Atmosphere, Water and Light: Shimmer LASER Panel at St. John's College

Saturday April 11, 2026, 3-5pm in conjunction with an exhibition at the Peterson Gallery of St. John’s College Santa Fe
Panel Presenters: Sophie Azzolina, Jessica Lanham, Andrea Polli, Lila Steffan and Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joseph Galewsky

Artist and St. John's College Student Sophie Azzolina's artwork contains visual representations of real deep sea wonders along with imaginings of the merging between human and ocean.

Artist Jessica Lanham's interactive water sculpture is based on the concept of turbidity. Viewers push down on a seesaw mechanism to activate turbid water containing sediment and ash, which then washes over a laser-etched map of the Gallinas, Mora, Sapello, and Pecos watersheds.

Artist and UNM Art Professor Andrea Polli's work uses lenticular technology, in which lenses are used to produce highly luminous images made of textured acrylic with an illusion of depth, or that change or move when viewed from different angles.

Artist Lila Steffan works primarily with found, repurposed, and hand processed materials including papers, textiles, and mineral based paints and her work benefits greatly from conversations and collaborations with geoscientists.

UNM Earth and Planetary Sciences Professor Dr. Joseph Galewsky's research interests focus on the atmospheric branch of Earth's hydrologic cycle, its role in global climate dynamics, and its impact on Earth's geological history.

Project Venue and Setting
At St. John’s College, science and art are complementary ways of knowing, and all students engage with the great works of mathematics, natural science, philosophy, poetry, music, and literature through close reading and sustained conversation. With a curriculum that moves from Euclid, Darwin and Einstein to the study and illustration of plants and the movement of celestial beings, St. John’s fosters an education rooted in inquiry, imagination, and the enduring dialogue between scientific discovery and artistic expression.

SciArt Santa Fe, founded in 2019, fosters artists across disciplines that reflect the cultural diversity of New Mexico, supports research that addresses issues that disproportionately affect people of under-represented races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, national origins, citizenship statuses and ages including climate change, species extinction and migration, that often do not fit within a traditional gallery framework.

Our Spring 2026 SciArt Santa Fe exhibition features 20 New Mexico artists: Sophie Azzolina, Morgan Barnard, Bobbe Besold, Paul Biagi, Chad Colby, Shirley Crow, Deidre Greenly , Jeanette Hart-Mann , Evgenya Kirichenko, Jessica Lanham, Susan Latham, Richard Lowenberg, Palma Maya-Johnson, Jess Merritt, Heather Murphree, Andrea Polli, Nico Rasmussen, Alyce Santoro, Abigail Sapien and Lila Steffan

This event is free and accessible to all. If you need more information, contact [email protected] with questions related to access and accommodation.

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