Artist Talks & Closing Reception: Route 66: A Deep Imagining

Blue Sky NM and Harwood Art Center have partnered to present a special SURFACE: Emerging Artists of New Mexico Alumni Satellite Gallery—an ongoing collaboration supporting the continued practice, visibility, and viability of Harwood’s SURFACE alumni, alongside a new curatorial fellowship inaugurally held by Jakia Fuller.

Join artists Christian Gallegos, Ben Roe Jr., and Jen H. Doolittle for a conversation around Route 66: A Deep Imagining and the ideas, questions, and narratives informing their work.

As the centennial of Route 66 approaches, the exhibition looks beyond the familiar mythology and nostalgia of the historic road to consider the stories that exist beneath, alongside, and beyond its well-traveled narrative. Through distinct explorations of place, collective consciousness, and lived experience, the artists imagine the many realities that may have coincided with this historic passage and those continuing to unfold along its path.

Moving between past, present, and possible futures, the conversation will explore Route 66 as more than a road or cultural icon, but as a layered landscape shaped by memory, environment, labor, movement, and the daily lives of those who have lived and worked along its route.