April marks the second month of the Flatlanders & Surface Dwellers exhibition at Albuquerque’s 516 ARTS, and features more events and workshops that will continue through May. The gallery, just voted Best Art Gallery by the city’s weekly, is buzzing with art world discourse, demonstration, conversation and learning.

On April 3, I attended Basement Films’ pre-festival teaser for its Experiments in Cinema Festival. I’m not a stickler for video art, but in the context of how Basement Films presents its collection of works, I always feel totally engaged in the show and come away feeling rejuvenated and inspired. While most of the films were one to three minutes long, the highlight was the US premiere of a 15-minute Japanese film called “Sailing Across Images.” I loved it so much and was seriously engaged with it like it was meditation. Some people couldn’t take the experimental heat and got up to eat some cheese and fruit and look around upstairs. But many in the audience were, like me, transfixed on some level or another.

Upcoming events promise further exploration of the themes of surface and texture highlighted in the Flatlanders exhibition. All are free unless otherwise noted.

Melissa Gwyn, Fabergenic artist talk. Wednesday, April 17, 6pm; held at Central New Mexico Community College Smith-Brasher Hall – Room 100. 516 ARTS and Guest Curator Lea Anderson welcome San Francisco-based artist Melissa Gwyn for a presentation on her decades-long painterly preoccupation with surface, illusion, rupture and revelation. Her series Fabergenic explores the subjects of inheritance, opulence and power.

“516 ARTISTS-IN-PERSON” artist talk. Thursday, April 18, 6:30pm; held at 516 ARTS. Interact with artists Ivan Boyd, Melissa Gwyn and Jessica Kennedy from the Flatlanders show during an hour of talks, demos and conversation.

Wax/Image/Surface: Possibilities in Encaustic Collage, with Lea Anderson & Jessica Kennedy. Sunday, April 28, 2013, 9am – 4pm; $80 fee; registration required; held at Harwood Art Center’s 6th St. Studio. In this workshop led by Lea Anderson, Flatlander’s Guest Curator, and Jessica Kennedy, a participating artist in the exhibition, participants will use beeswax, heat, and imagery/paper/cloth of their choice to create a series of collages and mixed media works on panels and on paper.

Urban Forages {house of eco-drifters}. Saturday, May 11, 3pm; held at 516 ARTS. Celebrate Salvador Dali’s birthday (!) with the very funny Nicole Dextras, an environmental artist flying in from Vancouver to give a talk on her contribution to Flatlanders & Surface Dwellers, including her Nomadik Harvest Dress. The dress will display a variety of New Mexico’s indigenous edible plants and a communal dish will be served. Dextras is incredibly forward-thinking, comically insightful, and has done some really amazing art projects all around the world. Be sure to introduce yourself.