CV
MADISON ALEXA GARAY
Art Historian + Creative Scholar
Education
M.A. Master of Art History (forthcoming) University of New Mexico
Concentration: Art of the Americas
Committee: chair, Marcella Kwe Ernest, Ph.D.; Kirsten Pai Buick, Ph.D.; Aaron D. Fry
B.A. Bachelor’s in History of Art and Visual Culture University of California, Santa Cruz
Concentration: Curation, Heritage, and Museums
Thesis: “Fanning Flames: Incendiary Documentary and the California Wildfires”;
Thesis Advisor: Kyle Parry, Ph.D.
Peer Reviewed Publications
Book review of "Northern Cheyenne Ledger Art by Fort Robinson Breakout Survivors", Hemispheres: Visual Culture of the Americas, vol. 15, Fall 2023. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hemisphere/vol15/iss1/8/
Catalog Essays / Exhibition Writing
“Unforgetting: The Profane Illumination of Debris” (March 15, 2025), UNM Graduate Art Association, catalog essay.
“A Thousand Miles from All the City Lights”: Twice-Behaved Movement and Embodied Memories in 'Newsstand’ (November 2023) Catalog: Don't Let the Lyric Get in the Way of the Groove [artist: Marlene Tafoya; UNM MFA Thesis Exhibition], Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Connective Tissue” (May 2023) Catalog: Connective Tissue: Environment, Ecology, Body [UNM MFA Graduate Arts Association Juried Exhibition, curator: Christian Waguespack], Sanitary Tortilla Factory, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“10x10: 10 Women 10 Prints” (March 2022) Exhibition text: 10x10: 10 Women 10 Prints [artists: Juana Alicia, Kim Anno, Claudia Bernardi, Mildred Howard, Hung Liu, Yolanda Lopez, Ruth Morgan, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Faith Ringgold, Carrie Mae Weems], Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, UCSC, Santa Cruz, California.
Public Scholarship
“Lowrider Futurism in an Indigenous Present” with Jesse Littlebird’s Petrolglyph (2024), Southwest Contemporary, vol. 11 (“The Hyperlocal”), print and web, March 7, 2025. https://southwestcontemporary.com/jesse-littlebird-petrolglyph/
“The Cruise of the Century: 100 Years of Route 66 in Albuquerque” Albuquerque Visitor’s Guide 2025, Visit Albuquerque, print and web, January 15th 2025: 26-27. https://www.visitalbuquerque.org/plan-my-trip/travel-tools/guides/2025-digital-visitors-guide/
“Envisioning Native America on Route 66”, ABQ365, Visit Albuquerque, November 18th 2024. https://www.visitalbuquerque.org/abq365/blog/post/envisioning-native-america-on-route-66/
“Hispanic Heritage Month on Route 66”, ABQ365, Visit Albuquerque, October 17th 2024. https://www.visitalbuquerque.org/abq365/blog/post/hispanic-heritage-month-on-route-66/
Professional Presentations
“Lowrider Futurism: Vehicles for Cultural Survivance” in panel Pathways: Black, Mexican, and Indigenous Mobility on Western Routes, Western History Association Conference, October 15-18 2025 (forthcoming), Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Aesthetic Hauntology on Albuquerque’s Route 66: Place-Images After the Mother Road” in panel Afterlives, College Arts Association Annual Conference, February 12 2025, Hilton Midtown, New York City, New York.
“Home in the Archive: A Critical Cruise through the Jane Bernard & Polly Brown Route 66 Pictorial Collection”, Center for Southwest Research Student Symposium, April 9 2024, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"Sacred Spaces, Sacred Architecture: Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan" Guest presentation for Dr. Justine Andrews, ARTH2100 "History of Art I", April 5 2024, University of New Mexico.
"Zines in Praxis: An Indigenous Feminist Art History Approach to Collective Knowledge-making", American Indian Studies Association Conference, February 1 2024, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Constructing Yosemite: Colonial Placemaking through 19th-Century Landscape Photography”, UNM Art History Graduate Symposium, September 7 2023, University of New Mexico.
Open-Access Projects
Route66ABQ.com, the Official Website for the Route 66 Centennial, under Visit Albuquerque, developed with Sarah East and Rachel Cromer-Howard. link
Life & Times on New Mexico Route 66, ArcGIS Storymap, Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico, May 10, 2024: link
Exhibitions curated
Curator and Juror, Unforgetting, 6th Street Studio / Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, NM, March 8 – March 15, 2025. (forthcoming)
ReSisters: featuring Erin Currier and Albuquerque Public School Students, co-curated with Armelle Richard and Karli Snyder, for “Curatorial Activism” led by Dr. Ray Hernandez-Duran, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (online), May 2023. (see web archive)
Homecoming, co-curated with Beatriz Juárez and Edith Trautwein, Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, Santa Cruz, October 15, 2021 – October 22, 2021.
Eduardo Carrillo: Communidad de Califas, co-curated with Shelby Graham, Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA (online), February 3, 2021 – April 11, 2021. (see web archive)
Gallery and Archives Experience
Route 66 Centennial Content Specialist, Internship, Visit Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM
April 2024-Present
Pictorial Archivist, Research Fellowship, Center for Southwest Research, Zimmerman Library, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
August 2023-June 2024
Curatorial Assistant, Internship, Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA
October 2020-June 2022
Exhibition text writer for 10 x 10: Ten Women Ten Prints
Outreach coordinator and installation assistant for Glenn Ligon: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation (2022) and Just Futures: Arthur Jafa, Martine Syms, and Black Quantum Futurism (2022)
Teaching Experience
Graduate Assistant, Dr. Justine Andrews, the University of New Mexico
Spring 2024
Graduate Assistant, Lecturer Aaron Fry, The University of New Mexico
Fall 2023, Spring 2025
Graduate Assistant, Beth Norwood, The University of New Mexico
Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024
Professional Development
Juror and Curator, Unforgetting, Graduate Art Association Group Exhibition, Spring 2025, 6th Street Studio, Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico (March 8-15, 2025).
Undergraduate Student Representative and Peer Mentor for the History of Art and Visual Culture department at the University of California – Santa Cruz. (September 2020 – June 2022)
Museum Education Volunteer, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, California. (January 2020 – March 2020)
Fellowships, Honors & Awards
Terra Foundation for American Art Travel Grant, College Arts Association and the Getty Foundation, February 2025.
Graduate Pictorial Research Fellow, Jane Bernard and Polly Brown Route 66 Collection,
Center for Regional Studies (for the Center for Southwest Research),
University of New Mexico, 2023-24.
Ralph W. Douglass Endowed Scholarship for Art History, University of New Mexico, x2 recipient, 2023-24, 2024-25.
Harper Memorial Endowment for Art History, University of New Mexico, 2023-24.
Graduated magna cum laude with University Honors
at the University of California, Spring 2022
Clare-Wedding Scholarship for History of Art and Visual Culture, UC Santa Cruz, CA – 2021-22