Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros explores contemporary earthen artworks, establishing a profound dialogue between regional roots and global perspectives. As visitors engage with the exhibition, they embark on a journey through time, examining the intricate relationship between humanity and the elemental material of unfired earth.
At its core, this exhibition highlights the transformative power of mud—a substance that bridges tradition and innovation, ecology and artistry. Through the work of rafa esparza, Christine Howard Sandoval, Ronald Rael, Santino Gonzales, Joanna Keane Lopez, and Gabriel Chaile, Unearthing Futures navigates the intersections of technological progress, societal change, and environmental stewardship. Each artwork invites reflection on a rapidly evolving world, encouraging viewers to consider the past, engage with the present, and imagine futures shaped by deeper connections to the land.
Situated within the striking landscapes of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, Unearthing Futures extends beyond the Harwood Museum’s galleries, incorporating historic and contemporary earthen building sites throughout the region. These sites and their histories become integral to the exhibition, emphasizing the enduring interplay between art, architecture, and environment.
The legacy of adobe and earthen clay in the Southwest is deeply rooted in Indigenous traditions and enriched by successive cultural influences. From Pueblo communities to Spanish settlers, adobe architecture embodies resilience, adaptation, and collaboration. Unearthing Futures reflects on this legacy, challenging audiences to reconsider their relationship to the land and its materials while engaging with contemporary reinterpretations of these practices.
As visitors experience Unearthing Futures, they encounter a central question: How might the transformative power of mud inspire innovative strategies for navigating an uncertain future? By foregrounding the material and metaphorical significance of adobe, this exhibition reimagines our connection to the environment, offering a vision of sustainability and interconnectedness that is both grounded and aspirational.
Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros affirms the enduring capacity of art to uncover overlooked narratives, challenge entrenched perspectives, and envision new possibilities. Through the works on display, visitors embark on a journey that transcends boundaries of time and place, discovering in the earth itself a profound site of continuity and transformation.
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Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros is the result of a deeply collaborative curatorial process grounded in relationship, place, and shared responsibility. The exhibition and publication were curated by Nicole Dial-Kay and Adam Geluda Gildar, with significant curatorial support from Kate Miller, Curatorial Assistant. The project was developed in close dialogue with an advisory committee that includes Ronald Rael, Eric Carpio, and Joanna Keane Lopez. Two galleries within the exhibition are curated by Deborah Lujan and Guadalupe Tafoya, guest curators whose work is rooted in lived cultural knowledge and community stewardship. Beyond these named roles, the project is shaped by the generosity of individuals and families connected to historic adobe sites across northern New Mexico and southern Colorado—people who shared their labor, histories, and traditions, and whose lives and practices are inseparable from the material at the center of this book. As with adobe itself, authorship here is collective, layered, and sustained through care.
rafa esparza, Camino, June 9–August 19, 2023, Artists Space, New York.
Gabriel Chaile, The Milk of Dreams, April 23, 2022–September 25, 2022, 59th International Art Exhibition: La Biennale di Venezia. Photo by Roberto Marossi.
Joanna Keane Lopez, Clay Song, 2022, adobe, land sourced colored clays, mica.
Santino Gonzales, Holy Dirt, 2025.
Christine Howard Sandoval, Arch – A Passage Formed By A Curve, 2020, adobe mud and graphite on paper, 60 x 96 inches. Photo by Rachel Topham Photography.
Banner Image: Ronald Rael, Adobe Oasis, 2025, 3D printed adobe. Desert X 2025, Coachella Valley, CA, March 8–May 11. Photo by Lance Gerber.
