped me to cast the clasped hands of loved ones as they approached end-oflife. I worked with thousands of families over those many years. Those cast sculptures were meant to be transitional objects, again to bridge a liminal divide, and to provide comfort and closeness against the backdrop of psychological disorganization, that for some people, proximity to death inspires.

“Later in my practice now, I no longer work in medical settings. I find respite in the mountains of Taos and I revisit plaster in my practice with an aesthetic awareness. I am still drawn to the flexibility, durability and process of becoming – moving from warm and fluid -- to cool and cold -- to hard and matte dry. My earlier flat paintings have transformed into sculptural entities. I accentuate physical and emotional contour. I forge deep crevasses, fractures, joints, fault lines, masses, plateaus, gorges, new formations – neither explicitly anatomical nor geographical – and yet somehow both. I experiment with physical tension over pigmentation. I introduce other materials – pumice, aluminum, charcoal. I build physical armatures out of soft sculptural materials. I repurpose found materials in my home and make them foundational. As I continue in the series, the pieces form their own narrative. They somehow locate themselves in myth and memory as well as the present. The memory of human experience, of mending the body and the mind, and the myth that we are broken and cannot be repaired. Through this experiential sculptural series I think often about parallels between body and land. How we may become psychologically eroded over time and yet through these experiences, new formations of self may emerge – possibly more durable than before. I ask, “where does the earth end and my body begin? Where does your body begin and where does it end? How can we be both?”

- Lauren Dana Smith

Pages 24-28, 30: Lauren Dana SmithRecall: Sculptural Myth and Memory, Installation, 2024

Lauren Dana Smith, The Breath of this Place, Plaster, gauze, found paper, pumice, charcoal, acrylic and oil stick on panel, 36 x 48, 2022

lauren dana smith

Lauren Dana Smith (b. 1979, Philadelphia) is an artist, writer and art psychotherapist living in Taos, New Mexico. Smith’s multidisciplinary practice utilizes sculptural, digital, video and sound compositions to process land and body politics through a feminist lens. Smith studied painting and received her B.A. from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. Smith is a faculty member at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where she received her M.P.S. in Creative Arts Therapy and Creativity Development. Smith’s work has been exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally. In 2021 she received a SURFACE: Emerging Artist of New Mexico award from the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque. She has been recognized nationally for her digital art series. Her work has appeared in publications such as Hyperallergic, Art & Cake LA, New Visionary Magazine, ARTWALK magazine and the Santa Fe Literary Review. Smith has published and presented widely within the fields of psychotherapy, art therapy, traumatology, pediatrics and palliative medicine. Smith is a Co-Founder of the Taos Abstract Artist Collective.

Harwood Art Center is dedicated to providing exhibition, audience expansion and professional development opportunities to artists working in any media and from diverse creative fields. Featuring established, emerging, and youth artists, our Galleries Program engages a supportive process from concept development through installation and public opening. For more information visit: harwoodartcenter.org

JAN

JANUARY

18- FEBRUARY 24

Illumination: The Artists of ArtStreet, Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless Harwood Art Center and ArtStreet of Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless co-present Illumination, a collection of works by the artists of ArtStreet that center around a desire to invite you into their inner world. This marks the 27th anniversary of this annual exhibition partnership.

Reception: Saturday, February 3 | 4:30-6:30pm

MAR

MARCH 7- APRIL

ENCOMPASS: Embodiments of Wonder

An annual celebration that is both a reflection of and an offering to our community, Encompass features Open Studios, art making activities, installations by student artists, and five invitational exhibitions including Embodiments of Wonder commissioned installations by Adrian Martin, Adrian Pijoan, Audrey Montoya, Monika Guerra, Sallie Scheufler, and Shawn Turung and Ithacan Mythologies/Whose Home? by Harley Kirschner.

Reception: Saturday, April 13 | 4:30-7:30pm

APR

APRIL

25 - JUNE 1

Plein Air Collaborations: PALs (Plein Air Landscapers)

Demonstrates the inspirational benefits provided by the practice of plein air painting, as well as the significance of group activities to better physical and mental health and creative output.

Jordan Caldwell: A Moments Time

A Moments Time shows the everyday hidden beauty of this cold isolated developed world we live in. In situations that people would normally overlook or see as aimless, Caldwell chooses to find comfort and contentment. This exhibition appreciates small moments like leaving for school at dawn, being stuck in traffic, waiting for a bus, coming home at dusk, or walking on a rainy day.

Reception + Artist Talks: Saturday, May 18 | 4:30-6:30pm

JUN

JUNE

13- JULY 27

SURFACE: Emerging Artists of New Mexico

SURFACE: Emerging Artists of New Mexico is the annual juried exhibition, endowed awards and professional development program presented by Harwood Art Center, to support the creative and professional growth of emerging artists and to expand their visibility and viability in our community.

Zuyva Sevilla: Surface 2023 Solo Exhibition Award Winner

Reception + Artist Talks: Saturday, June 22 | 5:00-7:00pm

Harwood offers four capstone exhibitions annually:

1 ENCOMPASS A multi-generational art event

2 SURFACE Emerging Artists of New Mexico

3 RESIDENCY for Art & Social Justice

4 12x12 Our annual fundraiser; all proceeds support our free community arts education, outreach and professional development.

AUG

AUGUST 8 - SEPTEMBER 14

Southwest Black Arts Collective: (BE)LOVED

In a world marked by injustice, inequity, and pain, how do we embrace the (BE)LOVED?

Centered in the experiences of the artists as people of African heritage, this exhibition explores how (BE)LOVED exists within and extends beyond the personal realm.

Lauren Dana Smith: Recall: Sculptural Myth and Memory

This exhibition asks, "Where does the earth end and my body begin? Where does your body begin and where does it end?"

Sarah Aziz: Tumbleweed Rodeo Tumbleweed Rodeo reconstitutes tumbleweeds into an inhabitable landscape drawing and positions the question of invasive species (what came first, and what’s truly invasive?) not as disasters but as displays of the majesty of nature and life.

Reception: Saturday, August 24 | 4:30-6:30pm

SEPT

SEPTEMBER 26- NOVEMBER 2

Residency for Art & Social Justice

Harwood’s Residency for Art & Social Justice features and supports artists working at the intersections of creative expression and social justice. The ten month program includes a private studio at Harwood, artist and material honoraria, project support and public exhibitions. Resident Artist, Gael Luna: Lucha Libre Trans Queer Art Espectacular Uplifting the lives of transgender and queer athletes in New Mexico

Reception + Artist Talks: Saturday, October 19 | 4:30-6:30pm

DEC

DECEMBER 6-13

12x12: Harwood’s Annual Fundraising Exhibitions 12x12, 6x6 and The Shop at Harwood features original work by established, emerging and youth artists from New Mexico. This event includes ~200 works that remain anonymous until sold, for the flat rates of $144 (12”x12”) or $36 (6”x6”). The Shop highlights the intersections of art, design and daily living with works by notable New Mexico artists.

Exhibition Reception: Friday, December 6 | 5:30pm-7:30pm 12x12 Online Store Opens: Saturday, December 7 | 6:00pm

Image Credits: (Left, Top to Bottom): Harley Kirschner, Lotus Morning on Lake Cayuga; Thomas Carney, 9.5x6.5; Zuyva Sevilla, Hyperlux 6; Gael Luna, Sky Ancestor; (Center): Audrey Montoya, ICE CREAM CONE; (Right, Top to Bottom): Alanna Airitam, Take a Look Inside; Sarah Aziz, LEMB, and CO-OPt, Tumbleweed Rodeo Drawing Workshop; Anna Escamilla, Liam's Pond Paint Around; Lauren Dana Smith, Obedience Plaster; Jordan Caldwell, Traffic Over the Rio Grande; The Shop Image Credit: Caitlin Carcerano, Asteraceae Risograph Card

Shop at

Shop: harwoodstore.square.site

The

Harwood is a boutique gallery currently representing the following artist for a calendar year: Kristin Anchors, Carrie Botto, Caitlin Carcerano, Jen DePaolo, Diego Medina, Linda Montagnoli, Gloria Olazabal, Emily Silva and Mark Weaver.

ABOUT HARWOOD ART CENTER

HARWOOD ART CENTER’S GALLERIES

is dedicated to providing exhibition, audience expansion and professional development opportunities to artists working in any media and from diverse creative fields. Our gallery program is curated and managed by our Chief Programs Officer and Associate Directors of Opportunity and Engagement. Artists are invited to exhibit during three of our annual capstone events, Encompass, Residency for Art & Social Justice & 12x12, the rest of our exhibitions are awarded to individuals and groups through a competitive application process. Most of our applications are free to apply, any collected fees allocated to replenishing Harwood’s endowed cash awards for the program. Each featured exhibition is a supportive process, we work with the artists from concept development to installation in the galleries. For our 2021 exhibiting artists, we have developed a hybrid offering of both in person and virtual programming. For each exhibition we create comprehensive outreach and digital materials including exhibition catalogs, virtual galleries and artist talks to support the unique visions and voices of our gallery artists.

Seeded in 1991, Harwood Art Center blooms the philosophy of our parent organization Escuela del Sol Montessori, with recognition that learning and expression offer the most resilient pathways to global citizenship, justice and peace. Harwood engages the arts as a catalyst for lifelong learning, cultural enrichment and social change, with programming for every age, background and income level. We believe that equitable access to the arts and opportunities for creative expression are integral to healthy individuals and thriving communities. In all of our work, we cultivate inclusive, reflective environments where everyone feels cared for. We nurture long-term, multi-faceted relationships with participants, building programs with and for diverse communities of Albuquerque. We integrate the arts with social justice, professional and economic growth, and education to cultivate a higher collective quality of life in New Mexico.

HARWOOD ART CENTER’S OFFICIAL GALLERY & EXHIBITION PHOTOGRAPHER

We are so thrilled to have an official Harwood Photographer for our galleries program this year! We are able to present the SURFACE Emerging Artists of NM Award and Microgrant of $250 to each of this year’s artists thanks to the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, New Mexico Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and the McCune Foundation.

Aziza Murray is a New Mexico based artist working primarily in photography. In 2015 she graduated with an MFA from the University of New Mexico where she also worked as a pictorial archiving fellow for the Center for Southwest Research. Since then, Aziza has worked in different capacities in the film industry in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, further piquing her interest in cinematography. Much of her work stems from a well of nostalgia for objects and moments, the materiality of photography, and her personal history—from experiencing tragic loss at an early age, to her multilayered experiences as a biracial person growing up in Washington, DC. She has shown her work in DC at Connersmith and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Albuquerque at the Harwood Art Center, the UNM Art Museum and the National Hispanic Cultural Center and, at MASS Gallery in Austin, TX.

azizamurray.com azizamurray@gmail.com

Many thanks to our genrous supporting partners: Albuquerque Art Business Association / ARTScrawl, Albuquerque Community Foundation, Downtown Neighborhood Association, McCune Charitable Foundation, New Mexico Arts and National Endowment for the Arts, City of Albuquerque Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, US Bank, and A Good Sign. Special thanks to Nusenda Foundation and Sandia Foundation for support of our Creative Roots program and to Fay Abrams and to Debi & Clint Dodge for support of our exhibiting and commission artists. As well as to Marion & Kathryn Crissey and Reggie Gammon for establishing our endowed awards for this program, and to Meghan Ferguson Mráz and Valerie Roybal for their unwavering support and constant inspiration – and for whom we named new annual awards in 2019. SURFACE would not be possible without our extraordinary local collaborators.