Francis Bacon: Late Paintings Opening Day Lecture with Curator Alison de Lima Greene
ATRIUM GALLERY
The Atrium Gallery is the central hub of the Fine Arts program. The highly active, and sometimes impromptu work space, provides an atmosphere that promotes inspiration and community. The Atrium Gallery hosts several professional artists a year as well as provide numerous opportunities for students to work with these artists as well as exhibit their own work. Students are given full support when requesting space to work in large-scale, directly on the walls, and installation-based work. The communal environment brings students to the space daily to gather, share food, and critique work.
The Atrium Gallery is open Monday-Friday from 9-5pm.
The gallery is closed on national holidays as well as summer, winter, and spring breaks.
Click HERE for exact dates of school breaks.
Fred Perlata Hall and the Atrium Gallery are currently under a full building renovation. While the gallery is closed, all exhibitions will he held in collaboration with and at Revolt Gallery.
Revolt Gallery is located at 222 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte in the in the Historical District of Taos.
CURRENT EXHIBITION
Cougar Vigil: Chronicles of Contrast
November 8 - December 6, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, November 8th from 6-9pm
Revolt Gallery and UNM-Taos Art Department partnership presents Chronicles of Contrast, a mixed media photography exhibition by Cougar Vigil - one of 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now 2023!
Chronicles of Contrast, a mixed media experimental photography show by Cougar Vigil of the Jicarilla Apache tribe, delves into the interplay between appropriation, stereotypes, and images used to represent Native American culture. Drawing from his childhood on the reservation and the traditions of his tribe, Vigil’s work explores the contrast between true representation of Indigeneity, sourcing images from an archive that he collected as a photojournalist for his tribal newspaper, and the stereotypical depictions spread through mainstream media. The collaged fabric cyanotypes, including recognizable Native American artifacts such as bows and arrows mixed with abstract patterns and plants, challenge the viewer’s ability to recognize the subject matter and prompt them to look more closely. Vigil creates space for the audience to become curious, ask questions, and learn about Indigenous culture rather than speculate from a distance. Cougar Vigil on his work — Now is an important time to “connect Indigenous narratives with the broader public sphere to combat generalizations and simplified sentiments of Indigeneity.”
Cougar Vigil is a documentary and experimental photographer from the Jicarilla Apache Nation in Northern New Mexico. His passion for photography began in high school in the early 2000s. Based in New Mexico, Vigil's work is deeply rooted in his responsibility to his community and traditional Jicarilla Apache scholarship. His unique approach to photography explores themes related to Indigenous identity and incorporates elements of his photography archive. Vigil graduated from Pratt Institute, earning his Master of Fine Arts in 2018. In addition to his work as a photographer, Vigil is also the Editor of the Jicarilla Chieftain, a tribal newspaper. In recognition of his contributions to the arts in New Mexico, Vigil was selected as one of the twelve artists to know in the state in 2023 by Southwest Contemporary magazine. Vigil's dedication to his craft and community is evident in all he does, and he continues to inspire others through his art and teaching.
PAST EXBITIONS
2024
Kate Turner: Masks All The Way Down
September 13 - October 26, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 13th from 6-9pm
Masks All The Way Down, an immersive installation by multidisciplinary artist Kate Turner, delves into the intricate interplay between masking, identity, and the metaphorical weaving of text and autobiography through soft sculpture and mixed materials. Drawing from her childhood experiences as a trans-racially adopted black person into a white family, Turner’s work explores the complex layers of identity formation and the societal pressures that influence self-presentation, and the textual weaving of a coherent self-narrative. The concept of masking plays a central role in self-presentation, serving as both a protective shield while at the same time as a barrier to authentic self-expression.
The soft sculptures, including quilted corn stalks and scarecrow figures, symbolize Turner’s journey is one of belonging and not belonging in a predominantly white environment, symbolized by athletic gear and uniforms that highlight the paradox of fitting in and standing out. These dynamic portrayals challenge viewers to consider the masks they wear and the factors that shape their own identities. By bringing these interwoven themes to the forefront, Turner creates a space for reflection and dialogue on the complexities of identity, societal expectations, and the power of self-representation.
Kate Turner is a visual artist and writer from West Chester, Ohio. She uses sculpture, installation, film, fashion, and performance to abstract memories and experiences reflecting on what it was like forging an identity as a transracial adoptee. Through her storytelling, she to examines contemporary issues surrounding identity, race, and gender. She holds a BFA from Bowling Green State University, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in sculpture and extended media. She has completed residencies at Art Farm Nebraska, The Galveston Artist Residency, and the Roswell Artist-In-Residency Program. She currently works as a STEAM Instructor and Makerspace director at her local library in Roswell New Mexico, where she currently lives and works. Most recently, Kate Turner was chosen as one of Southwest Contemporary’s 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now 2023.
Read the Taos News article on Kate Turner: Masks All The Way Down HERE.
SVA’s Rachel Gisela Cohen and UNM-Taos Art Students Show at Revolt Gallery in Dual Exhibition
August 17 - September 2, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, August 17th from 6-9pm
Revolt Gallery and the Department of Fine Arts, Film and Digital Media at UNM-Taos are pleased to present a dual exhibition highlighting the educational partnership between the School of Visual Arts in New York City and UNM-Taos.
Dance Cadaverous, a solo exhibition by Rachel Gisela Cohen, will be featured in the small gallery. Rachel Gisela Cohen's work reflects on beauty, surface, and the excess of contemporary culture, moving between the natural and material world. She uses paint, pigment, mica, recycled textiles, and collected fabrics to create her sequin-encrusted chromatic paintings which are created with an intuitive and emotive process. Utilizing the blade of her bandsaw, she employs a mode of automatic drawing while carving the initial shape of her support. She then dyes and paints canvas, which she fastens over the hand-carved form. Stretching, dressing and wrapping each work in a variety of recycled textiles and sequined fabrics, she creates works that both reveal and conceal her process. Cohen builds up the physical and visual layers of her works until their surface reaches a saturation point or it finds its final form. The shapes of her canvases are abstract, but seemingly may reference familiar external and internal forms, such as the outline of a mountain range or the unevenness of skin hanging from your thigh.
Rachel Gisela Cohen is an artist, educator, and independent curator based in New York City. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, exhibiting at Spring Break Art Show, The Bryant Park Foundation, The Armenia Art Fair, Pierogi Gallery’s The Boiler, The Yard, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and Hunter College Art Galleries. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, Constance Saltonstall Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, COPE NYC, Montclair Art Museum, and most recently, Revolt Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. She received her M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from Pratt Institute and a B.A. in Art History and Visual Arts from Drew University. She currently teaches as a Senior Artist Educator at the Museum of Arts and Design and manages the School of Visual Arts Artist Residency Programs in New York City.
Rachel Gisela Cohen is directly responsible for creating the educational partnership between SVA and UNM-Taos. She has facilitated multiple online and in-person residencies at the School of Visual Arts for UNM-Taos students, including two full scholarships to the summer program in New York City. Three students who participated in the 4-5 week summer residencies are included in the group exhibition in the adjacent gallery.
Untranslated is a multi-disciplinary group exhibition curated by six emerging Taos artists who shared the Art Practices studio at UMN-Taos Art in 2023-2024. The show features work by Catherine Langley (SVA Resident, 2024), Petra Marguerite (SVA Resident Fellow, 2024), Lucinda Nichols, Selena Pacheco (SVA Resident Fellow, 2023), Aramara Pereda, and Dashel Stone. A wide range of themes, media, and approaches to making art reflect the diversity within this group of artists. Visitors will see a mixed media show incorporating painting, printmaking, assemblages, collage, and video. Dashel Stone has created an installation exploring his love for the southwestern desert. His fascination with sharp objects such as barbed wire and cacti draws from the destructive and boundary-breaking days of his youth. Aramara Pereda uses found images and film footage to investigate the evolution of media and human perception. The abstract compositions range from nostalgic personal landscapes to bold and colorful representations of the cacophony of modern life. Selena Pacheco's vibrant and colorful work serves as a deeply cathartic visual diary reflecting her personal experiences with trauma, femininity, identity, and the metamorphosis from girlhood to adulthood through found materials and large-scale oil paintings. Lucinda Nichols creates multi-media sculptures and paintings with somber, colorful, and chaotic themes that address the need to understand the worldviews, psychology, and experiences of all people. Artist and chemist Petra Marguerite explores the theme of polarity through the Turing pattern: a pattern that recurs everywhere from repellant forces in physics to predator-prey distribution in ecology. Working in metal, fabric, and paper, Catherine Langley uses the corset to symbolize restrictions imposed by society on women and the self-imposed restraints that have limited their full potential.
Read the Taos News article on dual exhibition HERE.
Benny and Friends: The Land Of Mañana
July 4 - August 2, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, July 4th from 4-6pm
Revolt Gallery i pleased to present Benny and Friends: The Land Of Mañana, a multi-disciplinary exhibition curated by Dashel Stone and in collaboration with the UNM-Taos Department of Fine Arts, Film and Digital Media. The show features Benny Sanders, a Taos-based painter, and a group of twelve local artists who are fiends of the artist and curator. Best friends and colleagues, Stone and Sanders conceived the exhibition The Land Of Mañana as a way to showcase the natural beauty of Northern New Mexico and the diverse artists who are inspired by living in the high desert. Visitors will see oil paintings, drawings, and books by Sanders, as well as the work of three jewelers, three sculptors, two photographers, a broom-maker, a knife maker, and a printmaker.
Exhibiting along side Benny Sanders are Pia Adorn, JC Ortiz, Salma Vir, Steven Villalobos, Sierra Hard, Lauren Willsie, Montanna Binder, Haley Harper, Suni Sonquo Vizarra, Rosi Rosenthal and Dashel Stone. The opening reception is on Thursday, Thursday, July 4th from 6-9pm with many of the artists in attendance. Benny and Friends: The Land Of Mañana runs July 4 - August 2, 2024.
Benny Sanders is a painter currently based in Taos, New Mexico. He began his painting career later in life at the age of 34 when he saw someone painting en plein air outside of his workplace. He quit his job to embark on a nomadic lifestyle, painting outside nearly everyday as he traveled across the country. He is self-taught and paints traditional subject matter, such s landscapes, portraits, and wildlife, with a modern approach to design, color, and place. Sanders says about his work in the Revolt show, “This group of paintings are a homage to Place as a romantic and dramatic narrative. Gustave Courbet was (mis) quoted as saying, ‘I’ve never seen an Angel therefore, I don't paint angels. In a world full of Day Job Painters illustrating themselves into a world of Cowboys and Indians, I hope my work comes off as honest at the very least. I overheard at a bar once that painters don't really paint things, they paint themselves.”
Benny and Friends: The Land Of Mañana marks the curatorial debut of Dashel Stone, Taos-based multi-disciplinary artist, UNM-Taos student, Atrium Gallery Coordinator, and the Assistant to the Chair of the UNM-Taos Art Department. He works with a variety of mediums, but his passion for creating is rooted in crafting unique and eye-catching jewelry. He also works in wood, stone, video, photography, and traditional drawing and painting materials. Stone is a process-based artist. His newest sculptures are a critique on the effects of capitalism on our environment. One piece included in the show is a lilac wood sculpture of a disjointed mother coyote. It has turquoise veins, bone/wood tooth inlay, with a human hand carved from apple wood, tangled and strangled in barb wire, mounted on a rifle, and anchored to its ponderosa/silver base by a rusty chain. This new work is inspired by sculptures by artist Rick Bartow, and his love of New Mexico and its natural beauty. Steve McFarland, Revolt Gallery Director, says, “I’m excited to see Dashel’s first curated exhibition. He chose an eclectic mix of Taos artists to compliment Benny Sanders’ work. And seeing Benny’s paintings come to life inside Revolt sets the bar high for the anticipation of this upcoming show.”
This exhibition also marks the first of several collaborative exhibitions between Revolt Gallery and UNM-Taos. As Fred Peralta Hall on Kaluer Campus is renovated over the next year, the UNM-Taos Atrium Gallery will be closed. In an effort to continue to bring high caliber gallery programing to the community, the Department of Fine Arts, Film and Digital Media has partnered with Revolt Gallery. Sarah Stolar, Chair of the Department, says, “We are thrilled to use this opportunity to move our gallery exhibitions directly into the heart of the community. Revolt is a gallery that uplifts Taos artists and also has their finger on the pulse of contemporary art. Over the next year, Steve and I will be working together to curate exhibitions that will reflect our collective mission and highlight artists who make a great impact on Taos.”
Read the Taos News article on Benny and Friends: The Land Of Mañana HERE.
INK
April 4-May 1, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, April 4th from 4-6pm
More than twenty years ago, the UNM-Taos printmaking program was a success. A legacy of new and established artists working together was fueled by its initial faculty. Their strong connections to the Taos art community filled the program with mid-career and seasoned professionals who enrolled in classes with younger students working on degrees. This legacy, still at play, accounts for the vast array of approaches and the diverse print mediums found in the exhibition.
“I am thrilled to be a part of hosting this important exhibition that features one of our most established and popular programs. When I came to UNM-Taos eight years ago, I was astounded by the quality of work coming out of the print studio. It was clear that these artists have dedicated their practice to refining their individual creative voices. They have mounted group shows at local galleries, but this is the first time we will be filling the entire department with their work,” says Sarah Stolar, Chair of Fine Arts, Film and Digital Media.
Gary Cook, highly respected teacher of printmaking and painting at UNM-Taos for the past 24 years, encourages students to see creativity as a celebration of life, and a tool for finding and developing one’s voice in the world. Gary says, “Collaborating with Taos artists in the making of their work has been a gift. The printmakers in this show have mastered the craft of printmaking as a medium. The printmaking studio at UNM-Taos is a well-equipped and light-filled space, and we provide the instruction, materials, and support to help these artists clarify their images and artistic goals in a community that values and understands the importance of the arts.”
The subject matter in the show is as varied as the traditional and contemporary techniques taught at the school. The Intaglio prints in the show include copper etchings, mezzotints, and water etched solar plates. Other methods employed are Monotypes and relief prints in the form of woodblocks, and linocuts. Landscapes, themes from the natural world, realistic and abstracted figurative work as well as geometric designs, abstraction, and autobiographical narratives are a few of the themes explored in the show.
INK presents 18 perspectives on life. What the viewer will feel from this group of artists is their passion for life and respect for the field of art making. Printmakers included in INK are: Dwarka Bonner, Gary Cook, Sabine Core, Jan Dorris, Kate Henke, Lawrence J. Herrera, Layne Hubbard, Jennifer Lindsley, Brook Maher, Stephanie Moller, William Nevels, Betsy Peirce, Alma Quillian, Fatima Rigsby, Jill Schulman, Christopher Taylor, Steven Villalobos, and Seth Williams.
Read the Taos News article on INK HERE.
Brook R. Maher: EVERY THING AND ME!
February 21-March 27, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, February 22nd from 4-6pm
EVERY THING AND ME! is the culmination of a project spanning several years of printmaking studies at UNM-Taos under the tutelage of professor Gary Cook. Brook R. Maher began this project by writing a simple, incremental poem intended as the structure for a children’s book consisting solely of monotypes, word and image. In choosing the monotype technique, and the limited palette of black ink on white paper, Ms. Maher has striven for simplicity and immediacy, intended to appeal to the youngest child and the adult who may participate in its earliest experiences with books. EVERY THING AND ME! is peopled by an intentionally ambiguous child, mother and father so that the reader may project onto them the identities aligned with their own experiences. The poem begins by presenting the child closely observing and adventuring in the world, then proceeds with the child to the comfort of a loving, family environment. The framed prints in the exhibition are high-quality, digital reproductions of the original, bound monotypes. Though part of a story, each image is capable of standing on its own. The digital reproductions were made and framed by Taos school students at TRUE KIDS 1, under the supervision of Tiffany Kauffman and Director, Sandy Campbell.
Brook R. Maher is an observer. Her artwork is usually joyful and tells stories. She portrays her subjects as she perceives them and the spirit they embody. All of her subjects, whether they be people, plants, objects, animals or buildings, tend to inhabit a shallow picture plane in which everything compatibly jostles to occupy the crowded foreground.
Ms. Maher has worked in a variety of media: pencil, pen and ink and colored pencil drawing; painting in acrylic, gouache and watercolor; sculpture, ceramics, mosaic murals, and fabric arts. Her most recent avenue of exploration is printmaking, the study of which she has been pursuing at UNM-Taos for several years. Ms. Maher is a poet as well as a visual artist. With her printmaking, Ms. Maher is working on the juxtaposition of the written word and printed image. Ms. Maher began combining words and images in book form when she participated in two group notebook projects in New York, THE ARC OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE (2019) and THE ARC OF THE VIRAL UNIVERSE (2020). EVERY THING AND ME!(2024) is her first children’s book. Ms. Maher’s art was exhibited widely in New York’s Lower Hudson River Valley. She maintained a studio in the City of Peekskill’s Downtown Artist District for many years prior to moving to Taos in 2016.
Ms. Maher received her B.A. in 1970 from Middlebury College in Vermont. She wrote her honors thesis on the Vorticist movement in England in the early 20th Century. The Vorticist magazine “BLAST” provided her first in-depth study of the written word combined with print graphics. Maher’s creative studies have continued at numerous institutions in New England, New York, and now New Mexico, while she worked as a paralegal, a mother, a tennis pro, a library trustee and at assorted art-related jobs and commissions.
Read the Taos News article on Brook Maher's show HERE.
Jaime Knight: Looking out the Window Above
January 17-February 14, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, January 18th from 5-7pm
Looking out the Window Above is a collection of work by Jaime Knight made over the last decade. The open-ended body of work centers on an investigation of the myriad bearings on queer subjectivity. Looking at history, pop-culture, politics and personal experience, Knight creates drawings, prints, sculpture and photographs that while seemingly disparate; are all connected to moments of cultural and self-revelation. It is an ongoing exploration that uses images taken from ancient Greek pottery, disco and historic and contemporary popular culture. His work often utilizes a series of extended metaphors that play with the correlation between the AIDS crisis and the nuclear threat of the Reagan era, ideas of queer utopianism and longing, and representations of gays in history and contemporary media. A lone dance floor, the moment of impact, an ancient ritual are all metaphors for a rumination on what Michel Foucault calls "the discursive mold of sexual truth.” Knight invites the viewer to participate in the works, step up to perform, notice how they change as one moves around them or gets closer and further away and find themselves reflected in the surface.
This exhibition also introduces Jaime Knight to the UNM-Taos community. This spring, Jaime will be joining the Fine Arts faculty at UNM-Taos. He will teaching Introduction to Photography and Introduction to Graphic Design.
Jaime Knight is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work exists at the intersection of print, drawing and sculpture where his investigations attempt to address the radical intricacies of queer subjectivity. He was born in Albuquerque and received his BFA from the University of New Mexico. He has an MA in Art Education from San Francisco State University and an MFA from the University of Iowa where he was a Presidential Fellow. His exhibition history includes domestic and international solo and group exhibitions, as well as screenings of his collaborative work with Jonesy. In 2005 he was an East Bay Community Foundation Fellow at Penland School of Crafts. His and Joney's work as "die Kränken" has been a featured artist at the Austin, TX OUTsider festival in both 2015 and 2023 and a featured artist at the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. Die Kränken was also featured in a chapter of Andy Campbell's Bound Together: Leather, Sex, Archives, and Contemporary Art. He has been artist in residence at the KALA art institute, PLAND, Wassiac Project, and most recently DRAWInternational in Caylus, France where he is a represented artist. For many years he lived and taught art in the San Francisco bay area and has recently returned to New Mexico to live near his family.
Read the Taos News article on Jaime Knight's show HERE.
2023
Price Valentine: DEVIATING ORNAMENT
November 1 to December 1, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday, November 1st from 5-7pm
DEVIATING ORNAMENT, Price Valentine’s first solo exhibition, has been in progressive installation since late September 2023 in the Atrium, Gallery at UNM-Taos. Valentine uses traditional art making supplies alongside household items and construction material to compose an immersive environment easily stepped into and hard to shake away. Ripped apart, painted, and suspended toys hang with neon reflective ribbons and metal elements, and the walls are generously layered with bejeweled pink duct tape and embellished curiosities. A large paper-decorated sculpture with a pink rocking chair sit in wait for gallery viewers to have a seat and stay awhile. The exhibition includes an artful and approachable didactic element, displaying facts about child welfare in the state of New Mexico. “I hope to bring awareness and action in growing child welfare in my home state of New Mexico, the state which ranks last in the nation for child well-being.” A collection area and information about donations for a children’s cold-weather undergarment drive will be located in the gallery with drop-off locations available at Revolt Gallery and Arroyo Seco Live Stage Space as well.
Price Valentine (b. 1993, Albuquerque) is an award-winning artist working in set design, experimental film, installation, performance, and sculpture. With a wide-range of medium flexibility Valentine pushes limits between visceral and conceptual themes often rooted in gender identity, culture, and domestic spheres. Price Valentine was one of twelve artists chosen to participate in the historic Judy Chicago 50th anniversary of Wo/Man House; they are an award winning filmmaker with Official Sections at the International Endoscopic Film Festival in Santa Fe and the Cardiff Film Fest in the UK; and they are active in the local art scene including exhibiting and speaking at events with the Harwood Museum of Art, the Paseo Project Annex Window Series, Revolt Gallery, and Pecha Kucha. Valentine resides in Taos and works as Office Director at Arroyo Seco Live, a non-profit devoted to supporting arts and culture in Northern New Mexico. Upcoming projects include solo-show ‘DEVIATING ORNAMENT’ at UNM-Taos Atrium Gallery, a community projection project at Arroyo Seco Live stage in the month of December, and heading a children’s cold-weather undergarment drive in the community of Taos.
Read the Taos News article on Price Valentine's 's show HERE.
Jana Greiner: The Abyss
April 12 to May 5, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: April 19th from 5-7pm
The Abyss, an abstract body of work by Jana Greiner, tells the story of how profound grief takes over everything. Color, form and texture are the main characters in this tale of sadness and loss. Sumptuous fabrics and soft fibers that would usually feel comforting against one's skin do not get that opportunity as presented in the abstract forms Greiner constructs. The sculptures throughout the work play with soft, repetitive forms and fabric manipulations made out of black yarn and fabric. The empty nest represented in their process book is exaggerated on the wall to create the large installation, sucking the viewer into the artist’s emotional rabbit hole. Process is very important to Greiner’s work. They see art as an opportunity for emotional healing. “I find the pounding of the sewing machine foot and the vibration the machine makes healing. I feel a sense of calm when finger knitting.”
Jana Greiner is a practicing installation artist whose art relies heavily on form, concept and material. The variety of materials used include fiber, recycled materials, pvc, mud and clay. They identify as a queer sculptor and interdisciplinary artist who has been working with needle and thread since they were a child. Drawn to the traditional idea of textiles being ‘women’s work,’ Jana uses this life-long skill to create art that challenges that perspective. Jana is a graduate of University of New Mexico’s College of Fine Art. They live off the grid, outside of Taos, in a home made with their hands from adobe, which was Jana’s passion and profession for over 20 years. Jana is currently the Creative Producer at the Paseo Project.
Jessamyn Lovell: She’s Everywhere Now
March 1 to March 31, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: March 2nd from 5-7pm
She’s Everywhere Now is Jessamyn Lovell’s first solo exhibition since their mother, Raven Singlefeather, was killed in a violent accident in May 2018. This is also their first solo exhibition in Taos, New Mexico, which is fitting for this particular body of work since Lovell spent a good chunk of time in Taos processing their early days of grief. Lovell says that one of the many gifts of this grief was that they were able to tap into their senses in a way that they had never done before, which led them to make this work. The artist describes the process that unfolded in photographing feathers they found since their mother passed: “I find at least one single feather upon my path. For the first year following her death I dutifully picked each one up reading it like a message from her. I would hold it in prayer and then carry it home where I placed it carefully among the others. Eventually, I amassed an impossible collection of hundreds of feathers until I no longer felt the need to collect them physically to honor her.”
The work in this exhibition includes a collection of photographs taken of the feathers along with images taken during and after Raven Singlefeather’s death. Also on view by Lovell is As Above, a video projection on a high wall in the tall gallery. Viewers look up to see a video of birds circling in the sky overhead. The artist tracks the birds’ spiraling movement in their video, which is meant to inspire a similar feeling of vertigo to which they describe in their grief.
Jessamyn Lovell (b. 1977, Syracuse, NY) is a gender-fluid artist, reluctant academic, and licensed private investigator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lovell is of French, Sicilian, Irish, and Choctaw heritage and grew up in rural poverty in upstate New York. Lovell is a Principal Lecturer at the University of New Mexico Albuquerque campus. They work with photography, video, and surveillance as tools to document their life experiences, often making connections between class and personal identity. They have received international recognition for their work including Dear Erin Hart, for which they found, followed, and photographed their identity thief.
Read the Taos News article on Jessamyn Lovell's show HERE.
Sarah Parker: Circling Lives,
a look at my people and their bones
January 23 to February 19, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: January 26th from 5-7pm
Circling Lives, a look at my people and their bones is Sarah Parker’s first solo exhibition. It explores the complexity of relationships between ourselves and our environments, focusing on the tenderness and fragility of survival. This exhibition is motivated by the idea that life is delicate, whether one lives off the land or in the cities. It considers the push to survive and the universal theme of inevitable death. We cannot escape our old people’s bones, Parker says. Parker began this work during the pandemic while being sequestered allowing her to explore the isolation that is a part of living on the land. She questioned how she arrived at this solitary place and what right she even had to be there. She began to think about the dotted path of her old people’s bones along the land marking the roads that they took to place her in this space. This, and the social reconning of the times fueled and inspired her to create works questioning the biproducts of American capitalism, such as mass incarceration, gender expectations, and our ever-tenuous modern relationship with the land. The work in the exhibition ranges from fiber art, large-scale block prints on both fabric and paper, mixed-media pieces, as well as animation and video projection.
Parker has lived in Sunshine Valley (North of Questa) for the past 18 years. Since coming to the area, she has produced radio for local community radio stations and she currently teaches at Red River Valley Charter School. She is a working member of The Lost Sunshine Cinema Collective, regularly showing digital art in Taos County. She is also a member of the Ennui Gallery, a collective of local artists in Taos. She holds a Master in Special Education, and is currently enrolled at the University of New Mexico in the Bachelor program for a BA in Interdisciplinary Arts focusing on Animation and Experimental Arts and Technology, while continuing to take art classes at UNM-Taos to improve her skills. Parker is an interdisciplinary artist who has moved from painting pictures, signs, and murals to audio-documentaries, interactive community art projects, printmaking, and multimedia video projections. She embraces the fact that her work is rooted in what is traditionally considered craft, and she uses these materials along with “high art” materials while assigning no hierarchical structure. Sarah Parker’s work is accessible to everyone. She believes art is from the people, not handed down by an elite group in a white box.
Read the Taos News article on Sarah Parker's show HERE.
2022
Heather Lynn Sparrow: The Dark is Light
November 14 to December 9, 2022
The Dark is Light is Heather Lynn Sparrow’s first solo exhibition — a long overdue presentation as she has been a fixture in the professional local art scene for 27 years. Suicide is the primary killer of teen youth in the US, and this exhibition of large-scale photographs and other works addresses this pandemic with ethereal and approachable imagery. The Dark is Light is a series of photographic portraits made in collaboration with teens grieving the suicide of their friend and Sparrow’s son Trempealeau Hagios Morninglight.
Heather Lynn Sparrow uses photography as a ritual for grieving and healing. She has focused on documenting her family and, as her children grew, darker experiences unfolded. Photography became the cathartic means and most elegant way to describe something that is deeply disquieting. Amplifying the voices of Taos Youth, Heather uses photography to expose and resolve problems. By respecting young adults and addressing topics that our culture has failed to prepare them for, Heather’s photography creates a space of shared learning, allowing for personal growth, and by extension, social change.
She developed and taught a Literacy Through Photography program in Taos Public Schools for 25 years. While at Taos Academy for 8 years, she taught Dual Credit and Wheatpaste workshops at UNM-Taos. Sparrow created the BIG PICTURE TAOS & designed, photographed, produced videos & promoted seven local musician's albums, winning the New Mexico music award for best Album design in 2012. Sparrow has featured images in a number of publications, including, Taos News, Mothering Magizine, La Pocha Nostra’s A Handbook for the Rebel Artist, SOMMOS CHOKECHERRIES, and 3AM, and was nominated for the CENTER excellence in Teaching award 2022. Heather has an AFA from UNM-Taos and is graduating with a BFA w/ Honors Thesis at UNM-Abugqureqe this year. As the current Director of Photography of True Kids 1, her mission is to provide the impetus to amplify the voices of Taos Youth, create jobs for at risk youth and make explicit connections to how photo rituals can work both artistically and cathartically.
Read the Taos News article on Heather Lynn Sparrow's show HERE.
Carrie Fonder: What Sticks
August 25 to October 14, 2022
Harwood Museum of Art Talk - Wednesday, August 24th at 5:30pm
What Sticks is a solo exhibition of new work by Carrie Fonder that explores power, longevity, and residue. Fonder intuitively weaves materials, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, into a series of interrelated works. Depicted are art critics, curators and the artist herself, in a parody of people parodying people and materials parodying materials. It’s all an act of grand make-believe that leads to rumination on the final question: what sticks? The slippery title can be understood linguistically in several ways: what sticks (What stays? What remains?) or what sticks (What has residual takiness?) and finally what sticks (What tree branches/weapons/tools?).
Carrie Fonder is the first professional artist exhibition in the Atrium Gallery since the onset of COVID. Fonder is a New Genres artist and an Associate Professor at the University of West Florida. She earned her MFA in sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art and her BFA in sculpture at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She has lived and worked in India as a Fulbright Nehru Award recipient. Currently a member of Good Children Gallery in New Orleans, she has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, from Detroit to New Delhi. For more information about her work visit www.carriefonder.com.
ATRIUM GALLERY CLOSED DUE TO COVID-19
Due to safety concerns and social distancing because of COVID-19, people around the world are coming together to find virtual community. UNM-Taos Art Department is also striving to make up for the loss of personal interactions and engagements within the art community. Please join us during our Zoom Events where guests within the art community are invited for live interviews and demonstrations!
The UNM-Taos Fine Arts and Digital Media welcomes proposals for exhibitions. Please refer to the gallery policies and email a synopsis and 5-10 jpegs of artwork to taosarts@unm.edu with the subject line - Atrium Gallery Proposal. The Gallery Director will contact you if your proposal is a good fit for our programming. Please do not send follow up emails.
Friday, May 8th @5-6pm
Let's get together and talk about art! During this Art Happy Hour we have invited Natalina, multidisciplinary artist, award winning fashion designer, and musician. We are excited to discuss Natalina’s diverse studio practice, her use of recycled materials, and her community outreach during COVID19. We will open up the happy hour for group discussion, so we encourage anyone who connects with this topic to participate. Please join us with your favorite beverage and snack for a casual conversation led by UNM-Taos Art Department Chair, Sarah Stolar.
Join URL: https://unm.zoom.us/j/583010507
You do not need to create an account on Zoom to join.
If you are joining from your phone you will need to download the Zoom app first.
DISCLAIMER: This is a public event and not a user authenticated session.
UNM-Taos Art Happy Hour
The UNM-Taos Fine Arts and Digital Media welcomes proposals for exhibitions. Please refer to the gallery policies and email a synopsis and 5-10 jpegs of artwork to taosarts@unm.edu with the subject line - Atrium Gallery Proposal. The Gallery Director will contact you if your proposal is a good fit for our programming. Please do not send follow up emails.
Friday, May 1st @5-6pm
Let's get together and talk about art! During this Art Happy Hour we have invited Jenny Roesel Ustick, educator, artist, and internationally recognized muralist. We are excited to discuss Jenny’s studio practice and her commitment to education and community engagement in the arts. We will open up the happy hour for group discussion, so we encourage anyone who connects with this topic to participate. Please join us with your favorite beverage and snack for a casual conversation led by UNM-Taos Art Department Chair, Sarah Stolar.
Join URL: https://unm.zoom.us/j/583010507
You do not need to create an account on Zoom to join.
If you are joining from your phone you will need to download the Zoom app first.
DISCLAIMER: This is a public event and not a user authenticated session.
UNM-Taos Art Happy Hour
The UNM-Taos Fine Arts and Digital Media welcomes proposals for exhibitions. Please refer to the gallery policies and email a synopsis and 5-10 jpegs of artwork to taosarts@unm.edu with the subject line - Atrium Gallery Proposal. The Gallery Director will contact you if your proposal is a good fit for our programming. Please do not send follow up emails.
Friday, April 24th @5-6pm
Let's get together and talk about art! During this Art Happy Hour we have invited Andrea Vargas, interdisciplinary artist and community activist. We are excited to hear her discuss her various approaches to art as well as her recent community project No Kids in Cages — a body of work that brings awareness to children that are in detention centers across the nation. We will open up the happy hour for group discussion, so we encourage anyone who connects with this topic to participate. Please join us with your favorite beverage and snack for a casual conversation led by UNM-Taos Art Department Chair, Sarah Stolar.
Learn more about Andrea Vargas on her website: AndreaVargasFineArt.com
Join URL: https://unm.zoom.us/j/583010507
You do not need to create an account on Zoom to join.
If you are joining from your phone you will need to download the Zoom app first.
DISCLAIMER: This is a public event and not a user authenticated session.
UNM-Taos Art Happy Hour
The UNM-Taos Fine Arts and Digital Media welcomes proposals for exhibitions. Please refer to the gallery policies and email a synopsis and 5-10 jpegs of artwork to taosarts@unm.edu with the subject line - Atrium Gallery Proposal. The Gallery Director will contact you if your proposal is a good fit for our programming. Please do not send follow up emails.
Friday, April 17th @5-6pm
Let's get together and talk about art! During this Art Happy Hour we have invited Jessamyn Lovell, artist, licensed private investigator and Undergraduate Coordinator and foundations professor at UNM. We are looking forward to hearing how she is balancing her full-time career as a teaching artist and PI with being a mother who must now homeschool during the COVID19 pandemic. We will open up the happy hour for group discussion, so we encourage anyone who connects with this topic to participate. Please join us with your favorite beverage and snack for a casual conversation led by UNM-Taos Art Department Chair, Sarah Stolar.
Join URL: https://unm.zoom.us/j/583010507
You do not need to create an account on Zoom to join.
If you are joining from your phone you will need to download the Zoom app first.
DISCLAIMER: This is a public event and not a user authenticated session.
UNM-Taos Art Happy Hour
The UNM-Taos Fine Arts and Digital Media welcomes proposals for exhibitions. Please refer to the gallery policies and email a synopsis and 5-10 jpegs of artwork to taosarts@unm.edu with the subject line - Atrium Gallery Proposal. The Gallery Director will contact you if your proposal is a good fit for our programming. Please do not send follow up emails.
Monday, April 6th @3-4pm
Join Sarah Stolar, Art Dept. Chair, for a tutorial on building a website using the free online platform WIX. In this professional development workshop, we will learn the basics of building a website and how to navigate the platform, including adding pages, images, text, links, and contact information.
Before joining the meeting, it is recommended that you navigate to the WIX website and create a free account. https://www.wix.com
Join URL: https://unm.zoom.us/j/567806537
You do not need to create an account on Zoom to join.
If you are joining from your phone you will need to download the Zoom app first.
DISCLAIMER: This is a public event and not a user authenticated session
Learn to Build a Website with Wix
The UNM-Taos Fine Arts and Digital Media welcomes proposals for exhibitions. Please refer to the gallery policies and email a synopsis and 5-10 jpegs of artwork to taosarts@unm.edu with the subject line - Atrium Gallery Proposal. The Gallery Director will contact you if your proposal is a good fit for our programming. Please do not send follow up emails.
Friday, April 3rd @5-6pm
Let's get together and talk about art! During this Art Happy Hour we have invited Marya Errin Jones, curator of The Tannex and founder and co-producer of the Albuquerque Zine Fest. We are excited to chat with her about her projects, her experience developing an artist-run space, and how the ABQ Zine Fest came to fruition. Last session we opened it up for group discussion and connection, and we plan to do this again. Please join us with your favorite beverage and snack for a casual conversation led by UNM-Taos Art Department Chair, Sarah Stolar.
Join URL: https://unm.zoom.us/j/583010507
You do not need to create an account on Zoom to join.
If you are joining from your phone you will need to download the Zoom app first.
DISCLAIMER: This is a public event and not a user authenticated session.
UNM-Taos Art Happy Hour
The UNM-Taos Fine Arts and Digital Media welcomes proposals for exhibitions. Please refer to the gallery policies and email a synopsis and 5-10 jpegs of artwork to taosarts@unm.edu with the subject line - Atrium Gallery Proposal. The Gallery Director will contact you if your proposal is a good fit for our programming. Please do not send follow up emails.
Friday, March 27th @5-6pm
Let's get together and talk about art! During this Art Happy Hour we have invited the new curator of the Harwood Museum, Nicole Dial-Kay, to chat with us about her curatorial practice, what's in the works at the Harwood, and how she is managing in this crazy new world in face of COVID19. Join us with your favorite beverage and snack for a casual conversation led by UNM-Taos Art Department Chair, Sarah Stolar.
Join URL: https://unm.zoom.us/j/583010507
You do not need to create an account on Zoom to join.
If you are joining from your phone you will need to download the Zoom app first.
DISCLAIMER: This is a public event and not a user authenticated session.
UNM-Taos Art Happy Hour
2020
Artist
Taos News Tempo
Opening Reception
Artist
Ritual and Remembrance
January 21st - February 6th
Opening- January 23rd @ 5-7pm with video installation and a live performance
Nikesha Breeze is an American born African Diaspora Artist. She is a descendent of the Mende People of Sierra Leone and Assyrian Refugees. Her work is interdisciplinary and multi faceted. As a primarily self-taught artist with minimal schooling in the Fine Arts, her work is intuitive, spiritual, ritual, and focused. Her work centers around paths of reclamation of the black body and the human soul. She has received great success in her short time working in the visual arts, and has completed a sold-out Solo Museum show of: Within This Skin, and has been awarded National recognition and the 3D Juried Grand Prize Award as well as the Contemporary Black Arts Award, for her Sculptural installation: 108 Death Masks: A communal Prayer for Peace and Justice, at the 2018 International ARTPRIZE exhibition. www.nikeshabreeze.com
Read the Taos News Tempo regarding Nikesha Breeze's Show Here
Borders and Bounty; A Retrospective of Drawing
February 13th - March 12th
Opening- February 13th @ 5-7pm
Vargas exhibits a heartfelt community driven art installation. The installation most prominently illustrates the portraits of migrant children that have died in the detention camps this past year. The larger than life portraits hang on paper tapestries that envelope the viewer, depicting doves and flowers that glisten with highlights of gold and silver. The juxtaposition of fine art rendering with student prose and abstract edges gives the installation a raw and honest quality. Over fifty students contributed to the art installation, some painting for the first time, but inspired by the and meaning of the artwork. www.andreavargasfineart.com
2019
Love Letters & MetaMemories
August 19th - September 19th, 2019
Opening- August 23nd, 4-7pm with live music and projection art @ 5:30
Her first solo show, Natalina, explores concepts of connection to self, others and the Earth through ceramic sculpture, paintings, old and new technology as well as a multitude of reimagined waste. An advocate for women and the environment, her work favors female forms and regularly employs discarded elements. Love Letters and MetaMemories tells a story common to the collective experience. A graduate of Purdue University, Natalina is currently enrolled in continuing education classes at UNM-Taos. This dynamic installation is her contribution to the transformation she envisions for the world- Alchemic UpCycling. www.natalinadesign.com
Read the Taos News Tempo Press regarding Natalina's show here
Artist Natalina
Artist Natalina
Jenny installing her Mural in the UNM-Taos Atrium Gallery
Jenny installing her Mural in the UNM-Taos Atrium Gallery
Murals by Jenny Roesel Ustick
September 23rd - October 25th
Jenny Roesel Ustick is Interim Director, MFA Program, Foundations Coordinator, and Assistant Professor of Practice at the School of Art, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. She manages large-scale public murals, with eleven walls in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky; she has also worked on projects in Miami Beach, Florida, the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in Granati, Italy. www.jennyroeselustick.com
Amy Cordova y Boone
October 28th - November 20th
Córdova is a nationally recognized children’s’ book illustrator and acclaimed arts educator and lecturer. Córdova has made numerous keynote speeches as well as art with thousands of children and adults throughout the U.S. A descendant of a family who has resided in Northern New Mexico preceding the seventeenth century, Córdova holds great reverence for New Mexico’s landscape, history, cultures and traditions. Brilliant color, dreams, the natural world, and the wisdom of children contribute to Córdova’s inspirational, artistic vision. amycordova.com
The UNM-Taos Fine Arts and Digital Media welcomes proposals for exhibitions. Please email a synopsis and 5-10 jpegs of artwork to taosarts@unm.edu with the subject line - Atrium Gallery Proposal. The Gallery Director will contact you if your proposal is a good fit for our programming. Please do not send follow up emails.