Exhibition Runs: June 13 – July 27, 2024
Exhibition Reception & Artist Talks: Saturday, June 22, 2024 5-7p, artist talks starting at 5:30p
Public Gallery Hours
Galleries are accessible to the public on Thursday – Saturday from 10am-3pm
About Surface
SURFACE: Emerging Artists of New Mexico is dedicated to cultivating the creative and professional growth of artistic talents and to expanding their visibility and viability in our community. Each year Harwood Art Center invites emerging artists from around New Mexico to submit works for consideration in SURFACE. SURFACE artists are eligible for four named awards and a solo gallery exhibition award, and all receive a special honorarium for their participation.
SURFACE is open to individuals working in any media and from diverse creative fields, including drawing, painting, printmaking, jewelry making, fashion, design, architecture, digital media, etc. We encourage submission of new and / or experimental works. Harwood takes a broad approach to “emerging artist,” and applicants are asked to self-identify with this description. Applicants must be currently living, working and/or studying in New Mexico.
SURFACE enjoys a seven-week exhibition in Harwood Art Center’s Hall Gallery throughout June and July. Artists also participate in a private day-long professional development workshop. Workshop sessions are led by professional artists, gallerists, public relations/communications specialists and local media, and focus on refining artist statements/ written materials, developing a web and communications presence, audience and collector cultivation, as well as an exhibition walkthrough with feedback on each artist’s work.
This year’s SURFACE exhibition in Harwood’s Hall Gallery features Elizabeth Beier, Tauna Cole, Jessie Dean, Shandiin DeGroat, Jen Doolittle, Matthew Ellis, Rosario Glezmir, Inga Hendrickson, Amanda Jackson Miller, Jess Merritt, Andrew Michael Joseph, Emma Ressel, Remy Sinegal and Emily Wright.
Surface Awards
In addition to receiving the SURFACE: Emerging Artists of NM award and honoriam, artists juried into the exhibition are eligible to win additional endowed cash awards. Award Winners will be announced at the Exhibition Reception.
Reggie Gammon Award
Since 2011, Harwood has honored the memory of painter, printmaker, and longtime member of our creative community, Reggie Gammon, by recognizing and presenting an endowed award in his name to a New Mexico-based emerging artist of exemplary caliber, character and dedication.
This year’s Reggie Gammon Award winner is Shandiin DeGroat.
Marion & Kathryn Crissey Award
The Marion & Kathryn Crissey Award was established and endowed to support the endeavors of emerging artists who demonstrate a commitment to their artwork, their on-going education, and the community in which they live.
This year’s Marion & Kathryn Crissey Award winner is Jen Doolittle.
Meghan Ferguson Mráz Award
The Meghan Ferguson Mráz Award celebrates an emerging artist based in New Mexico who explores themes of personal and social significance, exhibits noteworthy care for and skill in their craft, and invites reflection on connection, compassion, and gratitude.
This year’s Meghan Ferguson Mraz award winner is Andrew Michael Joseph.
Valerie Roybal Award
The Valerie Roybal Award recognizes an emerging artist based in New Mexico who – with Valerie’s spirit of curiosity and courage – channels identity, circumstance, and experience into creative practice, generating work that considers transfiguration, metamorphosis, or transmutation.
This year’s Valerie Roybal award winner is Jessie Dean.
Harwood Solo Exhibition Award
The Harwood Solo Exhibition Award is presented annually for artistic excellence, originality of vision, and dedication to practice, and culminates with a show concurrent to SURFACE in the following year.
This year the Solo Exhibition Award is presented to Inga Hendrickson.
SURFACE: Emerging Artists of New Mexico
Elizabeth Beier
Artist Statement
In 2023, amidst a series of life-rocking transitions, painting became Elizabeth Beier’s practice of both creating and letting go. Beier is moved by landscapes that show the timeless right alongside the ephemeral —canyons with shadows moving across them, mountains freshly covered in snow, or a mature cottonwood losing its fall leaves. Her art faithfully describes scenes she observed firsthand, devoid of nostalgia or metaphor. Because they are so straightforward the paintings show how her subject looked at one point in time, even as the real world continues to change second by second. Beier enjoys that acrylics dry too quickly for her to over-work with them. Beier don’t aim for photo realism, but neither does she actively seek abstraction — she paints until the moment she’s describing emerges, then stops. The act of putting her brush down and moving onto the next canvas reminds her again that nothing lasts forever.
About Elizabeth
Elizabeth Beier is an artist from California, who moved to New Mexico in 2023 to be with a partner and capture the beauty of the Southwest. Her landscapes were featured in a juried exhibition “Art Unleashed!” at Art Mozaik Fine Art Gallery on Canyon Road during March 2024. Beier is moved by landscapes that show the timeless right alongside the ephemeral — canyons with shadows moving across them, mountains freshly covered in snow, or a mature cottonwood losing its fall leaves. In California Beier spent a decade building a practice of cartooning, graphic design, storytelling, and graphic facilitation. Beier published a graphic novel (the Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors) that the Advocate called one of the best LGBT graphic novels of 2017. Her short political comics appeared on the Washington Post’s online homepage. Beier is excited to continue her artistic journey as an Albuquerque based painter.
Tauna Cole
Artist Statement
About Tauna
Tauna Cole moved to Las Cruces for the MFA program in painting, where she studied under Jacklyn St. Aubyn and Joshua Rose. Her career at NMSU expanded over 21 years as a college professor, teaching primarily foundation studio courses and art appreciation. Tauna has been involved in the community as a volunteer for the Fountain Theater, served on the board for the Dona Ana Arts Council, and is a current member of the Border Artists. She has taught kids art camps under her business name, Art Paper Scissors Studio. SInce receiving her 200 hr. yoga teacher training, she has offered creativity and yoga workshops to the community. Her work is shown regionally and locally with the Border Artists, at La Mecha Contemporary in El Paso and the Riobravofineart Gallery in Truth or Consequences.
Jessie Dean
Artist Statement
Each stitch, knot, and textural element of Jessie Dean’s fiber work is created to revel in the hidden interconnectedness of small spaces. There is a delicate balance to be explored in these pieces between order and chaos, light and shadow, and imagination versus reality. Inspired by the intricate beauty of microcosms, these threads may be viewed as either larger specimens or zoomed in close for hidden details. Each can stand alone, yet without a single defining element the focus remains in motion. These creations are a reflection of the liminal space discovered when smaller worlds finally come into focus, and we let the overtly literal fall away. Reality is often a matter of perspective, which can be changed by widening or narrowing our scope. Jessie chooses to focus on this micro-perspective as a way to remember that beauty and purpose can be found in even the tiniest movements.
About Jessie
Jessie Dean is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Albuquerque, NM. She was raised having to move often, from coast to coast, and learned early on how to steady the uncertainty through artistic practice. From childhood coloring books to a BFA in metals in 2006, creating remained a constant. That practice has ebbed and flowed in the nearly twenty interceding years while raising kids in a world that often imposes expectations and demands of unreasonable magnitude upon motherhood. Over the past several years Jessie has found her way back to a consistent art practice and now uses that life growth to inform work that turns toward the contemplative nature of fiber art.
Shandiin DeGroat
Artist Statement
Growing up Shandiin lacked direction and connection with his culture and it’s through his work that he is able to explore who he is as a Diné (Navajo) man, artist, and human being. He likes to combine his passion for skateboarding/graffiti culture with his Diné background by merging traditional motifs and Diné storytelling into his artwork. Shandiin carefully balances subject matter with bold colors and intricate linework. He uses acrylic paint on canvas or paper. His linework is always done by hand with acrylic paint and a script brush. For works on paper he likes to combine different types of mediums like acrylic, watercolor, color pencil, spray paint, markers, and oil pastels. He has also been learning a lot about printmaking and has been experimenting with monotypes and gel plates.
About Shandiin
Shandiin DeGroat is a 27 year old mixed-media artist from Kinłitsosinil (Churchrock), New Mexico. He has been creating art since childhood and comes from a family of artists. Growing up Shandiin was often left to his own devices and found himself dealing with homelessness and alcohol addiction at a young age. He found that art, comic books, skateboarding, graffiti culture, and poetry kept him grounded. The drive to create something beautiful became his only motivation to keep going forward. Shandiin has been sober for over a year now, and art has become his full-time passion. He has dedicated his time creating work for local art markets, art shows/talks and painting demos since last June and he has been blessed to have received a great welcome and support from his local art community and family.
Jen Doolittle
Artist Statement
Between being mixed race and moving a lot, Jen Doolittle never felt like she belonged. Photography helps Jen make sense of the world and her place in it. It gives her an opportunity to connect with who she is and express what she has to say without ever uttering a word.
Jen started embellishing her photos during the COVID-19 pandemic. The isolation and uncertainty led her to question what life was like ‘before’. Places once filled with people stood empty. The human presence became a memory.
She started going through her photos, picking out the ones that seem to want a little bit more. Jen individually embellishes each one, using metal leaf or thread, to add to the story that is already there. In turning the photograph into something new, Jen is exploring the relationship between the things we see, what has been left behind and what is to come.
About Jen
Jen Doolittle (she/her) is a photo based artist that embellishes photos using metal leaf and thread. Growing up, Jen moved frequently and has lived in the United States, England and Saudi Arabia. Taking photos was a way to connect with those around her. While the people in her life changed, the photos always remained. Currently residing in New Mexico, Jen uses photography to explore identity, emotion and memory. She is working on her Fine Arts Degree at CNM with plans to transfer to UNM to study photography. Jen’s work is in private collections across the United States, has been included in 2 online group exhibitions, displayed in the hallways at CNM, The Albuquerque Press Club and the 1415 Gallery in Albuquerque, NM.
Matthew Ellis
Artist Statement
Matthew’s continuing inspiration lies in handcrafted “outsider” folk toys, a fascination held since his teens. He utilizes the disarming accessible language of “play” in his work, welcoming viewers to enter into more intricate social narratives. Adhering to exacting formalist standards, he prefers nuanced subtlety to evoke inquiry and storytelling within each piece as it appears in his continually evolving and populating art toy landscape.
As an adept joiner and furniture maker, Matthew prefers wood as his primary sculptural medium, allowing for both reductionist and constructive techniques. Recent endeavors, repeatedly exploring the “play house” motif, have integrated the counterbalancing effects of quilted reclaimed fabric into his work. This offers an opportunity to infuse more amorphous, even unexpectedly lyrical, elements into his sculptures. This synergy between mediums expands artistic possibilities, enriching the narrative depth of his creations and inviting further exploration into the intersection of craftsmanship, materiality, and expression.
About Matthew
He originally trained in a rigorous traditional multi-year apprenticeship in fine furniture making and woodworking with the Rochester Folk Art Guild in New York.
He pursued advanced certification & training in museum level conservation, wooden boat-building and historic preservation with the Maine Maritime Museum Apprenticeship in Bath, Maine.
Matthew maintains a workshop as his studio sculptural practice in Santa Fe.
He also works professionally in New Mexico’s film industry within the art department of major productions, primarily in the fabrication and decoration of movie sets..
Matthew has lived in Santa Fe since 2002.
Rosario Glezmir
Artist Statement
About Rosario
Inga Hendrickson
Artist Statement
Inga Hendrickson’s recent work explores corporeal existence and material environment both in and outside of human and more-than-human bodies. Wax, fabrics, water and plastic are some of the materials that the interdisciplinary artist enlists to make her amorphous sculptures. Sculptures often reminiscent of the body, plant matter or sometimes a hybridity of beings. She considers where boundaries are blurred within and around the edges of things. The inner composition of the body is in constant conversation and reconfiguration with the surrounding environment and other beings. Through bundling and repurposing materials, she explores the intermingling of self with more-than-self as a framework for considering coexistence and reciprocity. Bodies and landscape all parts of a teaming, caressing, churning, absorbing, expelling tumble.
About Inga
Amanda Jackson Miller
Artist Statement
Drawing on her experiences as a young single mother, Amanda’s work explores the interwoven themes of motherhood, postpartum depression and female identity. Employing and stretching the traditional mediums of her own childhood memories of crochet circles, yarn, gossip, sewing and nostalgia, Amanda seeks to write her own narrative of a modern female identity – one stretched by the demands of domestic, business, and artistic endeavors.
Amanda has been heavily influenced by her studies in photography and writing as well as by her early exposure to her mother, grandmother and mother-in-law — all of whom are mixed media artists.
Amanda’s work uses carefully considered color, textures and light to present the viewer with a glance into a mother’s experience.
About Amanda
Amanda Jackson Miller is a proud New Mexican who has lived and worked in New Mexico artistically and professionally her entire career. She is a mixed media artist and prefers to work with textile, fiber arts and photography. As artisans, Amanda’s mother and grandmother exposed her to making; both as a practical means to an end and as it related to arts and crafts. Amanda attended the University of New Mexico in 2000 as a single, teenage mother. Her current work explores balancing the demands of domesticity with the desire to pursue her own artistic passions and endeavors. Amanda’s work was last shown in 2004 at the Albuquerque Museum; after a 20 year hiatus, she is thrilled to be exhibiting her work again.
Jess Merritt
Artist Statement
About Jess
Andrew Michael Joseph
Artist Statement
About Andrew
Andrew Michael Joseph is a queer, Indonesian-American photo-based artist from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received his BFA in Honors Art Studio from the University of New Mexico and currently lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Through his utilization of fabric, light, and the human form, Andrew centers the queer experience through his work, sharing a glimpse into the joys and lows he’s encountered as a transmasculine person of color. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Scribendi, Conceptions Southwest, and other publications.
Emma Ressel
Artist Statement
About Emma
Emma Ressel is a visual artist from Bar Harbor, Maine who uses photography and collage to make images about decay, consuming, and the intermingling of beauty and the grotesque. In her current work, she builds fictional and fragmented landscapes with animal specimens to speak to the complexities of perceiving nature and our desires and failures to preserve what we are losing. Ressel earned her BA in Photography at Bard College and is currently an MFA candidate in Photography at the University of New Mexico. She has exhibited across the Northeast and in New Mexico, and has completed residencies at Lugoland and at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. She is a 2023 Emerging Artist Member at Strata Gallery in Santa Fe, NM and a 2023-2024 fellow at the Center for Regional Studies at UNM.
Remy Sinegal
Artist Statement
About Remy
Remy finds her fun in reading, drawing, and harassing her cat. Easy going and fun loving Remy enjoys all sorts of food, art mediums and activities. Though she hasn’t experienced much in life she finds the fun in every day things and is open to trying most anything. Family both in blood and hand chosen are important to her because in being able to share herself authentically with her different loved ones, she has been able to learn more about herself. She has many hopes, that have become goals to which she is working towards such a bee keeping, more tattoos, donating more time to charities. Some things she has already accomplished such as being in this exhibit. Remy hopes to continue shaping herself and her artistic identity and spreading positivity however she is able.
Emily Wright
Artist Statement
Emily Wright is an artist who tells stories about herself and the world through terra cotta coil built vessels and fabric sculptural work. Always interested in the world around her, she pulls unexpected connections from familiar icons. An earworm can symbolize both a catchy tune on the radio and subversive messaging that is difficult to unlearn. By carefully layering information and labor, she infuses each piece with a tapestry of layered meaning. Emily believes that viewers bring their own experiences to these familiar icons, helping us all recognize the strange and meaningful things in our everyday lives that might otherwise be overlooked.
About Emma
Emily Wright graduated with her BFA from Alfred University in 2017 and worked as an artist and potter on the East Coast during which time she won Best Hand Built Piece in the 28th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National, and was awarded the Maryland Arts Council Fellowship. In 2023 she was granted her MFA from Penn State University, where she received the Creative Achievement Award. She now lives in Albuquerque where she teaches ceramics at Albuquerque Academy.