GWEN TRIAY SAMUELS
Albuquerque, New Mexico
www.triayarts.com/triayarts@gmail.com
VISUAL ART EXHIBITION VENUES:
· Community Art Gallery, Truth. Memory. Joy Resistance: Black Expressions in New
Mexico, Santa Fe, NM; Served on Artist Panel “Archiving Black Expression Across
Mediums”, 2026.
· Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery, Earth Web and Black History Month Art Exhibit,
Albuquerque, NM; 2025/2026.
· New Mexico State Fair, Alice K. Hoppes African American Art Pavilion, Albuquerque;
2016-2025.
· Fusion Art Gallery, Protest!, Albuquerque; 2024.
· City Gallery, Celebrating Black Mermaids: From Africa To America, Charleston, South
Carolina; 2023.
· Sumter County Gallery of Art, All That We Carry, Sumter, SC; 2022.
· New Mexico Cancer Center, Gallery with A Cause, Anniversary Exhibition #1,
Albuquerque; 2022.
· African American Fiber Arts Festival, Black Gold and Sankofa, North Charleston, SC;
2019/2021.
· Textile Center/Women of Color Quilters Network, We Are the Story, Minneapolis,
MN; 2020-21.
· New Mexico Humanities Council, 400 Years (1619-2019)/Matters of the Heart:
Black Art Speaks, Albuquerque; 2019/2020.
· New Mexico Cancer Center, Gallery with A Cause, The Art of Healing, Albuquerque;
2018/2020.
· African American Performing Arts Center, Re-Emergence and Benin to Juneteenth,
Albuquerque; 2016/2017.
· Mancuso Quilt Festival of New Jersey, Somerset, New Jersey; 2013.
· Rahway Savings Institution, RSI Annual Artists’ Contest, “Renaissance, Rebirth,
Revival,” Rahway, NJ; 2012/2013.
· The New Jersey Medical School, Fall Arts Festival: Art, Medicine and Life, Newark, NJ;
2009/2012.
· Barronfest, Fine Arts and Crafts FestivalM Woodbridge, NJ; 2011.
PUBLICATIONS (BY AND ABOUT):
· The Fabric of Service, article on my project serving the homeless of Albuquerque, Fiber Art Now Magazine; Winter 2023.
· Brookgreen 101, a book by Robin R. Salmon, Curator of Brookgreen Gardens, Pawley’s Island, SC, in which one of my quilts appears; Class Publishing; 2022.
· We Are the Story: A Visual Response to Racism, by Carolyn Mazloomi, Founder, Women of Color Quilters Network, with The Textile Center (Minneapolis) documenting the exhibition of the same name in which two of my quilts appeared; Paper Moon Publishing; 2021.
· COVID Survivor Shares Journey of Illness, Recovery, a review of my memoir, A Second Second Chance; LA Wave Newspaper; February 2021.
· Black and At Risk, a review of my memoir, A Second Second Chance; Taos News; November 2020.
· A Second Second Chance: A Black Woman’s Story of Recovery from COVID-19, Finalist, Indie Book Awards; my memoir published by Triay Arts; 2020.
· Sharing African Culture through Fabric, interview on ¡COLORES!, New Mexico PBS Television, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr6vjC4v6-c; February 2020.
· 9 Patch Life, my first poetry collection; published by Triay Arts; 2019.
· Ghana EE-AH-AY!, my punch quilt chosen as logo for the KUNM radio station fundraiser button for their Train to Glory gospel show; 2017.
· Leap and Dance, my art quilt chosen for the Rahway Savings Institute Calendar, distributed to 4,000 bank patrons; 2013.
· La Historia con Hilo y Aguja, Nuestra Comunidad: La Voz Latina Desde el Corazon de Nueva Jersey; http://www.njcomunidad.com; Spanish language online article about my quilting project with my middle school students; December 2005.
· Quilting Their Way through History: Franklin Students Learn English and More; an article featuring my quilting project with my middle school students; The Courier News; 2005.
MEMBERSHIPS:
Member, Westside Artists Workshop, Albuquerque; current.
Member, New Mexico Live Poets Society; current.
Member, New Mexico African American Artists’ Guild; Served as Secretary 2016-18.
Cave Canem Poetry Fellow; 2007.
EDUCATION:
2015-2018 Studied “Punch Quilting” with Cristina Diaz Arntzen at Manzano Mesa Multigenerational Center, a unique “no-sew” fiber art technique is that employs fabric, batting, foam board, tempered board, and a few tools, mostly homemade, to create works reminiscent of mosaics or stained glass; Albuquerque, NM.
2017 Studied Long Arm Quilting classes at Ann Silva Sewing Center; Albuquerque, NM.
2009 Studied “Pojagi”, the art of Korean Patchwork with Chunghie Lee at the Korea Society; New York, NY.
2001-2009 Attended “Quilters by the River”, a yearly summer quilting workshop retreat at Linwood Spiritual Center; studied hand quilting, machine piecing, color and fabric combining, applique, sandwiching, quilt binding, and more; Rhinebeck, NY.
2008 NYU, School of Professional Studies Certificate in East Asian Languages (Korean and Japanese)
1991-1994 City University of New York, Graduate Studies in Translation
1990 NYU, School of Professional Studies, Certificate in Translation
1977 University of Pennsylvania, MS in Education Linguistics (TESOL/Bilingual Education)
1973 University of Pennsylvania, BA Dual Major, Spanish and International Relations