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Necessary Futures

Haley Greenfeather English, She Danced With Bears, 2023, Acrylic on paper, 22"x30”

 

Date: July 17, 2025
Contact: Eva Gabriella Flynn, Education and Outreach Coordinator,
egflynn@nmsu.edu, 575-646-2185

English | Espanol

Las Cruces, NM– The University Art Museum (UAM) at New Mexico State University presents Necessary Futures, on view in the Mullennix Bridge Gallery from September 19, 2025 through March 7, 2026.

Necessary Futures highlights three New Mexico-based artists–– sheri crider, Haley Greenfeather English, and Szu-Han Ho––whose work shares the strategic use of color, irony, joy, and hope as proposals for confronting and subverting the ongoing impacts of mass incarceration, capitalism, and colonialism. This exhibition presents a broad spectrum of art-making approaches, public projects, and community-driven collaborations, spotlighting coalitions committed to social change. Collectively, the artists in this exhibition propose art as both a space of reflection and a call to action. Beyond their studio practices, each artist actively engages with community partners, spotlighting organizations working on the frontlines of social justice in the Southwest.

This exhibition, which also presents works by hazel batrezchavez, daniela del mar, Juan Ortiz, and the fronteristxs Collective is part of a series of statewide exhibitions amplifying the voices and narratives of marginalized communities within the movement for criminal justice reform. The project is anchored in Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico—with additional activations in rural towns that are sites directly impacted by mass incarceration.
More information is coming soon.

About the Artist

 

Sheri crider is a social practice artist and founder of Sanitary Tortilla Factory in Albuquerque, NM. Their work includes interactive sculpture, VR environments, painting and collaborative works that engage wide, nontraditional audiences in galleries, prison cells, street corners, and classrooms. crider received a BFA in Ceramics and Queer Theory from the University of Arizona and their MFA in Sculpture from the University of New Mexico. They have exhibited across the U.S., including  the University of New Mexico Art Museum (Albuquerque, NM), University of Arizona Museum of Art (Tucson, AZ), and Museum of Fine Arts (Santa Fe, NM). crider is the recipient of multiple grants and fellowships including the inaugural cohort of Open Philanthropy’s Right of Return Fellowship, the Andy Warhol Foundation, Youth Civic Infrastructure, and Art For Justice.

Haley Greenfeather English portrait

Haley Greenfeather English is an artist and arts educator born and raised in Tiwa territory. English’s maternal family is of mixed-Irish descent and their paternal family are from the Turtle Mountain and Red Lake band of Chippewa Indians. English’s art is an extension of their love of storytelling, a tradition from each of their families. With each artwork unfolding part of a larger narrative, English uses familial portraits, warped perspectives, conflicting emotions, humor, hidden imagery, historical narratives, Indigenous and medicinal plants, cigarette smoking spirits, insects and animals into their artwork to create complex layered stories.

Szu-Han Ho portait

Szu-Han Ho (she/they) is a Taiwanese-American artist working in performance, sound, and installation. They explore the relationship between bodies and sites of memory, often working collaboratively through collective action, structured improvisation, and group composition. Szu-Han has exhibited at Tokyo Wonder Site, SOMA (Mexico City), VSF (Los Angeles), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Tulsa Artist Fellowship Flagship, Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco), and Revolutions International Theatre Festival. Szu-Han has been a recipient of the Art for Justice Fund Grant (2020) and Art Matters Grant (2019). Szu-Han lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is a founding member of the fronteristxs collective.

Acknowledgements:

Necessary Futures was made possible in part with support from The Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico, Devasthali Family Foundation Fund; Charles T. Townley and Victor T. Roberts; and the Mullennix Art Museum Fund.

Programming:

Necessary Futures is on view from September 19, 2025 through March 7, 2026; please join us for the opening reception at the University Art Museum on Friday, September 19, 2025, from 5:30 to 7:30pm. This exhibition is activated by a series of public programs throughout the exhibition, including panel discussions with community organizers and arts workshops. Admission to all programming is free and open to the public. A detailed calendar is available on uam.nmsu.edu.     

Museum Information: 

The UAM is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm, at 1308 E. University Ave., Las Cruces, New Mexico, 88003. For more information please visit uam.nmsu.edu.

Image Credit: 

Haley Greenfeather English, She Danced With Bears, 2023, Acrylic on paper, 22"x30”. 


All Image Credits.