Exhibition Runs: June 12 – July 26, 2025
Exhibition Reception & Artist Talks: Saturday, June 21, 2025 4:30p – 6:30p, artist talks starting at 5:00p
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 their artist materials and artworks for consideration. Invited SURFACE artists are eligible for four named awards and a solo gallery exhibition award, and all receive a $250 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 artists enjoy 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, curators, 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 provided on each artist’s work.
This year’s SURFACE exhibition features Benjamin Tobias, Chris Kemler, Christine Sullivan, Desara Boehm, dylan lilla, Geo Evans, Jared Putnam, Latasha Hagan, Linden Eller, Marie-Pier Frigon, Maya Perez, Ocelotl Mora, Olivia Berkey, Roxanne Márquez and Yu Yan.
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 Geo Evans.
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 Yu Yan.
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 Latasha Hagan.
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 Roxanne Marquez.
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 Maya Perez.
SURFACE: Emerging Artists of New Mexico
Benjamin Tobias
Artist Statement
Benjamin draws inspiration from abstract expressionist. The use of color to convey emotions is something that draws Benjamin to abstract color field paintings. He grew up in a religious household and went to catholic school from 1st-12th grade. Being exposed to religious iconography his whole life he utilizes color and gold leaf to elevate his paintings and connect them to a spiritual level. Benjamin is inspired by his friends, the community he participates in and the natural beauty found in the multiple areas of New Mexico and its culture. Benjamin has experimented with various mediums such as intaglio, oil, acrylic, mixed media, fiber arts, writing and photography. However, he most enjoys painting and photography as his forms of expression.
About Benjamin
Benjamin is a father, an educator, a community servant and a lifelong learner. Originally from Houston, TX, he has called Albuquerque home for the last 16 years. He graduated from CNM/UNM with a degree in Art History focusing on Medieval, Gothic Art and Architecture in the Iberian peninsula. He will start his Master’s in Education Psychology in Fall ‘25. He lives with his 9 year old son in Downtown Albuquerque. Benjamin has worked at various art non-profits in Albuquerque, a Montessori school, and currently at Central New Mexico Community College. Benjamin is grateful to serve the community in his current role at CNM and is happy to call Albuquerque his home.
Chris Kemler
Artist Statement
About Chris
Chris Kemler has been an artist working in Las Cruces, New Mexico since 2021. Previously, Chris worked on his furniture craft, winning awards at the Texas Furniture Makers Show in 2010 and 2011 and being included in Craft Texas 2012 at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Currently Chris works on custom commissions and sculptural pieces while participating in local art shows, including a solo show at the Jo-an Smith Gallery in 2024 and an upcoming solo show at the Mad Hatter Gallery in October 2025. Chris has also had the honor of being invited to join the Border Artists and has been a member since November 2024.
Christine Sullivan
Artist Statement
Christine Sullivan, a interdisciplinary, conceptual artist, employs painting, screen printing, and fiber arts to engage viewers in a dialogue that challenges established paradigms and offers fresh perspectives. Sullivan uses wool felt—traditionally associated with craft and domesticity—as a medium to question and reinterpret societal norms and symbols, particularly the grandiose messaging found in religious, political, and corporate spheres. Her text-based felt works highlight the repetitive language of corporate and religious doctrines, exposing the tension between truth and illusion and their effects on society’s well-being. In her latest explorations with felt, Sullivan pushes the boundaries of the medium. Moving beyond text, she seeks a more visceral mode of communication, harnessing the material’s sensuality and presence to convey meaning in a purely corporeal way.
About Christine
Christine Sullivan lives in Lamy, New Mexico and dedicates herself to her interdisciplinary conceptual art practice, after a long career as a graphic designer in New York City, working with the Guggenheim Museum and other arts-related clients. In 2022, Sullivan exhibited “Choice” in Albuquerque as part of a billboard project by Save Art Space. Earlier that year, she created “Hope Dies Last,” an art installation in Santa Fe’s Railyard, paying homage to social justice advocates. In 2020-21, Sullivan received a grant from the City of Santa Fe for “Felt During COVID,” a community art project showcased at the Public Library Gallery, and virtual auction benefiting Navajo Nation COVID Response Fund. In 2020, her work “Flowers Grow Out of Dark Moments—Corita Kent” graced a billboard outside SITE Santa Fe as part of the museum’s “2020 Silver Linings” project. Sullivan’s art continues to evolve, leaving a lasting impact on our cultural landscape.
Desara Boehm
Artist Statement
Living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I use landscape to explore how emotion shapes my understanding of memory, time, and place through drawing, painting, and bookmaking. With every brushstroke, drawing, and bound page, I translate personal experiences into visual narratives that move fleeting moments into enduring connections. I strive to authentically express the intimate moments that have given me a language to interpret life. Each handmade book serves as a personal archive of memory. Time and place are captured with natural pigments, charcoal, and watercolor. Light, form, and texture convey the significance that material has in expressing emotion in my work. This dialogue between the inner and external worlds has transformed the act of making into a refuge—a meditative practice of being fully present. When viewing my work, I hope to provide a space to pause and connect with the natural rhythms that shape our lives.
About Desara
Desara Boehm is an artist living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who uses landscape as a language to explore how emotion shapes her understanding of memory, time, and place. Through drawing, painting, and bookmaking, she translates personal experiences into visual narratives that bridge the internal and external worlds. Her practice employs natural pigments, charcoal, pastels, and watercolors to capture both the fleeting quality of light and the enduring textures of her surroundings, with each handmade book serving as a tactile archive of memory. Driven by a commitment to technical precision and poetic intuition, Boehm transforms the act of making into a meditative refuge—a process that turns transient moments into enduring connections. Through her work, she invites viewers to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the natural rhythms that shape our lives.
dylan lilla
Artist Statement
dylan lilla creates work that centers queer/trans joy and experiences. Their ideas are guided by queer theories like queer assemblage, affect, and intra-action. They center queer/trans joy because that joy, in the face of active oppression, is an act of resistance. The fabric lilla uses is recycled or donated by the folks portrayed in their work. lilla’s pieces manifest as highly colorful portraits using crafts such as appliqué, collage, embroidery, and weaving. Though lilla is attracted to the bright colors, because they are colorblind they usually have difficulty interpreting those colors in their work. They sometimes use their inability to differentiate colors to speak to the erasure of queer/trans folks.
About dylan
dylan lilla is a queer trans-nonbinary, colorblind artist, and twin. They were born in Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2012 they received a BFA in Ceramics from Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design in Denver, Colorado. They have been in group exhibitions at the former Bemis Underground, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Joslyn Art Museum, KANEKO, and a solo show at Project Project in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2017 they moved to Brooklyn to be the first at the Jungle Lounge Residency, culminating with a solo show. Lilla has been working in the contemporary
art world for over 20 years, most recently as Registrar/Preparator at Carvalho Park in Brooklyn, NY, and the Operations Manager at Denny Gallery in Tribeca, NY. They are currently pursuing a MFA in Studio Art along with a Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at University of New Mexico.
Geo Evans
Artist Statement
As an oil painter he utilizes a variety of techniques to achieve an observational and surreal aesthetic. Most of what can be seen in his work is a navigation and interrogation of a Neuro typical world. Being Neurodivergent he finds solace and understanding by analyzing and reinterpreting artwork, including his own, during the process of creating, discussion, and reflection. He hopes to gain a greater understanding of the world, in addition to shedding some light on his personal perspective and observations of people in his community.
About Geo
Geo Evans is an oil painter, photographer, and art teacher. He has been making artwork in some form since he was a small child. He is from New Mexico. He has a Bachelor’s of Studio Art from the University of New Mexico, as well as a Master’s degree in Art Education. He has lived in Malaysia where he developed his skills as a photographer and illustrator. He is on the autism spectrum and has overcome many social challenges throughout his life, growing and developing as an artist, educator, father and husband. Yes, he pays taxes.
Jared Putnam
Artist Statement
About Jared
Jared Putnam was born in New York City to John Putnam- Art Director of MAD Magazine and Jane Putnam- Painter. He has been living and working in Albuquerque since 1990. He has been a professional musician for over 25 years, twenty of those years he has spent playing with the gypsy jazz group- Le Chat Lunatique. During the pandemic, music work pretty much ground to a halt, and so he decided to take up painting. Also during that time, he began dating UNM Art Professor- Raychael Stine, who has aided and abetted him with this recent foray into making art. He finds he quite enjoys it and has not looked back since.
Latasha Hagan
Artist Statement
This series of four photographs is part of an ongoing project that explores the power of light as the central narrative inspired by Petra Collins and her dreamlike approach to her work. From inspiration and by manipulating light and its colors, I aim to create a visual language that speaks to the depth of human emotions. Working with a controlled setting—using a black backdrop to emphasize the interplay between light and shadow—I collaborate with willing friends and family to capture authentic moments of vulnerability, joy, and contemplation. Each image reflects a unique aspect of human expression and self expression, allowing the light to illuminate not just the subject, but the rawness of their emotional journey.
About Latasha
Latasha Hagan is a photographer whose creative journey began in Beaumont, Texas, in 2016. Captivated by film photography, Hagan honed their skills and developed a passion for capturing the environment around them. A pivotal moment in their career came when they were gifted a Canon, marking the transition into digital photography. In Beaumont, Hagan was an active member of the local arts/music community, serving as a proud board member of The Art Studio Inc. until 2018. Their involvement in the organization was important to their growth as an artist, providing both inspiration and an avenue for collaboration. After relocating to Colorado, Hagan focused on other aspects of their creative journey. However, it was in New Mexico that their passion for the medium was reignited. Surrounded by the state’s beauty and culture, they rediscovered their love for photography, diving back into it with renewed enthusiasm and a fresh perspective.
Linden Eller
Artist Statement
Linden’s work explores a dichotomy between memory architecture and present experience. Enamored with mixed media, she uses materials like paper, found fragments, transparencies, sewing thread, paint, pencil, ink, and pastels. In honoring the “now,” she often incorporates items from her immediate surroundings—plants, petals, tea leaves, receipts, scattered desk papers—supporting her aim to increase sustainability by giving purpose to the plain, trash bound items and renaming them as curious offerings of texture, or poignancy. Her work gently nudges us to loosen our hold on the past, celebrating the science of memory as fluid—full of alterations, renewals, and inaccuracies. Embracing intuition, experimentation, and play, many parts of her process are intentionally unplanned—an exercise in mindfulness and acceptance. She thinks of her work as layered field recordings: multiple perspectives and repetitions of the same shared story. As Richard Powers writes, “Memory is always a collaboration in progress… You’re not just you.”
About Linden
Linden Eller, (b.1984, Phoenix, AZ) spent her youth in the urban Sonoran desert before moving to Southern California to obtain her BA in Studio Art. She’s since lived and worked across Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the northeast region of the US. Linden’s work has been published and exhibited internationally. She also works as an illustrator and art educator. She currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her partner and son.
Marie-Pier Frigon
Artist Statement
About Marie
Marie-Pier Frigon is a photographer currently based in Albuquerque, NM. They began photographing intentionally in 2012 when they created a portfolio of images to apply to film school. They later transferred into a photography program after falling in love with still images. Marie-Pier’s work seeks to capture and preserve moments of nostalgia and transition that feel like a distant dream. They love the tactile feeling of handling film and frequently work with 35mm, medium format, and Polaroid film. They feel that the unpredictable and imperfect nature of film reflects the transitory nature of human existence. Marie-Pier received their BFA in Photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco (May 2017) where they received the Director’s Choice Award at the 2017 AAU Spring Show. Their photos have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post, as well as included in several juried group shows.
Maya Perez
Artist Statement
About Maya
Maya Perez, a proud New Mexican, is Diné of the Mountain Cove Clan, born of the Folded Arms People, Black, and Mexican. She embraces her diverse culture and integrates it into her art. She is also the creator of Skinny Legend Creations, named after her beloved dog and companion, Zeus, an Italian Greyhound/Chihuahua mix.
Ocelotl Mora
Artist Statement
About Ocelotl
Ocelotl Mora (el/he/him) is a transgender man and a Mexicano/Chicano/Pocho who lives a borderlands experience that Gloria Anzaldua described as “Ni de aqui, ni de alla,” meaning “neither from here or from there.” He is a caregiver and advocate for trans people, disabled people and queer elders. He is also a two-spirit Indigenous traditional medicine practitioner, which deeply shapes his artistic process and how he designs his installations. A self-taught, interdisciplinary storyteller, Ocelotl brings the Chicanx aesthetic of rasquachismo, “lifestyle of the underdog,” to photography blended with digital art, writing, sculpture, installation, dance, and sound. Ocelotl has exhibited his work in Albuquerque, NM, San Antonio, TX and Salt Lake City, UT. With raw vulnerability, he integrates community voices as he exposes his personal struggle to live authentically within his culture, illuminating the dire need for TransMale visibility and supportive healthcare for all Transgender people.
Olivia Berkey
Artist Statement
About Olivia
Olivia Berkey is an artist working in ceramics, performance, and choreography. She holds a BA in Dance and Art History from Bard College (2020), where she received awards for her work in both arts scholarship and performance. Born and raised in North Carolina, she was first exposed to the region’s rich history of woodfired ceramics at age eighteen. In 2021 she moved to Taos, New Mexico to apprentice with woodfire artist, Logan Wannamaker. In Taos she has remained— digging, kiln building, walking, dancing. She can also be heard hosting a biweekly radio show on KNCE Taos. Her work, across mediums, has been exhibited from New Mexico to the East Coast and abroad. Last fall she sunk her hands into volcanic clay as a resident artist with Arquetopia Foundation in Puebla, Mexico. She looks forward to closing out 2025 with residencies at Watershed Center for the Ceramics Arts in coastal Maine and Open AIR in Butte, Montana.
Roxanne Márquez
Artist Statement
Roxanne’s current work engages with the veneration of ancestors and plants, and the idea that artistic pieces can function as “altars” that help us commemorate and understand our complex relationships with humans, plants, and ecosystems. Two of the pieces portray the Datura plant and their multifaceted entanglements with other beings. The Sphinx moth, the moon, humans, and fungi, all bring light to the many roles of this powerful night-blooming flower. The largest textile piece focuses on exploring the stories of their own ancestors and how the passing down of stories and genetic information is ultimately an ecological process. Ancestry is a series of stories passed from seed to plant to soil to seed again — where our ancestors’ experiences echo through our lives and continue beyond us. Through these pieces, Roxanne asks, which relationships/legacies of our past do we choose to nourish and which do we choose to compost?
About Roxanne
Roxanne Márquez (she/they) is an interdisciplinary Chicana artist and scientist based in Albuquerque, NM. She is focused on creating art that communicates our (meta)physical entanglements with ecological processes and with other organisms. The majority of her work is process-based and research-based, involving decomposable materials, textiles, drawing, creative writing, scientific research, and often extends into collaboration with soil, fungi, bacteria, plants, humans, and other animals. She draws on her experiences within ecological research to create art that incorporates themes of decomposition, hidden microbial life, and healing through the restorative visceral experiences of the body and the land. By leaning into these subjects, she hopes to contribute to broader-scale change that prioritizes restoration of self, the land, and our relationships with other beings — regardless of species.
Yu Yan
Artist Statement
Rooted in the landscapes of migration, displacement, and memory, my work explores how power and identity are embedded in both natural and constructed environments. Through installations, photography, and video, I examine the impermanence of symbols and the contested narratives they inhabit. In my “My Fellow Presidents”, I captures the spectral remnants of discarded presidential heads through thermal imaging, revealing the thermal traces of these eroded figures. These infrared images are transformed into postage stamps, a deliberate inversion of monumentality. As the smallest operational units of a nation’s symbolic postal system, these stamps’ invalid postage status mirrors the cyclical failure of political promises. Their “to be returned” designation constructs a temporal critique of democratic accountability—akin to citizens’ perpetual surveillance of leaders, forever suspended in an unresolved tense. By questioning the ideological permanence of these structures, my work invites reflection on the fragility of national myths and the impermanence of power.
About Yu
Yu Yan is an interdisciplinary artist based in Santa Fe. She earned her Master’s degree in Art, Design, and the Public Domain from Harvard University and a dual Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Studio Arts from Smith College, where she was awarded the Megan Hart Jones Prize. Her practice is rooted in research-driven projects that explore the complex layers of migration, displacement, and memory across both natural environments and human landscapes, using photography, video, and installation. Her work has been exhibited across the United States, Greece, the UK, Scotland, Poland, South Korea, Japan, and China. She was an artist-in-residence at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel from 2020 to 2021. Recent exhibitions include Wassaic Project 2025 Summer Exhibition in Wassaic and SONA Immersive Storytelling Festival at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Alongside her artistic practice, Yu has held roles at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Magnum Photos, and the Aperture Foundation.
