As Daphne Art Foundation reaches the end of the fifth year of its artist-in-residency (AiR), it is important to note that 31 fellows have been mentored through this program. Being part of their artistic journeys – encouraging and pushing them to think why they chose the path of the artist, why they explore the topics they do with the materials they use, and how to best use their unique languages, their mediums, to tell the stories they want to share – has been an immense and significant duty. Every year we discover how the artists of each cohort mirror each other.
This year’s AiR25 cohort share a thread of persistence, as an act of adaptability and acceptance. Through photography, installation, painting, stained glass, mosaic, ceramic, and printmaking techniques, they each anecdote nature and humanness. The exhibition AiR25 Group Exhibit, on view at Casa Daphne through November 7, showcases geographical and metaphorical connections, impermanence, mortality, the dualities of subjective experiences, and a basic physiological need we all require – food.
The goal of most artistic residencies is to offer space and time to artists of all disciplines, who are serious about the development of their practices. Residencies are moments of focused production; however, not all result in tangible artwork. Some residencies give us opportunities to connect with other artists, writers, or thinkers. They become stages of reflection to conceptualize and build on ideas and to consider how to utilize space for the presentation of art.
AiR25 worked during 2-3 month periods researching, conceptualizing, and creating artwork while working closely with a mentor
– Maritza Bautista –
Monse Guajardo
Monse Guajardo’s affinity for photography is forged by an interest in narratives as explorations of the human condition. The duality of being raised on the U.S/Mexico border formed her photographic aesthetic and motivation for the stories she captures. Inspired by Mexico’s nature, colors, textures, and domestic scenes with a focus on intimate portraiture and documentary photography, she explores their interconnection. She often takes collage art onto her images, integrating artifacts from the image’s location to add context to her stories.
Bio: She is a border resident. Her first solo exhibition, Identity Collapse, was in Laredo in 2018. She has been part of the group shows Memory Map by Hardy & Nance Studios, Unusually Unfamiliar by Daphne Art Foundation, Send me anything for Houston Center for Photography’s 41st Center Annual juried by Leo Hsu, and Borderlands Photography group presented at TAMIU. She was a Finalist for LensCulture’s Portrait Award 2024 and awarded the 22nd Julia Margaret Cameron Award in three different categories for an exhibition at Barcelona Foto Biennale in April 2025. She has been published in The Guardian, Dazed Magazine, and Pitchfork.
Mariana Prado
My work seeks to understand impermanence as a means to push through a fear of leaving what is familial. Through depictions of nature’s inevitable cycles, I explore my experience with migration and how it translates into a fear of change. I use stained glass, painting, and crochet to portray the precarious nature of life, using glass as a visual metaphor for the tangible fragility we experience. By depicting butterflies, deer, and birds, I aim to convey transformation, change, and migration while contrasting these ideas with death.
Bio: Born in McAllen, Mariana Prado grew up and lived in Reynosa, Tamps. until the age of 13 when with her family she migrated to Pharr, where she now resides. Mariana has navigated life through her Mexican eyes in a playful but crude way, with crippling Catholic guilt that allows her to find beauty in the worst places, even death. She earned a BFA from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2021, and has presented works at South Texas College Galleries, Chautauqua School of Visual Arts, San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum, and Fowler Kellogg Art Center. Her recent exhibits have been at Flower Shop Art Studio, Presa House Gallery, and Brownsville Museum of Fine Art. Her multidisciplinary studio practice allows her to communicate fears, worries, death, permanence, self-discovery, and transformation.
Kristina Salinas
My eyes are open to the vitality intrinsic to culture. My work is imperative, as culture is a vehicle for progress and must be regarded with sincerity. As a multidisciplinary artist, I generate examples of culture, using my pictorial language as a means of expressive reportage. I benefit from two major cultural factors: my identity within my home region and deep musical appreciation. The South Texas borderland is a confluence of Mexican and American customs radiating from the Rio Grande. Music, especially hip hop, informs my work by way of resourceful expression. I metabolize these factors, allowing the resultant blend to filter onto the canvas. I process the world in layers, and so I work in layers, beginning with a deep foundational hue and building upon that over time. As I work, I combine what I see with how it makes me feel, resulting in my truth.
Bio: Born in Laredo, I am a 4th generation Mexican-American multidisciplinary artist. I live and work in San Antonio, fortunate to witness the culture that surrounds me. I am deeply connected to my region, proud to represent South Texas in national exhibitions. I am honored to have worked with wonderful organizations throughout my career. I have collaborated with fellow artist, Karla Kopalli, on a piece now in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Latino in Washington, DC. I have also worked with the Museum of the Red River in Oklahoma, The University of Arts and Sciences Oklahoma, Texas State University, the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in Lubbock, the Contemporary in San Antonio, I Have a Dream Foundation, the Mexican-American Unity Council, and 311 Gallery in North Carolina.
Sandra Almeda
Forget Me Not is a ceramic installation with an incorporation of my own preserved flowers. Each section has distinct flowers that hold an equally distinct memory – flowers loved ones gave me on a random day or for my graduation, my mom’s birthday bouquet, a rare flower from my grandmother’s garden, a flower from my late grandfather – all moments so close to my heart that became memories over time. Drying or pressing a flower preserves it longer, but eventually the flower decays completely, resembling a moment that fades to memory. Ceramic pieces do not decompose; they preserve their form almost entirely with clay and glaze immortalizing not only the flowers but the memories associated with them. As the flowers visually wilt, the glaze gradually covers them, mimicking the drying process. This technique is my attempt to archive things that are naturally ephemeral.
Bio: Laredoan Sandra Almeda earned a BA from Texas A&M International University and is preparing for graduate school. She practices in varying art mediums — jewelry, drawing, ceramics — with an expression on nature, nostalgia, and spirituality. She has exhibited work at Casa Ortiz, Casa Daphne, and TAMIU. She has assisted artist research projects, including The Living Mural at the Border Heritage Museum, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. She worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant through the ACT on IDEAS award at TAMIU, developing unique techniques that formed the concept of her senior show, Su Jardin, Mi Hogar — a show that jumpstarted the intriguing theme of prolonging the inevitable and the parallels within art and life.
Bernardo Aria
My work is an invitation to experience life’s complex emotional landscapes. Whether it’s the vulnerability of grief, the complexity of identity, or the connection to the natural world, my art speaks to the depth of the human experience. Through works like Soñé and Carnívora, I strive to capture not just a visual moment, but an emotional truth that speaks to something within. Pieces such as Pulsar Verde and Corazón de la Selva take the viewer on an immersive journey where life, color, and form come together to synthesize the physicality of concepts often considered ephemeral.
Bio: I’m an artist based in Laredo, working in oil, watercolor, and soft sculpture. My work often explores how the emotional experiences of grief, compulsion, and memory behave like natural systems: cyclical, layered, and driven by strange logic. I’m drawn to the biology of thought and the physics of feeling, and how the mind metabolizes emotion into image. I paint to observe, allowing organisms, colors, and plush forms to carry the weight of metaphor; a slow transcription of human experience — sometimes from a banana.
Genesis Sofia Galdámez Blanco
My work is an exploration of feminine strength, self-discovery, and the quiet, profound beauty of nature. I am interested in themes tied to my identity as a woman, an immigrant, and an artist. I’m drawn to the tactile, transformative nature of clay, a medium that mirrors my journey of growth and adaptation. Growing up between Guatemala’s vibrant traditions and Texas borderland influences have shaped my artistic language. My work embodies organic forms, often echoing the curves of femininity and the resilience of native flora that carry personal and cultural significance. Each piece becomes a vessel for storytelling. Through wheel-throwing, hand-building, and intricate surface work, I create textures and motifs that feel alive — sometimes delicate, sometimes unyielding — like the women who inspire me. My work is an invitation to witness the interplay of vulnerability and strength, to trace the echoes of migration and belonging, and to find beauty in the unrefined, the handmade, and self-discovery.
Bio: Guatemalan-born Genesis Galdámez Blanco is a ceramicist based in Laredo. Her work explores themes of feminine strength, self-discovery, and the profound beauty of nature. Currently completing her bachelor’s degree in ceramics with a certification in art education at Texas A&M International University, she was recently recognized for her sculptures, The Genesis and La Primavera, featured in The Parameters student exhibition.Her work centers on creating organic ceramic forms that reflect her identity and experiences as she explores the intricate layers of womanhood, weaving together symbolism from feminine objects, animals, and flora to express resilience, growth, and transformation. Her art celebrates the enduring power of women and the natural world, inviting viewers to connect with the stories and emotions in each piece.
Valeria Samara Guajardo Serrano
I make use of the unique characteristics of printmaking to explore questions for which I do not hold the answers, as well as my own struggles and victories. My work is deeply rooted in my personal experiences and the views of the world that surround me. Being a mixed-media artist, I experiment with materials and processes to combine them into cohesive artwork. As a writer, my work is also greatly influenced by this medium, taking inspiration from the works of various talented writers and poets, as well as attempting to translate my own writings into visual art, or a mix of the two. I’m developing work inspired by Sylvia Plath’s fig passage in The Bell Jar and Laura Esquivel’s match allegory in Como Agua Para Chocolate. Both will later be exhibited at Los Olvidados.
Bio: Laredoan Samara Guajardo is a spoken word poet, writer, and mixed media artist. Their preferred mediums are linocuts, dry point etchings, and screen prints, often experimenting with different materials and combining their knowledge for different mediums into their work. Their work deals with their life experiences and often intertwines aspects of the natural world, such as the growth of mold or the formation of stalactites as symbolisms for more complex human experiences, like decaying interpersonal relationships or mental health. They currently attend Texas A & M International University to complete a Bachelor’s degree of Art with a major in Art and a minor in Creative Writing. At TAMIU, and through the ACT on IDEAS Program they are currently employed by Tarantula Press, which collaborates with artists to create and publish prints.
