SUrFaCE emerging artists of new mexico
JUNE 5 - JULy 24, 2020 HArWooDArTCENTEr.ORG
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SUrFaCE emerging artists of new mexico
Harwood Art Center June 5 - July 24, 2020
Curated by Julia Mandeville and GuruAmrit Smith
COVER: Nate Lemuel, Reaching for Hope, photograph, 2019, $300
SUrFaCE is an 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. We have received hundreds of noteworthy submissions over the eight application cycles to-date; as of this year, the program has served 96 exceptionally talented, committed artists, including the 7 accepted for 2020. On March 13, 2020, in accordance with public health emergency orders, we announced Harwood’s building closure, ceased all in-person gatherings, deployed staff to work from home, and began pivoting our programs to continue mission-driven service to the 10,000 New Mexicans we engage each year. In this transition, we have made fundamental shifts in the content, strategies, and financial models we’ve refined over 29 years of rootedness in our public, physical, arts center, and we’ve shaped, tested and rolled out an array of new distance arts and exhibition engagements, and have many more to come. As we contemplated how to adjust SURFACE, for a time when we cannot plan physical convenings (such as exhibitions or opening receptions in our galleries, which have been cornerstones of this program), we’ve explored countless ideas, and we’ve sketched out a revised framework that we believe upholds the core value(s) of the program and adapts best to the upsidedown of now. As we cannot presently install in our public physical galleries, we’ve put together an online exhibition and this comprehensive digital exhibition catalog. Our Surface Professional Development Workshop & Alumni Circle Reception are the heartbeats of the SURFACE program, and they will take place in digital classroom spaces. We have an amazing network of program alumni and panelists who have served in the workshop in years past, and we will work with them to adapt content and dialogue with the recognition that there are not yet experts and best practices for this current landscape, that we are treating SURFACE as a collaborative laboratory to experiment and explore them, and that we can all benefit from a circle of support and camaraderie. Previously, artists juried into the exhibition became eligible to win endowed cash awards; in 2020, we are including a smaller total number of artists, converting existing award funds and combining with existing program support from the City of Albuquerque’s Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, to provide microgrant awards ($250) to each participant. These microgrants will support each participant in acquisition of new tools, trainings, or subscriptions that could facilitate visibility and viability in this era of distance. We will also and still select one artist as the Solo Exhibition Award recipient for an exhibition in 2021.
RoBYN A. FRANK
Robyn A. Frank, Becoming, acrylic paint on wood panel, 24” x 36”, 2019, $850
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Robyn A. Frank’s work is a celebration of selfexpansion. It externalizes the permeable boundaries of our interior sense-of-self through a visual language of celestial shapes and colors. An exploration of change — the cyclical duality of creation and loss — the compositions create an intangible space where past, present, and future assemblages of our self culminate in a soft expanse of possibility. Using allegory, reoccurring symbols include the circle, resembling a sun or moon, the self, a path that is forever becoming; the wavy line, an energetic manifestation of emotions and emotionality, evoking uncertainty and discovery contained within each moment; the rectangle within a rectangle as the ego or self-narrative that exists within a larger societal narrative. Drawing further inspiration from New Mexico’s big sky, varied hues, and cloud shapes relate to the activity of transition, both emotional and physical; a stage of vast possibility. Robyn A. Frank received her BFA in Printmaking from Pratt Institute. Formerly a professional fine art fabricator, Frank made work for world-renowned artists including Takashi Murakami, Y.Z. Kami, and Dennis McNett. In response to slowing work after the financial collapse of 2008, Frank began a career in business administration, eventually becoming the People Operations Director at the global product design agency, AREA 17. After many visits to New Mexico, she relocated to Albuquerque at the start of 2019 to reconnect with her roots as a visual artist, and to begin a career as a professional artist. Her work is a celebration of change and creating space for the person you seek to become. robynafrank.com 5
Robyn A. Frank, Unwavering Connection, acrylic on wood panel, 2019, $1500
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FRaNK’S WORK CELEBRATES CHANGE, the cyclical duality of creation and loss, where past, present, and future assemblages of our self culminate in an expanse of possibility. Using allegory, reoccurring symbols include the circle, resembling a celestial body, the self, a path forever becoming; the wavy line, a manifestation of emotionality.
Robyn A. Frank, Expanding, acrylic on wood panel, 2019, $900
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Robyn A. Frank, Landing, acrylic on wood panel, $900
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Robyn A. Frank, A Revolution of Dissolution in Blue, acrylic on wood panel, 2019, $900
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CELINE GoRDoN
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Celine Gordon, Solstice, ink on wood, 2019, $800
Celine’s work takes a close look at the rhythms, connections, and patterns found in nature. Through close observation of elements of the desert landscape and processed based drawing, she sets up rules to create the drawing before she begins and doesn’t know what the final piece will look like until it is complete. The act of creating the drawing then becomes a meditation and discovery, revealing the universal fractal structures inherent in the natural world. The final compositions diagram the growth and movement of their realworld counterpart. Celine Gordon is an artist and graphic designer from and based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She graduated from Barnard College in New York City with a B.A. in Art History and Architecture. Celine has worked as an intern at 516 ARTS and the Albuquerque Museum of Art & History, and designed books for artists and architects. She explores many different mediums, including drawing, printmaking, and digital art. celinegordon.com
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Celine Gordon, Oshun, ink on wood, 2020, $250 / Celine Gordon, Crystal, ink on wood, 2020, $250 / Celine Gordon, Cottonwood, ink on wood, 2020, NFS
“CELINE’S WORK EXAMINES PATTERNS FOUND IN NATURE.” Through close observation, she sets up rules to create the drawing before she begins and doesn’t know what the final piece will look like until it is complete. The act of creating then becomes a meditation, revealing the structures inherent in New Mexico’s landscape.
Celine Gordon, The Seed (detail), ink on wood, 2020, $1200
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Celine Gordon, The Seed, ink on wood, 2020, $1200
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NaTE LEMUEL
Nate Lemuel, 6139 (Alexandria), photograph, 2019, $500
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In this collection of photographs, Nate has captured these indigenous artists here. From the outdoors into their own space. These photographs convey to the viewer that the individuals are unique and give a strong presentation of creativity and tradition in each person’s environment. Nate Lemuel is an Indigenous Queer Photographer based out of Shiprock, New Mexico. His works of art created mostly outdoors and involve all environmental elements surrounding his photographs. His work is presented in the form of colors that exude emotion and beauty. Inspired by fashion, textiles, and other indigenous artists, he created Darklisted Photography in 2015 when he photographed at local music shows on the reservation. Since then, his work has been recognized by many media outlets. He has collaborated in many events and projects from music, fashion, and television. www.instagram.com/darklistedphotography
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Nate Lemuel, Ryan, photograph, 2020, $500
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Nate Lemuel, 1017 (Arianna), photograph, 2020, $500
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Nate Lemuel, Crossroads, photograph, 2018, $650
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MB Ramos uses a broad variety of materials and techniques to continuously inform and evolve her work. Her recent work explores belonging and the transformational navigation toward home. Beginning with materials and processes that hold meaning, she chooses forms and objects in relation to the body. Inspired by the natural world, and our place in it, Ramos knits ocean stones together with fine silver and twines memories and dreams to build connecting points as if deciphering an ancient map. Guided by the storied process which emerges, she forges connections contained within traditional tools and materials and a conversation is sparked between the maker, material, and process. Through her work she asks – What draws us and guides us? What do we align with? Where do we go from here? mbramos.com
MB Ramos, Anchor (choker), hand knit fine silver wire, sto
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MB RAMoS
ones, hand forged sterling, 2019, NFS
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MB Ramos, Anchor (mittens), hand knit fine silver wire, stones, freshwater pearls, 2020, NFS
MB Ramos was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts. She grew up surrounded and supported by the wild beauty of the island and the Atlantic Ocean. In that community, where people still practice the historical crafts and trades of maritime New England, she gravitated towards exploring the materials and techniques used by them. Ramos spent her working life becoming versed in traditional crafts and jewelry
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making before she returned to college at the University of New Mexico, where she earned her BFA in Art Studio. After raising a family, she has returned to her lifelong engagement in the practices of making, and her recent work is informed by her history and skills.
MB Ramos, Orbit (necklace), hand twined fine silver wire, forged sterling silver, chased sterling silver and 24K gold, 2019, NFS
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MB Ramos, Constellation (moth), ecnaustic, raised copper form and fine silver on wood panel, 2020, NFS
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MB Ramos, Constellation (thread), encaustic and raised copper form on wood panel, 2020, NFS
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GEoRGE RICHARDSoN
George Richardson, Mississippi Mobile #2, sculpture, 2017, $700
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N George’s art practice is grounded in perception and the pursuit for truth. He is interested in architecture and how we relate to and inhabit constructed spaces. George’s work engages this intersection of the man-made and natural worlds and investigates spaces in states of flux. This body of work, called Floats, is made from trash and commercial fishing materials sourced from the Mississippi river in New Orleans. The work is a meditation on our collective humanity, our habits, economic motivations, and hidden desires. The intent is for the viewer to become acutely aware of the imbued histories of liminal spaces and the tenuousness of humanity’s post-industrial landscape, its façade of sturdiness and grounded construction. George aspires to convey this psychology of place and how we the experience the fragility of the world. georgevjames.com
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“GEORGE’S PRACTICE IS BASED IN PERCEPTION AND THE PURSUIT FOR TRUTH THROUGH THE INVESTIGATION OF OUR RELATIONSHIP TO CONSTRUCTED SPACES.” His multimedia works utilize elements of photography, sculpture, and found objects to call into question our collective values, habits, economic motivations, and obfuscated desires.
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George Richardson, Float #2, sculpture,
, 2020, $350
George Richardson, Float # 1, sculpture, 2020, $350
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George Richardson, Mississippi Mobile #3, sculpture, 2017, $700
George Richardson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A graduate of the University of New Mexico’s photography program (BFA + BA), George’s practice is grounded in photographic-based media and two-dimensional image-making occasionally incorporating elements of writing, painting & drawing, sculpture, and video. Born into a family of city planners, his multi-disciplinary practice addresses human perception of place
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and the subconscious, and how we relate to and understand the spaces we inhabit. Increasingly George has taken interest in public interventions as well as installations in non-gallery spaces.
George Richardson, Mississippi Mobile #2, sculpture, 2017, $700
George has exhibited regionally and nationally. Previous residency experience includes a sixweek self-directed residence in Puebla, MĂŠxico at Arquetopia during the summer of 2016. He was a 2017 finalist for the Platform Fund Grant through the Andy Warhol Foundation. George maintains a studio practice in Albuquerque where he works in film and television.
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AmY VENSEL Amy Vensel’s painting process has evolved over time into a system of invented rules, peculiar logic and brief interludes of freedom. When faced with a blank canvas she defines strict compositional parameters with tape. Some sections of the surface are earmarked for experimentation. Others are reserved for space in which she reacts to previous uncontrolled marks in order to create a visual relationship. Employing custom-made tools similar to concrete trowels Vensel methodically builds up layers of acrylic polymer and pigment to create a variety of surfaces – from smooth lustrous planes that echo the backlit screens of today’s digital landscape, to thick, hazy films that obscure the painting’s history. Even though she follows a set of self-imposed rules in an attempt at controlling a painting’s outcome, ultimately the results of her efforts are driven by chance. amyvensel.com
Amy Vensel, Rensk, acrylic on c
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canvas, 2019, NFS
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Amy Vensel, Eir, acrylic on canvas, $2500
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Amy Vensel, Bly, acrylic on canvas, 2019, $3500
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Amy Vensel, Redda, acrylic on canvas, 2019, $2500
Amy Vensel is an American painter based in Las Cruces, NM. Her meticulous process involves the layering of acrylic polymer and pigment to create luminous paintings that echo the backlit screens of today’s digital landscape. Vensel’s work has been exhibited at the New Britain 40
Museum of American Art (Connecticut), the Mattatuck Museum (Connecticut), PARK (Netherlands), Trestle Gallery (New York), ESXLA (California), and The Painting Center (New York).
Amy Vensel, Peko, acrylic on canvas, 2019, $4500
Vensel is a graduate of Syracuse University and studied at the Silvermine School of Art. She has been awarded residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center, and is the recipient of an Artist Resource Trust Fund grant and a Lancaster Museum Foundation
Award. Vensel’s work has appeared in The New York Times, been reviewed in Art New England, and is included in the book, “PARK 2016-2018,” published by The Platform for Visual Arts, the Netherlands. 41
Mark Weaver’s work with woodblock prints, while completely two-dimensional, is fundamentally sculptural in nature. It is the sculptural qualities of hand-printed woodcuts which have captivated him since studying graphic design while working on a degree in architecture. Whether developing representational or completely abstract themes, Mark’s bold images reveal his focus on mass, void, texture and edge, emphasized by the striking black-and-white palette. The physicality of the wood medium is highlighted by his employment of strong tactile qualities, often resulting from his use of scavenged and used wood pieces. The images command attention, seeming not so much like pictures but more like physical objects. Albuquerque native Mark Weaver studied block printing and graphic design in the 1970s at Washington University in St Louis, while earning a degree in architecture. He has continued to make woodcuts in his home studio in the intervening years, although no pieces were exhibited (other than in friend’s homes) until 2018 when he was invited to participate in a show at Inpost Artspace in which two of his prints were included. In 2019 Mark’s print titled “Newk ‘em” (2019) was selected to hang in the permanent collection at Outpost Performance Space, and two of his prints were included in the 2020 “People’s Art Show” at Factory 5G Gallery.
Mark Weaver, Solo, hand printed woodcut on rice pa
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MaRK WEAVER
aper, 2019, $145
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Mark Weaver, Fault, hand printed woodcut on rice paper, 2019, $95
Mark Weaver, Tuba, hand printed woodcut on rice paper, 2019, $145
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Mark Weaver, Untitled 2, hand printed woodcut on rice paper, 1983, $185
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Mark Weaver, That’s The Way I Feel Now, 1998, $195
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JUNE 5 - JULY 24, 2020 • HARWOODARTCENTER.ORG/DANTE
A COLLECTION BY DANTE TSUZUKI BETSC
Dante Betsch, 1942: Closeup Front
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CH
1942
In 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, sending over 120,000 US citizens of Japanese ancestry into internment camps. Households along the western coastline were moved abruptly into often stark and unforgiving desert landscapes, forced to leave their personal possessions behind. My textile collection, 1942, explores Japanese American identity through this troubled history. Each garment is patterned on historically accurate western culture clothing of the 1940s, but incorporates the aesthetics of Japanese Boro and Kintsugi techniques, which are, significantly, both mending practices. The lining is made from UV printed photos by Dorothea Lange who documented the internment camps for the US government. I used raw indigo denim for the body and screen printed scrap denim for the Boro patchwork. The gold brocade is topstitched to echo the Kintsugi practice of mending what has been broken, and underscores the possibility of creating beauty out of a fractured past.
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ABOUT DANTE Dante Betsch holds a BFA in Graphic and Textile Design and a minor in Entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan. Growing up in New Mexico, Dante was exposed to the value of different cultural approaches, and strived to be open minded towards using new media and techniques in his art. Being Japanese-American, his art is informed in part by the awareness of race dynamics in this country, and by the social and political injustices in America. Dante’s passion is in but not limited to textiles and multimedia art. Dante Betsch received the SURFACE 2019 Harwood Art Center Solo Exhibition Award, presented annually for artistic excellence, originality of vision and dedication to practice.
Dante Betsch, 1942: Riveter Jumpsuit
dntzki.com
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Dante Betsch, 1942: Men’s Western Jacket
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Dante Betsch, Desolate
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Dante Betsch, 1942: Closeup Back
Dante Betsch, 1942: W
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Western Jacket Closeup
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Dante Betsch, Riveter Jumpsuit Closeup
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Dante Betsch, 1942: Women’s Bolero Jacket
Dante Betsch, 1942: Bolero Jacket Closeup
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SUrFaCE emerging artists of new mexico
HARWOOD ART CENTER’S GALLERIES are dedicated to providing exhibition, audience expansion and professional development opportunities to artists. Harwood Staff curate four exhibitions annually; the remaining months are awarded to individuals and groups through a competitive application process. Harwood, the outreach program of Escuela del Sol Montessori, is a creative center for community and the arts. We believe that equitable access to the arts and opportunities for creative expression are integral to inspired, passionate individuals and to healthy, vibrant communities. Participating at a grassroots level, we recognize and engage the arts as a catalyst for lifelong learning, social change and community development. We provide art education for all ages; community outreach projects and events; teaching and apprenticeship opportunities; and studios, exhibitions and professional development programs for both emerging and established artists. For 50 years, Escuela del Sol, an independent Montessori school, has nurtured selfdiscovery, social responsibility and passion for learning in our students. Each day Escuela supports students from ages 18 months to 13 years on their real-world quests to excel academically and to develop the skills they need for meaningful, happy and successful futures. Harwood and Escuela are dedicated to instilling a passion for lifelong learning, creative expression and positive impact on our world.
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MANY THANkS TO OUR geneROUS paRTnERS. We are deeply grateful to The FUNd at Albuquerque Community Foundation, Bernalillo County, City of Albuquerque / Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, The Geissman Family, McCune Charitable Foundation, New Mexico Arts and National Endowment for the Arts for their support of SURFACE: Emerging Artists of New Mexico, 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 at A Good Sign, Albuquerque Art Business Association, The Grove Cafe & Market, Tractor Brewing Company, and UNM School of Architecture and Planning.
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WWW.HARWOODARTCENTER.ORG · 505.242.6367 · 1114 7th NW, ALBUQUERQUE, NM 87102