Sarah Aziz
Albuquerque, New Mexico
2025 Paseo Project Artist in Residence
TAOS, N.M. — The Paseo Project is pleased to welcome Sarah Aziz for the Artist-in-Residence program, taking place July 20 through August 17 in Taos, New Mexico.
During the four-week residency, Aziz will develop work inspired by the landscapes, histories, and cultural ecologies of Northern New Mexico. The residency provides dedicated time and space for artistic research, experimentation, and community engagement, culminating in the development of new work created during the program.
Sarah Aziz is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. student at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Sarah Aziz is also the 2020-21 Innovation in Design Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She holds a B.Arch. from Liverpool John Moores University, an M.Arch. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has taught at Texas Tech University.Through research, drawing, and interdisciplinary artistic practice, she investigates questions of indigeneity and invasiveness across multiple scales—from human migration and tourism to ecological displacement and global corporate expansion. Her work examines phenomena such as British tourism abroad, tumbleweeds (often called "Russian Invaders" in the United States) and their origins in the Republic of Georgia, and the proliferation of more than 20,400 Dollar General stores as a lens for understanding contemporary American domesticity and global manufacturing. Her work has been supported by Art Omi, The Architectural League of New York, and MacDowell.
During her residency with The Paseo Project, Aziz will continue working on her PhD thesis while developing Tumbleweed Rodeo, an ongoing research and artistic project that began in Lubbock, Texas, in 2019 with collaborators Jack Craft and Eric J. Simpson. Since its inception, the project has expanded through exhibitions, field research, and public engagement across the Great Plains and the Republic of Georgia—the tumbleweed's country of origin. The Taos residency offers an opportunity to further develop the ecological, cultural, and political narratives embedded within invasive landscapes of the American Southwest.
The Paseo Project Artist-in-Residence Program supports artists at pivotal moments in their careers by fostering creative exploration and encouraging meaningful connections between artists and the local community.
Within the residency, Aziz will participate in studio practice, research, and a public engagement opportunity at Twirl, 226 Camino De La Placita in Taos on July 25th, 11-1.
Special thanks to Janet and John Mockovciak for their generous support.
Public Program
Youth Workshop: Tumbleweed Rodeo at Twirl|
Saturday, July 25, 2026
11 am–1 pm
Twirl, 225 Camino de la Placita, Taos, NM
Through hands-on artmaking and playful exploration, children and families will investigate the surprising journeys of tumbleweeds and discover how art, ecology, architecture, and community come together in creative new ways. Artist Sarah Aziz will share the foundations of her Tumbleweed Rodeo project and guide participants in creating paint-based artwork inspired by the movement, patterns, and ecological stories of tumbleweeds across the high desert landscape. Come create, experiment, and explore as art and environmental imagination collide.
Artist Bio:
Sarah Aziz is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of New Mexico and a PhD student at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Her background as a second-generation British Pakistani informs her research practice that maps patterns of migration across multiple scales and geographies, starting with her grandfather’s walk from Delhi to Lahore during the Partition of British India. Currently, she is working with collaborators from across the Great Plains to tag, track, and build with tumbleweeds because they defy human-made borders and ask new questions of indigeneity and invasiveness. Her drawing work has been featured in AD Magazine, PLAT Journal, Architect Magazine, Soiled, and CLOG. Most recently, she was awarded a 2023 Architectural League Prize with Lindsey Krug, and in 2021, the pair received an ACSA Course Development Prize in Architecture, Climate Change, and Society to study the 19,400+ extra-ordinary Dollar General stores in America.
She is a recipient of Art Omi, MacDowell, and UW-Milwaukee Fitzhugh Scott Innovation in Design Fellowships and has held Visiting Professorships at the University of Colorado Denver as the inaugural Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture with an Emphasis on Issues of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and Texas Tech University.
Aziz conceptualized ‘Tumbleweed Rodeo’ in Lubbock, Texas, in 2019, with two West-Texas-based collaborators: artist and rancher Jack Craft and artist and farmer Eric J. Simpson. Aziz, Craft, and Simpson worked with stakeholders from across the Great Plains to develop and exhibit the project. Places include the CO+OPt Research and Projects (2019), Charles Adams Studio Project (2019), the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (2021), in Lubbock, Texas, At’l Do Farms in Shallowater, Texas (2021), and space p11 in the Chicago Pedway (2020). Aziz has received grants from Texas Tech University, the University of New Mexico, CO+OPt Research and Projects, Acute Angles, and the University of Colorado Denver to run ‘Tumbleweed Rodeo’ workshops, undergraduate and graduate-level courses, dérives, performances, construction events, workshops, and dinners. In 2021, Aziz was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship to develop a plan for increasing the scale of the participatory public performances, such as adobe-mixing dance parties. In 2022, she was selected for a residency in Silverton, Colorado, by The Residency Project to create small-scale prototypes of the wind berm.
