SaveArtSpace is proud to present Passion, Pathos, & the Human Potential, a public art exhibition on billboard ad space in Albuquerque, NM, starting July 25, 2025, curated by Erin Currier.

The Passion, Pathos, & the Human Potential selected artist is Tera Muskrat.

Passion, Pathos, & the Human Potential, is a call for art that transcends our many and growing divisions imposed by those in power; to instead recognize that all humans suffer, and to celebrate the passions that unite us, and allow us to potentially overcome.

Opening July 25, 2025 SaveArtSpace will launch a public art installation for the selected artwork on billboard ad space in Albuquerque, NM. The public art will be on view for at least one month.

Selected Artist

Location: Mountain Rd NW & 12th St NW, Albuquerque, NM

Tera Muskrat has been painting the women of New Mexico for 30 years. She is invested in celebrating and keeping alive the culture of this unique place. A natural observer and continually curious, she is an advocate of empowering women and giving a voice to those who are often overlooked within the arts. Tera Muskrat previously resided in Dulce, NM, and now resides in Taos with her daughter who is also an artist.

Artist Statement:

I paint women who eat chile, and sopas, carne seca and chicharrones. I paint women who raised themselves, whose men were never faithful and left them to raise their children alone. Women who are not afraid to slap a man, who are not afraid of anything but losing the last thread of softness inside their injured hearts. Women who do not smile at strangers because “I don’t know you like that”. I paint women whose beauty and magnificent curves did not save them from a life of struggle. Women who must get up everyday and show up because there is no one else to do it for them. I paint “eeeeeee” and “MMMMmmm” and “a la”. I paint Tetas and Nalgas and am unapologetic to those it may offend because I will not be shamed for how this body formed. I paint “what the f&$@ you looking at” and “can. I. help. you?”.

I paint Nuevo Mejicanos whose histories have been tragically misrepresented in the art world. I paint families, their stories, relationships, joy, triumphs, and sorrow. I paint those whose blood has flown here for centuries, and whose culture is in danger of impending gentrification. I paint community and celebration.

I paint the women who held me up when I had nothing and no one. I paint resilience, I paint scars, I paint my story, I paint Nuevo Mexico.

Connect with Tera at @TeraMuskratArt.

Curator

Location: San Mateo Blvd NE & Claremont Ave NE, Albuquerque, NM

My artistic practice has taken me on a lifelong “shoestring” adventure—packed with action and magic—that has variously found me training in Beijing with Kung Fu masters; tango dancing in Buenos Aires; in riots in Chile; eating dinner on dirt floors with Tibetan exiles in Nepal and at the dinner tables of famed filmmakers in Italy; on the couches of Panthers and Weather Underground; in medicinal ceremonies in the Amazonian jungle; at Tahrir Square with a million Egyptians... I am a humanist artist: unapologetically narrative, and for whom art and the social world are inseparable. I use the proceeds of the sales of my art to witness the world firsthand—i.e.-when I sell a painting, I buy a plane ticket and go!

Connect with Erin at @erincurrierfineart.

SaveArtSpace

Founded in 2015, SaveArtSpace is a non-profit organization that works to create an urban gallery experience, launching exhibitions that address intersectional themes and foster a message of social change that benefits the working class. By placing culture over commercialism, SaveArtSpace aims to empower artists from all walks of life and inspire a new generation of young creatives and activists.