About
The importance of the arts as communication, in the past, the present and the future, is pivotal.
This belief is the keystone of our programs, and it is the foundation for our primary goal, which is to expose students to the richness of art through a wide range of new and traditional media. We also seek to develop critical thought in our classes, and the practice and methods for understanding the teaching of the arts and the history of art.
The Department is dedicated to providing the best education possible no matter which degree a student might be pursuing. We are also committed to benefiting UNM, the city of Albuquerque, the state of New Mexico, as well as national, and international communities. To achieve these aims, the Department maintains a world-class faculty that is actively engaged in creative art, art education, and art history.
Art Department News
Honoring the Legacy of Jaune Quick-to-see Smith Panel Discussion led by Art & Ecology Professor and Author Subhnakar Banerjee
Subhankar Banerjee, a professor, photographer, writer, curator, and scholar of environmental humanities. He is also the founder and director of the Center for Environmental Arts & Humanities at UNM.
Principal Art Lecturer, Jessamyn Lovell, Featured in LENSSCRATCH
Jessamyn Lovell is a gender-fluid artist and licensed private investigator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They hold a BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, an MFA from California College of the Arts, and are currently a Principal Lecturer at the University of New Mexico.
Bad Bunny x UNM Alum Eric-Paul Riege
As Bad Bunny’s cultural influence continues to expand, we revisit his 2019 collaboration with Eric-Paul Riege during the artist’s first solo museum exhibition at ICA Miami. Grounded in Diné weaving traditions and the philosophy of hózhó - beauty, balance, and goodness - Riege’s regalia for epr embodies ancestral knowledge, performance, and the meaning of hó𝘭ǫ́: to exist.
Department of Art Events
Event Details
NO PROMISES MFA Thesis Exhibition by Hannah Taylor Opening Reception: Friday, March 6, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm Artist Talk: Thursday, March 26, 2026, 5:30 pm @UNM CTR-ARTS 1020 Closing Reception: Friday, March
Event Details
NO PROMISES
MFA Thesis Exhibition
by Hannah Taylor
Opening Reception: Friday, March 6, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm
Artist Talk: Thursday, March 26, 2026, 5:30 pm @UNM CTR-ARTS 1020
Closing Reception: Friday, March 27, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm
Fourteenfifteen Gallery
1415 4th St SW Albuquerque, NM 87102
Gallery open by appointment, contact hannahtaylor@unm.edu
Time
March 6, 2026 - March 27, 2026 (All Day)
Location
Fourteenfifteen Gallery/Alpaca
1415 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
06mar(mar 6)10:00 am27(mar 27)9:00 pmThe Act of Arriving
Event Details
Opening Reception: Friday, March 6, 2026, 5:00-10:00 pm First Friday, part of ABQ Artwalk The UNM Graduate Art Association and Kukani Gallery Announce the Annual GAA Juried Show: “The Act of Arriving examines
Event Details
Opening Reception: Friday, March 6, 2026, 5:00-10:00 pm
First Friday, part of ABQ Artwalk
The UNM Graduate Art Association and Kukani Gallery Announce the Annual GAA Juried Show:
“The Act of Arriving examines liminal spaces as sites where temporal and spatial boundaries are undisturbed and actively navigated. Rather than positioning acts as a moment between fixed states, the exhibition positions arrival as a continuous process shaped by movement, duration, and perception. Collectively, the exhibition considers liminality as a generative framework for understanding how meaning, identity, time and place emerge through ongoing processes of becoming and arriving in the land of New Mexico.” – Jesse Littlebird
The Graduate Art Association is thrilled to partner with Kukani Gallery for this year’s exhibition. We see this collaboration as the beginning of an ongoing relationship that strengthens connections between UNM graduate students and the local community of artists, galleries, and art spaces across Albuquerque and New Mexico.
Featured Artists: Zac Brenner, daniela del mar, Yoma Wilson, Justine Kablack, dylan lilla, Madison Emond, Saskia Becker, Lila Steffan, Saul Ramirez, Rachel Jump, Sara Miovic, Rachel McLaughlin, Janessa Lewis
Time
March 6, 2026 10:00 am - March 27, 2026 9:00 pm
Location
Kukani Gallery
117 7th St NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
09mar(mar 9)6:00 pm28(mar 28)8:00 pmThe Weather
Event Details
The Weather AN MFA THESIS EXHIBITION by Fen Root Opening Reception: Monday, March 9, 2026, 6:00-8:00 pm Public Lecture: Wednesday. March 25, 2026, 3:00 @ ARTSLab Closing Reception: Saturday, March 28,
Event Details
The Weather
AN MFA THESIS EXHIBITION
by Fen Root
Opening Reception: Monday, March 9, 2026, 6:00-8:00 pm
Public Lecture: Wednesday. March 25, 2026, 3:00 @ ARTSLab
Closing Reception: Saturday, March 28, 2026, 6:00-8:00 pm
ABQ INT’L
1206 Broadway Blvd. SE
Albuquerque, NM
(not wheelchair accessible)
on view by appointment
contact: froot@unm.edu
more information: altrbody.rip
Time
March 9, 2026 6:00 pm - March 28, 2026 8:00 pm
Location
1206 S Broadway Blvd SE
24mar(mar 24)11:00 am03apr(apr 3)5:00 pmShimmering Gloom
Event Details
Reception: Friday, March 27, 2026, 5:00-7:00 pm Workshop: Saturday, March 28, 2:00-4:00 pm Strata Gallery announces an Emerging Member solo exhibition Shimmering Gloom by New Mexico-based Brianna Tadeo. Join us
Event Details
Reception: Friday, March 27, 2026, 5:00-7:00 pm
Workshop: Saturday, March 28, 2:00-4:00 pm
Strata Gallery announces an Emerging Member solo exhibition Shimmering Gloom by New Mexico-based Brianna Tadeo.
Join us for a free unique workshop on March 28, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 pm for an immersive experience exploring the captivating world of silver gelatin paper and the impermanence of photographic art by Brianna Tadeo. Reservation required on Eventbrite.
Brianna Tadeo (they/them) is a visual artist whose work explores impermanence and transformation through experimental photography. Utilizing analog and digital techniques, Tadeo embraces fragility, inviting images to crack, fade, and disintegrate in pursuit of unexpected beauty. Their practice is rooted in curiosity and the quiet magic of light and material change.
Shimmering Gloom invites viewers into a world where photography is not just about capturing a moment, but about transformation and the shimmer that appears amid change. Tadeo offers a poetic meditation on light, loss, and the beauty found in impermanence.
Tadeo holds a BFA from California College of the Arts and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. Their work has been exhibited nationally and recognized by SF Camerawork’s FORECAST 2025 and Lenscratch as one of the “Top 25 Students to Watch.”
Time
March 24, 2026 11:00 am - April 3, 2026 5:00 pm
Location
Strata Gallery
125 Lincoln Ave Unit 105, Santa Fe, NM 87501-2637
25mar(mar 25)6:00 pm11apr(apr 11)9:00 pmPink Noise
Event Details
Pink Noise MFA Thesis Exhibition by Abbygail Nickels Opening Reception: Friday, March 28, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm Artist Talk: Thursday, April 3, 2026, 5:30 pm @UNM CTR-ARTS 2018 Gallery open by appointment, contact
Event Details
Pink Noise
MFA Thesis Exhibition
by Abbygail Nickels
Opening Reception: Friday, March 28, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm
Artist Talk: Thursday, April 3, 2026, 5:30 pm @UNM CTR-ARTS 2018
Gallery open by appointment, contact anickels733@unm.edu
Time
March 25, 2026 6:00 pm - April 11, 2026 9:00 pm
Location
6th Street Studio
1029 6th St NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
27mar5:00 pm6:30 pmSugarcane Army: Screening Q&A
Event Details
Join us for a screening of Sugarcane Army 甘蔗軍, a short film written and directed by Szu-Han Ho. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker, moderated
Event Details
Join us for a screening of Sugarcane Army 甘蔗軍, a short film written and directed by Szu-Han Ho. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker, moderated by Stephanie J. Woods. Sugarcane Army 甘蔗軍 (2025) is inspired by an anti-colonial armed uprising in 1915, when Taiwanese rebel peasant farmers were led by a spirit medium named Yü Ch’ing-fang. Armed with primitive weapons, they faced a modern army with guns and cannons. The film run time is 20 minutes. Seating is limited, register at bit.ly/sugarcane_abq
Time
March 27, 2026 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
ARTSLab
131 Pine St NE
Event Details
Come to our first LASER Panel for our exhibition Shimmer: Vibrant Art/Science of New Mexico Saturday April 4, 2026, 3-5pm in conjunction with an opening reception at the newly remodeled
Event Details
Come to our first LASER Panel for our exhibition Shimmer: Vibrant Art/Science of New Mexico
Saturday April 4, 2026, 3-5pm in conjunction with an opening reception at the newly remodeled Peterson Gallery of St. John’s College Santa Fe
Panel Presenters: Alyce Santoro, Kira Howard, Jeanette Hart-Mann and Palma Maya-Johnson
Featured Artists: Sophie Azzolina, Morgan Barnard, Bobbe Besold, Paul Biagi, Chad Colby, Shirley Crow, Deidre Greenly , Jeanette Hart-Mann , Evgenya Kirichenko, Jessica Lanham, Susan Latham, Richard Lowenberg, Palma Maya-Johnson, Jess Merritt, Heather Murphree, Andrea Polli, Nico Rasmussen, Alyce Santoro, Abigail Sapien and Lila Steffan
SHIMMER is dazzling, alluring, brilliance. According to multi-species ethnographer Deborah Bird Rose (1946-2018), SHIMMER is the iridescence of aliveness, the world as interactive, vibrant, and vibrating. It is ripples of sunlight glimmering on water, the irresistible sweetness that draws bee to flower, the pulse in a work of art that resonates in the viewer. SHIMMER is the visceral awareness of interconnection between species, between human and biosphere, between observer and observed. For our Spring 2026 exhibition, SciArt Santa Fe features 20 New Mexico artists whose work responds to this concept of SHIMMER.
Project Venue and Setting
At St. John’s College, science and art are complementary ways of knowing, and all students engage with the great works of mathematics, natural science, philosophy, poetry, music, and literature through close reading and sustained conversation. With a curriculum that moves from Euclid, Darwin and Einstein to the study and illustration of plants and the movement of celestial beings, St. John’s fosters an education rooted in inquiry, imagination, and the enduring dialogue between scientific discovery and artistic expression.
SciArt Santa Fe, founded in 2019, fosters artists across disciplines that reflect the cultural diversity of New Mexico, supports research that addresses issues that disproportionately affect people of under-represented races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, national origins, citizenship statuses and ages including climate change, species extinction and migration, that often do not fit within a traditional gallery framework.
Time
March 29, 2026 10:30 am - May 9, 2026 5:00 pm
02apr3:00 pm6:00 pmFrederick Hammersley Visiting Artist: Laurie Nye Open Studio
Event Details
Open Studio: Thursday, April 2, 2026, 3:00-6:00 pm Laurie Nye’s colorful paintings of natural scenes, trees, flowers and plants explore and
Event Details
Open Studio: Thursday, April 2, 2026, 3:00-6:00 pm
Laurie Nye’s colorful paintings of natural scenes, trees, flowers and plants explore and present the possibilities of utopia, and embody the feelings of expression and freedom. She is invested in looking, sensing, feeling and seeing through the creation of the work. The Elements of color, line, and shape are paramount to her work. Her curvy lyrical positive and negative shapes, full, emphatic and soft materiality, varied brushwork, vivid and pastel color, and sophisticated use of line presents a picture plane that melds flatness with painterly shifts and gossamer space. Laurie also has a background in surface design and brings inspiration from textiles and fabrics and exploring the intersection of painting and design.
Laurie NYE (b. 1972, Memphis, TN) received her BFA from the Memphis College of Art (Memphis, TN), and her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA). In 2026, Laurie Nye’s work will be featured in a solo show at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), with additional group shows at Haverkampf Leistenschneider (Berlin, Germany) and Rachel Uffner Gallery (New York, NY). Laurie Nye’s work has appeared in such solo and group exhibtions as “A Particular Kind of Heaven,” Parrasch Heijnen (Los Angeles, CA); “The Moth & The Thunderclap,” Modern Art (London, UK); “Encounter,” Rachel Uffner Gallery (New York, NY); “BodyLand,” Galerie Max Hetzler (Berlin, Germany); “Unnatural Nature: Post-Pop Landscapes,” Acquavella (New York, NY); Van Doren Waxter (New York, NY); Bark Berlin Gallery (Berlin, Germany); The Pit (Glendale, CA); Odd Ark (Los Angeles, CA); Big Pictures LA (Los Angeles, CA); Blake and Vargas, (Berlin, Germany); The Dot Project, (London, UK); Day and Night Gallery (Atlanta, GA); La Loma Projects, (Pasadena, CA); and Unpaved Gallery (Yucca Valley, CA). Laurie Nye’s artist project, “Chickasaw Moon,” at Odd Ark (Los Angeles, CA) was an Artforum Critic’s Pick. Laurie Nye’s solo exhibition at Philip Martin Gallery was Artforum Best of Year 2021 feature. Nye has work in the OZ Art Northwest Arkansas, (Bentonville, AR) collection. Her work has been reviewed in such publications as Artillery, Los Angeles Times, Artforum, FAD Magazine and LA Weekly. Laurie Nye lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Time
April 2, 2026 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location
Art Annex
1901 Central Ave NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106
02apr5:30 pm6:30 pmPanel Discussion, moderated by Subhankar Banerjee
Event Details
Artists Neal Ambrose-Smith, Emmi Whitehorse and George Alexander discuss Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s artistic community and influence, moderated by UNM professor and author Subhankar Banerjee. Limited capacity: RSVP
Event Details
Artists Neal Ambrose-Smith, Emmi Whitehorse and George Alexander discuss Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s artistic community and influence, moderated by UNM professor and author Subhankar Banerjee.
Time
April 2, 2026 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
Tamarind Institute
2500 Central Ave SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106
03apr(apr 3)6:00 pm24(apr 24)9:00 pman anthology of arroyo logics
Event Details
an anthology of arroyo logics MFA Thesis Exhibition by daniela del mar Opening Reception: Friday, April 3, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm Artist Talk: Thursday, April 9, 2026, 3:00 pm @ ARTSLab Closing
Event Details
an anthology of arroyo logics
MFA Thesis Exhibition
by daniela del mar
Opening Reception: Friday, April 3, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm
Artist Talk: Thursday, April 9, 2026, 3:00 pm @ ARTSLab
Closing Reception: Friday, April 24, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm
ni de aquí ni de allá gallery
2009 Ridgecrest Drive SE, Albuquerque 87108
Gallery open by appointment, contact danieladelmar@unm.edu
For more information vist, danieladelmar.com
Time
April 3, 2026 6:00 pm - April 24, 2026 9:00 pm
11apr6:00 pm11may9:00 pmSeeds of Compromise
Event Details
Seeds of Compromise MFA Thesis Exhibition by Saul Ramirez Opening Reception: Friday, April 11, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm Artist Talk: Thursday, April 22, 2026, 4:00 pm @ Fine Arts Design Library
Event Details
Seeds of Compromise
MFA Thesis Exhibition
by Saul Ramirez
Opening Reception: Friday, April 11, 2026, 6:00-9:00 pm
Artist Talk: Thursday, April 22, 2026, 4:00 pm @ Fine Arts Design Library
Time
April 11, 2026 6:00 pm - May 11, 2026 9:00 pm
Location
AC2 Gallery
301 Mountain Rd NE
15apr5:30 pm6:30 pmGale Memorial Lecture Series: Anthony Hudson
Event Details
Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 5:30 pm ARTSLab, 131 Pine St. NE Anthony Hudson is a Grand Ronde / Siletz artist and writer. Anthony’s theatrical work, from Looking for Tiger Lily to
Event Details
Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 5:30 pm
ARTSLab, 131 Pine St. NE
Anthony Hudson is a Grand Ronde / Siletz artist and writer. Anthony’s theatrical work, from Looking for Tiger Lily to Queer Horror—and performances as Portland’s premier drag clown Carla Rossi—have earned him national fellowships, international engagements, and sainthood from the Portland Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Anthony’s writing has appeared in American Theatre, BOMB Magazine, Buckman Journal, Oregon ArtsWatch, and Arts and International Affairs. His first book, Lamp Back: Plays and Other Grievances, is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press in 2026.
Photo by Gia Goodrich
Time
April 15, 2026 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
ARTSLab
131 Pine St NE