Sallie Scheufler

Biography
Sallie Scheufler (b. 1988) addresses climate change caused by settlers in their installation NO MAN’S LAND. The letters in the text are formed by grouping individual god’s eyes made from woven wheat stalks. The wheat in NO MAN’S LAND alludes to the Dust Bowl—a catastrophic decade-long event that was driven by mass mono-cropping of wheat in the Great Plains. Scheufler’s family settled in the Great Plains in the 1880s, and their four grandparents survived this event as children in the 1930s. The family continues to farm today. By reflecting on their family’s relationship to the land, Scheufler poses challenging questions about privilege, accountability, and class.

Sallie Scheufler uses personal history as artistic inspiration in the context of intersectional feminist theory through performance, video, photography, sculpture, fiber, installation, and sound. They have exhibited in numerous museums and galleries, including the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, Amarillo Museum of Art, Northlight Gallery in Phoenix, 516 ARTS, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum. Scheufler is the recipient of the Beaumont Newhall Fellowship and the Robert Heinecken award, among others. They received their MFA in studio art from the University of New Mexico and currently lives and works on Tiwa land (so-called Albuquerque).

In my research, I kept encountering references to the Great Plains as “No Man’s Land,” and the phrase really stuck with me. To me, it suggests a desolate landscape but not one devoid of life. When you break it down, the phrase speaks to ownership. The commodification of land—the notion that land is something to be bought and sold rather than cared for—is inherently colonial and detrimental to both the land and the beings (including humans) that inhabit it.

It was crucial for me to acknowledge the Indigenous peoples who were forcibly removed from this land, as well as the slaughter of their primary food source, the buffalo. The Great Plains are home to nomadic peoples who view the land as a relative to be cared for, not as a commodity to be exchanged. The land my family farms is Comanche, Kiowa, Osage, Pawnee, Ute, and Kaw/Kansa.

No Man’s Land

No Land is Man’s

Nomad’s Land

—Sallie Scheufler

Education
2018
MFA, Photography, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

2012
BFA, Arizona State University,Tempe, AZ

Solo Exhibitions
2024
When the sky turned to dust, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2023
A Good Cry, Art League Houton, Houston, TX

2020
Family Resemblence, Sanitary Tortilla Factory, Albuquerque, NM

2018
A Good Cry, CFA Downtown Studio, Albuquerque, NM

2017
Effigy: Photographs by Sallie Scheufler, Pacific Exhibits, Albuquerque, NM

2016
Akin photographs by Amy Johnson and Sallie Scheufler, Masley Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2014
The Orange Tree, Moving Moments at J Square, Busan, South Korea

Group Exhibitions
2024
Encompass, Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, NM
Ties that Bind, Vision Gallery at Chandler Museum, Chandler, AZ

2022
Wo/Manhouse 2022, Belen, NM
Fun-A-Day, Fourteen Fifteen, Albuquerque, NM

2021
Made in ABQ, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2020
Don’t Drink the Ink, Pingyao International Photography Film Festival, Pingyao, China
2020 Vision, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2019
AMoA Biennel 600: Textile + Fiber, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX
Artists in Conversation: Abbey Hepner/Photography and Rodrick Whetstone/Graphic Arts, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL

2018
HERE NOW, Juror: Mary Statzer, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
SPE Media Festival, SPE Conference: Uncertain Times: Borders, Refuge, Community, Nationhood, Philadelphia, PA

2017
Fair Play, Art Week Miami, Invited by Micol Hebron, Brickell City Centre Mall, Southbeach, Miami
Nascent Site: Sight, Concordia Gallery, St. Paul, MN
Cryin’ Out Loud, Juror: Micol Hebron, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
At the Intersection of Memory and Conjecture, Northlight Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
We are in mysterious contact with the powers besieging us, ready to call forth a miracle., Juror: Candice Hopkins, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM
Someone to Ride the River With, CFA Downtown Studio, Albuquerque, NM
#ARTSPEAKS: Student Solidarity Workshop, Power Pose Aerobics, UNM Art Building, Albuquerque, NM

2016
Talking Back: A Performance Event, Power Pose Aerobics by Sallie, CFA Downtown Studio, Albuquerque, NM
Someone to Ride the River With, Harry Wood Gallery, Tempe, AZ
Someone to Ride the River With, Ron Laumbach Gallery, Tucson, AZ
enLIGHTened, Central Michigan University Art Gallery, Pleasant, MI
Verge, John Sommers Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Follicle, Graft Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Femme Fotale Vol.2 Release Exhibition, Taste of Tops, Tempe, AZ
Girl’s Imprint, The Drive Thru Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
What is There That We Cannot See?, Juror: Courtney Fink, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

2015
Nascent Site: Sight, Northlight Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
At First Sight, CFA Downtown, Albuquerque, NM

2013
Approaching the Limit, Juror: Rod Slemmons, Northlight Gallery, Tempe, AZ

2012
Abandoned Show: Performance and Poetry Research Lab, The Abandoned Lot, Tempe, AZ
Photo and Art Show, Inter City Youth Center, Phoenix, AZ
SPESW Juried Member’s Exhibition, Juror: Jim Robinschon, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Family Dynamics, Juror: Henry Horenstein, Kiernan Gallery, Lexington, VA
Uncanny and Mundane, Juror: Andrea Modica, Northlight Gallery, Tempe, AZ
Undergraduate Juried Exhibition, Juror: Ellie Honl and Jessica Metcalfe, Harry Wood Gallery, Tempe, AZ
Nebraska National, Juror: Carol Panaro- Smith and James Hajicek, Eisentrager Howard Gallery, Lincoln, NE

2011
Western Eye, Juror: Christopher Colville, Eric Fischl Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
SPESW Juried Member’s Exhibition, Jurors: Steve Fitch, Tony O’Brien, David Scheinbaum, Marion Center for Photographic Arts, Santa Fe, NM
The Student Photographers’ Association at ASU Intercollegiate Exchange, Juror: Martina Shenal, Step Gallery, Tempe, AZ
Nowness: group invitational exhibition, Eye Lounge, Phoenix, AZ
Ways of Seeing, Gallery 100, Tempe, AZ
Join+Cast Group Exhibition and Book Release, A.E.England Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
A Series of Anxieties and Repetitions, Yellow Canary Dance Hall, Phoenix, AZ
Experimental Film Screening, Regular Gallery, Phoenix, AZ

2010
a lonely bed project, alonelybed.wordpress.com, Tempe, AZ
Water Science #3 Lit Zine Release and Art Show, 11th Street, Tempe, AZ

Awards
2018
Beaumont Newhall Fellowship

2017
Robert Heinecken Scholarship
UNM GPSA Graduate Scholarship Fund
UNM GPSA Professional Development Grant

2016
John L. Knight Memorial Scholarship

2015
SPESW Graduate Travel Award

2012
SPESW Undergraduate Travel Scholarship

2011
First Place, Western Eye Photo Competition
Western Photographic Historical Society Scholarship

Press
2023
Bucky Miller, Cry Cry Cry Cry Cry: An Interview with Sallie Scheufler, Glasstire, April 17

2021
Nancy Zastudil, Review: Thirtieth Anniversary Show at Richard Levy Gallery, Southwest Contemporary, June 18
Maria Manuela, Five Things to Do This Weekend, New Mexico Magazine, June 18

2018
Fred Hirschman, Curator’s Choice, Thirteen photos from On Going, Aint-Bad, January
Kelia Anne, What We’ve Found: Women, Aint-Bad, January 3

2016
Carly Bertrand and Tristan Bates, Nine photos from Nurture, Lift Cap to Load, July
Briana Noonan, Sirrena Griego, Kit Abate, Charissa Lucille, Femme Fotale Vol.2: Relationships, Mom Under the Orange Tree and Sadie after Her Performance, May

2015
Carly Bertrand, Almost Home, Six photos from Nurture, May

2011
Catherine Akins, Jennifer Campbell, The Practice of Pursuing, Join+Cast: a field guide to art in Phoenix, May

Press Release
2024 When the sky turned to dust at Richard Levy Gallery
2021 Made in ABQ at Richard Levy Gallery
2020 2020 Vision at Richard Levy Gallery