hazel batrezchavez

A colorful, quilt-like artwork showing a purple sky with stars, stairs, and a potted plant above a checkered orange ground where a black animal interacts with a blue shape near a green car.
A vibrant artwork by hazel batrezchavez features a stylized uterus at the center on an orange background, surrounded by blue butterflies, birds, target symbols, and geometric shapes over a black and white checkered floor.
A stylized artwork by hazel batrezchavez shows a baseball field, red silhouettes of an adult and child, a cactus, mountain with a winding path, red ladder, window with sky, and net on a brown background scattered with stars.
A textile artwork shows a dark patterned sleeveless blouse hanging on a pink background with three eyes above it, a sitting rabbit outline below, a yellow arched window with a hand, dashed lines, and small star-like shapes scattered around.

hazel batrezchavez

Born: 1994, stolen land

Biography and Information

Biography
hazel batrezchavez (b. 1994) examines the politics of survival and immigration in their multidisciplinary practice, which includes textile, performance, and sculptural installation. In entre las nubes (among the clouds), batrezchavez is inspired by interpretations of their relatives’ dream world and honors them with each stitch. In this body of work, batrezchavez asks how these visions might guide others attempting to cross rivers, deserts, and colonial borders. Drawing on Nahua, Lenca, and Maya symbologies, the work represents both map and memory: a reclaiming of knowledge eroded by displacement and a tribute to dreams as expressions of resistance.

Historically throughout the Americas, embroidery has served as a medium to carry coded language of protest and knowledge. In entre las nubes, batrezchavez draws upon and expands upon this tradition.

batrezchavez is a member of fronteristxs Collective and Granadina Co-op and serves as curator of art at the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum. They have exhibited at the El Paso Museum of Art; Santa Fe Art Institute; Southern Exposure, San Francisco; SOMA, Mexico City; Radford Museum of Art, Virginia; ICOSA Collective, Austin; Higher Art Gallery, Michigan; and many other venues. batrezchavez lives and works in Tiwa, Tewa, and Pueblo Territory (Albuquerque, NM).

I am first generation from Kuskatan known today as El Salvador, and Tamaulipas, Mexico. So much history, ancestral knowledge, and culture has been lost due to colonization. This work is about reconnecting and relearning that knowledge. The textile series as a whole draws attention to the history and importance of dreams to Maya, Nahua and Lenca peoples, the history of resistance related to embroidery in the Americas, and the significance of symbolism within dreams that has come to influence the Latinx culture and diaspora. – hazel batrezchavez

Education
2020 MFA Sculpture, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
2017 BFA Anthropology and Studio Art, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA
2016 Study Abroad Associated College of the Midwest (ACM): London & Florence: Arts in Context
2013 HS Oakwood School, Studio City, CA

Solo Exhibitions
2025
entre las nubes (among the clouds), Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2024
Dreams (& Nightmares of Liberation), Orpheum Community Hub, Albuquerque, NM

2023
when the cicadas sing, Radford Museum of Art on Tyler, Radford, VA

2022
running with relatives, La Chancla DIY Space, Albuquerque, NM

2020
Blindfolded Under the Same Sun, Sanitary Tortilla Factory, Albuquerque, NM
In the Waiting Room, Sanitary Tortilla Factory, Albuquerque, NM
Si Vienen Por Mí | If they Come for Me, Loom Indigenous Gallery, Gallup, NM
In Between Spaces, Arrullar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2018
Cultivated Under Systems of Oppression, John Sommers Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2015
Savage, Smith Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA

Group Exhibitions
2024
Border Biennial, Museum of Art in El Paso, El Paso, TX
Selections from the 2024 Border Biennal Continued, Museum of Art in El Paso, El Paso, TX
Indigenous Borderlands: Interweaving Nepantla, Remembering Sacred Relations, Centro de la Raza, San Diego, CA (Curators: Susy Zepeda and Maria Figueroa)
Banner Series, Seventh Gallery, Richmond, Australia
The Border is Beautiful, City of Eagle Pass Art & Culture Center, Eagle Pass, TX (Curator: Yocelyn Rojas)

2023
Young At Art: Art for the Future, Rio Bravo Gallery, Truth & Consequences, NM
Working Classroom Showcase, Quirky Used Book Store, Albuquerque, NM
In Our Place, Midwest Nice, Online Exhibition Space. (Curator: Briana Earl)
Text/Language, ShoeBox Arts Projects. Online Exhibition Space. (Juror: Kristine Schomaker)

2022
Matriarch, El Chante: Casa de Cultura, Albuquerque, NM

2021
Decolonize Pop Up, El Chante: Casa de Cultura, Albuquerque, NM

2020
Windows on the Future, Vital Spaces, Paseo Projects & 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
PROTEST & PROTECT, Feminist Art Digital Gallery
Citizens Coping, Higher Art Gallery, Traverse City, MI
Material as Identity, Identity as Material, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

2019
Open Space, ICOSA Collective, Austin, TX. (Curator: Leslie Moody Castro)
Radical Threads, Stamp Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MA
Emergent 2019: New Student Videos from UNM, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Beyond the Pussy- Varios Artistas, Online Project Space, San Jose, CR
What’s Your Street Race? Outdoor Installation Barelas Cafe, Albuquerque, NM (Curator: Augustine Romero)

2018
Feeling Much Better Now, CFA Downtown Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
For Freedoms 50 State Initiative, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Currency | Online Exhibition, 516 Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Paperweights, Llorar, Mexico City, MX
Imagination | Immigration, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA
Imagination | Immigration, Vermont College of Fine Arts Vermont, MA

2017
At First Sight, CFA Downtown Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Bachelor of Arts Exhibition, Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA (Juror: Tameka
Jean Norris)

2015
Bachelor of Arts Exhibition, Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA

Lectures
2025 Hanes Visiting Artists Lecture Series, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (forthcoming)
2024 Scholars Convocation LIFE Lecture Series, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA (forthcoming)
2023 Visiting Artist Lecture, Sculpture I, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
2022 Visiting Artist Lecture, Textiles & Technology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
2021 Visiting Artist Lecture, Social Sculpture Course, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2020 Visiting Artist Lecture, Advanced Studio Contemporary Practices, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA

Awards
2025
Culture & Narrative Fellow, Narrative Innovators Lab, The Opportunity Agenda ($15,000)

2024
Community Editorial Advisory Board, Southwest Contemporary Art Magazine, Albuquerque, NM

2023
New Mexico Indivisible Youth Fellowship, Albuquerque, NM ($1,000)

2022
Artist-in-Residence Fall 2022 & Spring 2023, Radford University, Radford, VA

2020
Semi-Finalist, Soros Justice Fellowship, New York City, NY
Finalist, SITE Spread, SITE Museum, Santa Fe, NM

2019
StoryMaps Fellowship, SFAI, Santa Fe Arts Institute, Santa Fe, NM ($10,000)
The Jam Stand, 1-week residency, Los Lunas, NM
Exceptional Visual Scholar Award, Sanitary Tortilla Factory, NM
Anything Art Grant, Specto Art Gallery Space, Harrisburg, VA. ($1,000)
Ralph W. Douglass Endowed Memorial Scholarship, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Richard C. Sandoval Endowed Memorial Scholarship, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
MaryAnn Evans Art Studio Grant, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Guapamacátaro Art & Ecology, 3-week residency in Michoacán, MX

2018
SOMA, 8-week residency in Mexico City, MX
Lucile Lattanner Reid Brock Scholarship, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Betty Sabo Scholarship Recipient, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Center of Fine Arts, Dean Travel Grant Award, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

2017
Juror’s Merit Henley Award, Bachelor of Arts Exhibition, Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, IA
SGA Purchase Prize, Bachelor of Arts Exhibition, Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, IA

2016
Grin City Collective,2-week residency, Grin City Farm, Grinnell, IA

Press
Kimberly Benavides and Veronica Melendez, Horchata Zine Issue #10, August 2024
Elizabeth Anne Andrews and Andrea Vasquez, Artists Discuss Borderland Implications on their Identities, The Round Up NMSU Paper, February 20, 2024
Nancy Zastudil, Meaningful Movement: Following the Food Trail that Fuels New Mexico Runners, Edible NM Magazine, Early Winter 2023: Rituals Issue
Artist Interview, Albuquerque Art & Culture District Magazine, Albuquerque, NM
Spencer Beckwith, An Artistic Collaboration with the Dreamers Project Interview, KUNM Radio 98.8, Albuquerque, NM, June 7, 2019
Artist Interview, New Mexico Daily Lobo, Albuquerque, NM
Artist Spread and Interview, Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, Edition 6: “Presenting Race: Institutional Contexts and Critiques,” University of Pittsburgh, PA

Press Release
2025 entre las nubes (among the clouds) at Richard Levy Gallery