Bios 

Stephanie J. Woods is a multidisciplinary artist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she serves as an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Art at the University of New Mexico. Raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Woods creates work deeply rooted in the preservation and celebration of her cultural heritage.

​She earned her MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2015 and has since developed a dynamic and expansive career. Her honors include residencies and fellowships at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center, ACRE, and the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, among others. In 2021, Woods was selected for the Black Rock Senegal artist residency in Dakar, Senegal, and was awarded the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art by the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina.

Woods’ work has been featured in major exhibitions, including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery as part of Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today and the Dakar Biennale. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Gibbes Museum of Art, and the Mint Museum, among others.

Johannes Barfield is an American visual and sound artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans installation, video, photography, collage, sculpture, spatial audio, music, and speculative storytelling. His work explores childhood memory, wonder, and imagined futures through narratives that unfold across multiple mediums.

Born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Barfield earned his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently an Assistant Professor  at the University of New Mexico. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He is currently developing Pilot Coaltrain, an expansive science fiction narrative that unfolds through sound, sculpture, installation, and a graphic novel.

Barfield’s work has been featured at institutions including the Greenville Museum of Art in MARAUDERS, a show exploring future artifacts and new mythologies; Davidson College in The Sun Rises Spite of Everything, featuring artists such as Pope.L and Alexandra Bell; and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Reckoning and Resilience.

His accolades include the Mint Museum Atrium Health Award, the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, and residencies at the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, MASS MoCA, and the Fine Arts Work Center, among others. His work has been exhibited at the Nasher Museum, Mint Museum, PAAM Museum of Art, Van Every|Smith Galleries, 1708 Gallery, and more.

Daniela Gamba is an illustrator and concept developer collaborating with Johannes Barfield on his forthcoming speculative science-fiction graphic novel, Pilot Coaltrain. Working from the world, stories, and characters imagined by Barfield, Gamba helps translate his ideas into a visual language through her illustrations and concept development. Her work plays an important role in visualizing the characters, environments, and creatures that inhabit Pilot Coaltrain and appear throughout Soft Crash.