Encountering Masculinity - Exhibition Catalog

ABOUT HARWOOD ART CENTER’S RESIDENCY PROGRAM

Each fall for thirteen years, Harwood’s Galleries are devoted to artists working at the intersections of creative expression and social justice. In 2021, for the occasion of Harwood’s 30th Anniversary, we expanded this offering and formally established our first official annual residency program.

Harwood’s residency program supports the creation of new, original, and experimental projects and their culminating public exhibitions, by artists who work at the intersections of art and social inquiry. The resident artist is resourced with a private studio at Harwood for the duration of their year long residency, 2 six week exhibitions, project, promotional, and professional support from our staff, and honoraria to support their time, materials and creative work.

Encountering Masculinity

Jocelyn Salaz

Encountering Masculinity explores masculinity through the lens of the performative theory of gender. I examine men’s clothing, beginning with my own family for a generational perspective and then men from different world ethnicities and geographies. I ground my exploration in clothing because of my interest in how textiles create a boundary between intimate space and the outside world, creating a space of resistance. I collect textiles that I observe in participants’clothing to create quilted pieces, cutting apart pieces of patchwork and sewing them back together, placing seams from the back of one set of patchwork into the front of current patchwork, demonstrating my own labor, referencing labor movements in the textile industry, and making visible the intersection of capitalism with masculinity. Interviews with participants inform the quilts’forms and free-motion quilting details. I create movement and space by using mobiles to suspend the pieces, informed by Emmanuel Lévinas’s ethics and Latin social dance. Lévinas’s ethics are based on a face-to-face encounter, when we acknowledge the Other and our obligation to their well-being, above our own freedom. Latin social dancing is a relationship of bodies in space with an obligation to partners and others on the dance floor. While lead and follow roles have historically been gendered as masculine and feminine, respectively, people are now beginning to dance with no regard to gender. As in the ethical encounter in which we cannot assume gender, dancers cannot anticipate movement but must rather be present and respond to physical communication from their partner. As participants move in the installation space, they will [be invited to] explore and question masculinity based on the fabrics, textures, and shapes they see in combination with the ephemerality of their arrangements.”

Eight different men were interviewed as part of Jocelyn’s residency.

“I did a clothing study where I would have [the interviewees] bring a wide range of their life experieinces. I wanted to think a little bit more outside the box. Masculinity was something that, being a survivor of domestic violence, is familiar, but it’s also foreign. It’s a little bit intimidating to me, but I’m curious.”- Jocelyn Salaz from an interview with Albuquerque the Magazine, Septeber 2025 Edition.

Paper Dolls & Identity Play

Jocelyn Salaz with participants from Adult Art School & Summer Art Camp

As part of Jocelyn’s Residency, she led workshops for Harwood Art Center’s Summer Art Camp (ages 8-10) and Adult Art School program (18+).

Participants in these workshops created paper dolls through the process of figure study and collage. They were introduced to artists who create paper dolls and fashion designers from diverse backgrounds. Participants were asked to consider how they dress themselves for functional and aesthetic purposes and explore different facets of their own identities, and they were given the opportunity to include their work from these workshops in Jocelyn’s culminating exhibitions.

Participating Art School artists: Amanda Douglas, Divana Olivas, Mikyle Gray, Scott Sandlin, Sheila Ciminera and Taylor Traub.

Participating Art Camp artists: Caelan, Elie, Eva, Ienne, Indigo, Isla, Karina, Palmer, Raiden, Saskia, Thao and Zev.

Harwood Art Center is dedicated to providing exhibition, audience expansion and professional development opportunities to working artists. 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of Harwood’s historic campus. We are commemorating the occasion with a year of public programming that reflects on a century of creative expression and imagines new futures. For more information visit: harwoodartcenter.org

JAN

JANUARY 16 - FEBRUARY 22

Between Dust & Stars: The Artists of ArtStreet, ABQ Health Care for the Homeless Harwood Art Center and ArtStreet of Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless co-present Between Dust & Stars: Echoes of the High Desert, a collection of works by the artists of ArtStreet featuring surrealist landscapes and imagery honoring the past, the present and the future. This marks the 28th anniversary of this annual exhibition partnership.

Reception: Saturday, February 1 | 4:30 - 6:30pm

MAR

MARCH

6 - APRIL 12

ENCOMPASS: A Multi-Generational Art Event

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 Echoes & Dreams with commissioned installations by Celine Gordon, Sofie Hecht, Mariah Rosales, Phoenix Savage, Jessica Zekus and What is Yours is Not Yours by Elton Burgest and Lisa Co.

Reception: Saturday, April 12 | 4:30 - 7:30pm

APR

APRIL 24 - MAY 31

Poetry in Place: Placemaking and Poetry in Albuquerque

This exhibit is equal parts celebration, preservation and commemoration of a critical moment in time for the literary and spoken word community in New Mexico. It presents a diverse spectrum of artifacts and experiences, honoring the history between the spoken word community and Harwood.

Reception: Saturday, April 26 | 4:30 - 6:30pm

JUN

JUNE 12 - JULY 26

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.

Inga Hendrickson: Surface 2024 Solo Exhibition Award Winner

Reception + Artist Talk + Awards: Saturday, June 21 | 4:30 - 6:30pm

Harwood offers four annual recurring exhibition programs:

1 ENCOMPASS a Multi-Generational Art Event

2 SURFACE Emerging Artists of New Mexico

3 RESIDENCY for Art & Social Justice

4 12x12 Annual Fundraiser; all proceeds support our free community arts education, outreach and professional development

AUG

Practice // Portal

AUGUST

7 - SEPTEMBER 13

A group exhibition featuring five Harwood Studio Artists — Aziza Murray, Reyes Padilla, MB Ramos, Natalie Voelker and Chelsea Wrightson — whose work is inspired by memory, offers meditation, and moves towards the future.

Shared.Futures: A Compendium of ArtScience Collaboration

Shared.Futures is a four-month workshop where artist and scientist pairs co-create an ArtScience piece which communicates a scientific possibility through an artistic lens. This exhibition highlights work from 2021 to 2024.

Reception + Artist Talks: Saturday, August 23 | 4:30 - 6:30pm

SEPT

Artist in Residence

SEPTEMBER 25 - NOVEMBER 1

Harwood’s Artist in Residence Program supports artists working at the intersections of creative expression and social justice. The year long residency includes a private studio at Harwood, artist and material honoraria, project support and public exhibitions.

Jocelyn Salaz: Encountering Masculinity

2025 Resident artist Jocelyn Salaz explores masculinity through the lens of the performative theory of gender.

Reception + Artist Talk: Saturday, October 18 | 4:30 - 6:30pm

DEC

DECEMBER

5 - 13

12x12: Harwood’s Annual Fundraising Exhibitions 12x12, 6x6 and The Shop at Harwood feature 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 5 | 5:30pm - 7:30pm 12x12 Online Store Opens: Saturday, December 6 | 6:00pm

Image Credits: (Left, Top to Bottom): Elton Burgest, Spiral (2022); Between Dust & Stars: the artists of ArtStreet installation 2025, Image by Aziza Murray; Shared.Futures Organizers, Shared.Futures Weavings I; Inga Hendrickson, Bundled Set, Image by Aziza Murray; (Center): Jessica Zekus, We all need prayers; (Right, Top to Bottom): Jocelyn Salaz, Remedio (side 1); Chelsea Wrightson, Quantum Vision #25; For the Love of Poetry ABQ, Sister Outsider—Dominique Christina and Denice Frohman — nationally renowned female poets will be part of a night of poetry at the Harwood Art Center, The Shop Image Credit: Zahra Marwan, handprinted T-shirt

Shop at Harwood is a

for a

Shop: harwoodstore.square.site

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.