Opening Reception: Saturday, March 2 from 5 – 8pm
Exhibition Runs: March 2 – 28, 2019

Haley Greenfeather English, Lynnette Haozous, David Leigh, Madeline MacKenzie, and Jeremy Salazar explore the Future Perfect by projecting themselves forward and looking back on actions yet to be completed through site-specific, ephemeral installations and murals in the gallery.

 

Haley Greenfeather English

“We will be seen when we begin to see.”

“I sit outside the Hotel Marriott. I’m at the Red Road Convention. It is an AA convention that celebrates Indigenous sobriety. My attention is drawn to a group where I hear a familiar laugh. It is my dad. He has taken me to these conventions my entire life and I feel at home here. A mustached biker sits beside me. A tall man in glasses with white hair approaches him. They stare at each other silently. I hear the white haired many say, “Nice to see you.” The biker breaks into a large smile and he replies, “Well it’s nice to be seen.” They begin to laugh and fall into a hug followed by an invitation to sit. A natural and warm conversation begins; the kind shared between old friends. Their exchange is a testament to this space where people genuinely accept, love and acknowledge one another.”

Haley Greenfeather English is an artist and educator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a Native New Mexican of Irish, Red Lake and Turtle Mountain Ojibwe descent. She holds a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. English uses whimsical portraiture and brash vibrant colors to explore the oddity, humor, and contradictory aspects of humanity. Her work draws from observation, personal narrative and recycled memories, to break down imposed notions of reality based on western cultural biases. She has received the Bureau of Indian Affairs scholarship and the Full Circle Scholarship from the American Indian College fund. English has exhibited her work locally in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, as well as, San Francisco, CA. She has work in the Bernalillo County Public Art Collection, and The Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Collection. She has been an artist-in-residence at The Growlery, in San Francisco, CA.

Lynnette Haozous

“I will have peace when they respect Indigenous Sovereignty. I will have peace when my Indigenous People can finally live peacefully. I will have peace, once Indigenous rights, ways of life, and sacred sites have no longer been threatened. I will have peace when Indigenous ways of life are truly allowed to thrive.

I will have peace when my future children have clean water, food, land and air. I will thrive when my ways of life have no longer been threatened.

I will have peace when my people can truly live free. You will have peace when you can truly live free. We shall have peace when the people can truly live free.”

Lynnette Haozous is Chiricahua Apache (of the San Carlos Apache Tribe), Diné, and Taos Pueblo. Haozous is a multi-medium artist, advocate and teacher, blending art and advocacy to bring attention to the current social conditions and injustices of Indigenous People. Mediums include acrylics, watercolors, and spray paint. Haozous has also taught at OffCenter Community Arts Project and at Working Classroom Inc. both in Albuquerque, NM. Haozous’ mural works can be found at Nativo Lodge Room 519, Hotel Chaco, OT Circus Gallery and Emerson Elementary School, all in Albuquerque, NM.

David Leigh

“I will have scratched it out from the past, lines that hold a truth.
You will have recognized the rabbit holes, the distance of fate.
We will have bargained for something more about which to speak.”

“My installation reflects an investigation into missing parts of my personal history. We all have holes in our past, and mine includes a lack of knowledge surrounding my Syrian ancestry. My grandmother is Syrian, but her past and our heritage was never acknowledged or discussed while growing up. I have become increasingly interested in the space of that past, and this installation is a meditation on the imagery, materials, and content associated with it.”

David Leigh is an artist and educator living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Besides his studio practice, he has long held that that other areas of making are equally important to his role as an artist. After graduating from UNM, he co-founded Donkey Gallery in 2004, was Professor of Art and Gallery Director at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Visual Arts Director at Working Classroom, and opened Generator Art Space in 2010. Leigh currently teaches painting, drawing and ceramics at Albuquerque High School, where he is working on a large-scale mural project. His work has been shown nationally and internationally.

Madeline MacKenzie

“I will learn to stop chasing,
learn that it can never be caught.
I will learn to see
and feel what I have always had.”

“This work aims to reflect feelings of dissatisfaction, of pursuit, of futility. We see satisfaction and happiness as attainable states. Something that can be reached through great works and through the acknowledgement of others. As a result, we’re chasing – constantly and endlessly. Reaching out and groping in the dark for something that resembles fulfillment. It changes shape, and we run after it. We think that through the right efforts, we can catch it and transcend the threshold where satisfaction lies. This thinking can cause a disregard for the small comforts that accompany everyday life. My goal is to work towards contentment, towards a more present state of mind, to stop chasing and look up.”

Madeline MacKenzie is a painter and designer from Albuquerque, New Mexico and a recent graduate of the University of Arizona. She is interested in exploring the human experience through concepts of fulfillment, connection (or loneliness), freedom of choice, and living within the bounds of time and age. Her paintings aim to represent and reflect on these ideas through metaphorical objects, animals, and details of the human body.

Jeremy Salazar

“As men, we will have clarity when we look in the mirror and take accountability for our patriarchy.
You will learn self-love when you have self reflection.
Our hearts will open when we acknowledge and communicate our emotions without violence.
We will learn equality when we see women as powerful souls and become their allies.”

Jeremy Salazar was born in 1994 and raised in the South Valley of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jeremy discovered his passion for art through skateboarding while photographing and filming skate videos with his friends. He eventually started fixing his own clothes that would rip up from skating and drawing on t-shirts in high school. This lead him to becoming a self taught multi-talented artist in photography, fashion design, film making and painting.

Jeremy Salazar’s lifestyle is his own work of art. He chooses to express art visually through fashion, films, photography and painting, and he uses all of his talents combined to create one language that tell a similar story. Jeremy’s creative process is influenced by his journal writing/sketches, sometimes dreams or the people he engages on the streets. Jeremy’s photography and films are his way of telling individual stories and bringing dreams to life.