The University of New Mexico

Category Archives: Arts & Humanities

UNM Alumni Association Hosts ‘Flamenco Fever’

May 20, 2013 | By Mara Kerkez

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Alumni Asso­ci­a­tion hosts ‘Fla­menco Fever,’ a Lobo Liv­ing Room event on Thurs­day, June 6 at 5:30 p.m. in Hod­gin Hall Alumni Plaza.

The event fea­tures Alma Fla­menca, a pre-professional per­for­mance com­pany fea­tur­ing stu­dents trained in the UNM fla­menco pro­gram and stu­dents of the Con­ser­va­tory for Fla­menco Arts.

Directed by Marisol Encinias, Fla­menca per­forms a fla­menco reper­tory rang­ing from group chore­o­gra­phies to pow­er­ful solo works. It presents a com­bi­na­tion of artis­tic chore­og­ra­phy, col­or­ful cos­tumes and expres­sions of the fla­menco art form. These per­for­mances incor­po­rate the pas­sion­ate expres­sion of the fla­menco art form, artis­tic chore­og­ra­phy and col­or­ful costuming.

‘Fla­menco fever’ is the fifth event in the Lobo Liv­ing Room series, fea­tur­ing notable alumni per­form­ing in their areas of exper­tise. Fol­low­ing the per­for­mance, the UNM Alumni Asso­ci­a­tion will host a recep­tion on the plaza. The event is free and open to public.

RSVP by May 31 by vis­it­ing Lobo Liv­ing Room or by call­ing (505) 277‑5808.

To view the event flyer, visit: LLR Fla­menco Flyer.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

Linnell Honored through Performances of ‘The Menu,’ Reception and Booksigning

May 2, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Scene from “The Menu”

The final per­for­mances for “The Menu,” writ­ten by for­mer Fine Arts Dean Jim Lin­nell, take place through Sun­day, May 5. Trick­lock Com­pany brings Linnell’s pas­sion­ate and provoca­tive book of poetry, “The Menu,” to the stage.

Why are we here? Where are the signs that make a life? Do we find hap­pi­ness or are we taken? Is it promised us? Who will love with­out fal­ter, tell the story? With a haunt­ing orig­i­nal sound­track, Trick­lock takes you on a jour­ney fol­low­ing a map of men, women, love, death and every­thing in between.

Lin­nell, who also has served as chair of the Depart­ment of The­atre and Dance, signs copies of his book, “Walk­ing on Fire,” at a recep­tion prior to the Sat­ur­day, May 4 per­for­mance at 6:30 p.m. The per­for­mances are Thurs­day, May 2 through Sat­ur­day, May 4 at 7:30 p.m., and Sun­day, May 5 at 2:30 p.m. in the Exper­i­men­tal The­atre, located in the UNM Cen­ter for the Arts.

“The Menu” is directed by Elsa Menén­dez, with com­po­si­tion and orig­i­nal sound score by Casey Mráz. Move­ment direc­tion is by Jen­nifer Predock-Linnell, with David Tor­res on light­ing, scenographer/videographer.

Tick­ets are $15 for gen­eral admis­sion, $12 for seniors and UNM fac­ulty, and $10 for stu­dents and UNM staff. Tick­ets are avail­able through the UNM Ticket Offices, call 925‑5858 or on UNM Tickets.com.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, Arts & Humanities, University News | |

LandMarks: Aboriginal Australian Artists and Native American Artists Explore Connections to the Land

April 30, 2013 | By Mara Kerkez

Otto Sims, Yiwar­rakurlu (Milky Way, 2011) from War­lukurlangu Art Cen­ter, Yuendumu

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Tamarind Insti­tute brings together two groups of artists from oppo­site sides of the world to explore the expe­ri­ence of col­lab­o­ra­tive lith­o­g­ra­phy. Dur­ing the month of May, Aus­tralian Abo­rig­i­nal artists from the North­ern Ter­ri­tory and Native Amer­i­can artists from var­i­ous loca­tions in the United States and Canada will travel to Albu­querque to work with print­ers and stu­dents in the Tamarind Insti­tute workshop.

The project, Land­Marks, gives diverse indige­nous artists the oppor­tu­nity to work as a com­mu­nity, share expe­ri­ences and artis­tic styles and explore a com­mon spir­i­tual con­nec­tion to the land. Land­Marks is par­tially funded by the National Endow­ment for the Arts, and lith­o­graphs pro­duced dur­ing this project are expected to be exhib­ited internationally.

Artists cho­sen for this project were selected based on their estab­lish­ment within the con­tem­po­rary art scene. Many have not had the oppor­tu­nity to explore the unique expres­sive tools and visual lan­guage of the lith­o­graphic process. Native Amer­i­can artists include Chris Pap­pan, Kaw, Osage, Cheyenne River Sioux; Marie Watt, Seneca; Jewel Shaw, Cree/Metis; and Dyani Reynolds White Hawk, Sicangu Lakota. Abo­rig­i­nal artists include Djir­rirra Wunung­murra, Marie Josette Orsto and Alma Sims.

For sev­eral of the artists vis­it­ing from Aus­tralia, this is their first expe­ri­ence trav­el­ing out of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ries. They will travel with com­pan­ions who will facil­i­tate com­mu­ni­ca­tion, allow­ing for the suc­cess of the project. A key ele­ment of this project is not only to give artists a new vocab­u­lary through the print­mak­ing process, but also to open new vis­tas as the artists absorb new land­scapes and traditions.

The Albu­querque por­tion of the project is phase II of Land­Marks. The artists met one another in April, when all artists and Tamarind’s Mas­ter Printer, Bill Lagat­tuta, trav­eled to the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ries, on the north­east coast of Aus­tralia, to work at the Buru-Larrngay Mulka Art Cen­ter. In addi­tion to using wood­block and etch­ing tech­niques, the Aus­tralian artists shared their tra­di­tional meth­ods of bark paint­ing. The artists and print­ers were taken on an excur­sion to col­lect bark and nat­ural paints (yel­low, black and red ochre) used in this process. Lagat­tuta said, “It was truly the expe­ri­ence of a life­time to live among the Aus­tralian abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple, and to work and make art side-by-side.

Tamarind has a his­tory of invit­ing artists of diverse back­grounds to explore shared tra­di­tions through the col­lab­o­ra­tive process of lith­o­g­ra­phy. Last sum­mer Tamarind hosted six artists of African descent in bi-national pairs who cre­ated lith­o­graphs encom­pass­ing themes such as equal­ity, inclu­sion and iden­tity in Brazil and the United States. Work by all six artists was on dis­play in the Tamarind Gallery in an exhi­bi­tion titled Afro: Black Iden­tity in Amer­ica and Brazil, which attracted a record-breaking num­ber of visitors.

Tamarind Insti­tute, a divi­sion of the Col­lege of Fine Arts at UNM, is a non­profit cen­ter for fine art lith­o­g­ra­phy that trains mas­ter print­ers and houses a pro­fes­sional col­lab­o­ra­tive stu­dio for artists. Founded in 1960 in Los Ange­les, Tamarind has played a sig­nif­i­cant role in reviv­ing the art of lith­o­g­ra­phy in the United States, and con­tin­ues to pro­vide pro­fes­sional train­ing and cre­ative oppor­tu­ni­ties to artists. Tamarind Insti­tute is rec­og­nized inter­na­tion­ally for its con­tri­bu­tions to the growth of con­tem­po­rary print­mak­ing around the world.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Tamarind Insti­tute, call (505) 277‑3901 or email tamarind@unm.edu/a>.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

‘Wearable Architecture’ Focus of Studio Project

April 30, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Rachel Nagy mod­els Amanda Robinson’s bed sheet dress.

Stu­dents in Noreen Richards’ under­grad­u­ate 400 level design stu­dio at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning have spent the last 16 weeks research­ing, study­ing, design­ing and con­struct­ing works of wear­able archi­tec­ture. They are host­ing a final fash­ion show, open to the pub­lic, to dis­play and present their col­lec­tion of art, on Mon­day May, 6 at 7:30 p.m. in George Pearl Hall, located on Cen­tral Ave. and Cor­nell NE on the UNM main campus.

“The fash­ion stu­dio presents a range of provoca­tive top­ics deal­ing with issues about gen­der, empow­er­ment, iden­tity, expo­sure and sur­re­al­ism,” Richards said.

In the spirit of sus­tain­abil­ity, it was all accom­plished with trash. As an added chal­lenge, Richards required the use of trash and down-cycled materials.

“Our stu­dio got really good at dump­ster div­ing; we lit­er­ally had moun­tains of stuff to use,” stu­dent Amanda For­rest said.

Another stu­dent, Shan­non Rick­etts, added, “It was a whole new way to bring sus­tain­abil­ity to light, which is not always a direct focus of our archi­tec­tural work. We inves­ti­gated con­nec­tion and crafts­man­ship, and, of course, materiality.”

“As their final semes­ter in the under­grad­u­ate archi­tec­ture pro­gram at UNM, the stu­dents really appre­ci­ated this par­tic­u­lar expe­ri­ence. Though they were not ren­der­ing sec­tions or draw­ing build­ing ele­va­tions, being able to apply that same tech­ni­cal, con­cep­tual and cre­ative eye has helped to define a tan­gi­ble under­stand­ing of the uni­ver­sal prin­ci­ples of good design. Design prin­ci­ples remain the same, whether design­ing a house, an office tower or a lit­tle black dress,” Richards said.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Arts & Humanities, University News | |

ArtsUnexpected Works Projected on George Pearl Hall Screen

April 25, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Kym­berly Pin­der, dean, Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Col­lege of Fine Arts, recently hosted Art­sUn­ex­pected, fea­tur­ing nearly 100 artists, musi­cians and dancers from the col­leges prov­ing brief arts hap­pen­ings in var­i­ous indoor and out­door loca­tions around the university.

The Depart­ment of Cin­e­matic Arts (DCA) com­piled stu­dent work from Art Stu­dio, DCA and Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Film and Dig­i­tal Media. The work is being screened nightly through Mon­day, April 29 on George Pearl Hall’s screen, which faces Cen­tral Ave. at Cor­nell NE. The video is about an hour long and fea­tures short videos and stills. Some have sound, but the screen­ing on George Pearl Hall doesn’t have sound. George Pearl Hall is the build­ing that houses the School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning and the Fine Arts and Design Library.

To vie the com­pi­la­tion, click below.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Arts & Humanities, University News | |

Burr Brings Art into the UNM School of Law

March 21, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Sherri Burr is not just a regents pro­fes­sor who teaches enter­tain­ment law, she’s an art afi­cionado who sees the value of bring­ing art into the UNM School of Law. Burr, who chair’s the school’s art com­mit­tee, decided to insti­tute a rotat­ing art gallery.

“We inau­gu­rated the gallery with a staff show. Cur­rent and for­mer staff were invited to par­tic­i­pate. The com­mit­tee juried the show and three artists were selected to par­tic­i­pate. Eleven pieces were selected for the show,” she said. The artists are Robert Flinkman, from the Law Library; Dan Noyes, retired from the School of Law admin­is­tra­tion; and Nick Humphries, also from the Law Library.

Flinkman pro­vided black and white sketches, while Humphries work is in pur­ple prints. Noyes, known as “Dan the Video Man” in the school, fea­tured his spir­i­tual side through Bud­dha prints he created.

Video by Michael Mellas

“Just like in a reg­u­lar gallery, the pieces are for sale. We put a red dot on the tags of those that have been sold. They remain a part of the exhi­bi­tion until the show comes down. Also like a reg­u­lar gallery, 75 per­cent of the pur­chase cost goes to the artist. The remain­ing 25 per­cent reverts to the Law School to sup­port future shows,” Burr said. Because the building’s walls are con­crete, it is a dif­fi­cult and expen­sive under­tak­ing to hang the pieces, she said.

Burr drew upon her gallery experts to do the exhi­bi­tion right. “I take my art law class to gal­leries in Santa Fe. Nat Owings, of The Owings Gallery, was very help­ful. He helped us make light­ing adjust­ments,” she said.

And as a good art attor­ney, Burr drew up the con­tracts case­book and sent it to UNM legal to make sure every­thing was done correctly.

The next group of artists to be fea­tured will be stu­dents, Burr said. “We sent out a call for stu­dent artists, includ­ing those from the Col­lege of Fine Arts,” she said. A call for fac­ulty artists will go out over the sum­mer, and finally, alumni and friends of the law school will be asked toward year’s end.

“Tony Hillerman’s daugh­ter Anne is an alumna of the school. She’s a writer who has been car­ry­ing for­ward her father’s char­ac­ters in her own writ­ing. I bring her into my intel­lec­tual prop­erty law classes to speak. Her hus­band is a pho­tog­ra­pher. His work focuses on places of inspi­ra­tion. They will be involved in the alumni and friends show,” she said.

Burr dab­bles in art a bit her­self. Not only is she a gifted writer, but she likes to paint and do photography.

Aside from the intrin­sic value of hav­ing art in the School of Law, Burr said there’s another impor­tant rea­son to have it. “An art enriched envi­ron­ment is con­ducive to learn­ing,” she said.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Campus Community, University News | |

‘Art & Its Environment’ Topic of Lecture

March 14, 2013 | By Mara Kerkez

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Art Museum presents, “Art & Its Envi­ron­ment: From Land Art to Mov­ing Mega­liths through Los Ange­les,” a lec­ture with Michael Govan on Mon­day, March 18 at 5:30 p.m. The museum opens at 4 p.m. Come early as seat­ing is limited.

As part of the Los Ange­les County Museum of Art’s trans­for­ma­tion, Govan orches­trated the com­mis­sion and instal­la­tion of the artist projects that dot the museum’s cam­pus, begin­ning with Chris Burden’s Urban Light (2008), Robert Irwin’s evolv­ing palm gar­den and most recently Michael Heizer’s Lev­i­tated Mass (2012). In 2008, Govan was selected as one of Esquire Magazine’s 75 most influ­en­tial people.

Govan joined LACMA as chief exec­u­tive offi­cer and Wal­lis Annen­berg direc­tor in 2006. In this role, he over­sees all activ­i­ties of the museum, includ­ing art pro­gram­ming and the trans­for­ma­tion cam­paign, an ambi­tious, multi-faceted build­ing project that is expand­ing, upgrad­ing and uni­fy­ing the museum’s eight-building, 20-acre campus.

Since Govan’s arrival at LACMA, he has real­ized his vision of con­tem­po­rary artists inter­act­ing with the museum’s his­toric col­lec­tions, as evi­denced by John Baldessari’s instal­la­tion of the exhi­bi­tion Magritte and Con­tem­po­rary Art; Jorge Pardo’s inno­v­a­tive gallery design for the museum’s per­ma­nent col­lec­tion of ancient Latin Amer­i­can art; and Franz West’s instal­la­tion design for an exhi­bi­tion of the museum’s recently acquired col­lec­tion of art of the Pacific Islands.

From 1994 to 2006, Govan was pres­i­dent and direc­tor of the Dia Art Foun­da­tion in New York City, where he spear­headed the cre­ation of the crit­i­cally acclaimed 292,000-square-foot Dia: Bea­con, a museum in New York’s Hud­son Val­ley that houses Dia’s renowned col­lec­tion of art from the 1960s to the present. Dia’s col­lec­tion itself nearly dou­bled in size dur­ing Govan’s tenure. Prior to Dia Art Foun­da­tion, Govan served for six years as deputy direc­tor of the Solomon R. Guggen­heim Museum.

Govan holds a B.A. in Art His­tory from Williams Col­lege, in Williamstown, Mass., where he served as Act­ing Cura­tor of the Williams Col­lege Museum of Art and, in 1986, orga­nized the exhi­bi­tion Picasso and Rem­brandt. Before con­tin­u­ing his stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity of San Diego, he stud­ied Renais­sance art in Italy.

Free admis­sion with a sug­gested dona­tion of $5.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit UNM Art Museum or call (505) 277‑4001.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

UNM Art Museum Lecture Features Justine Andrews

February 22, 2013 | By Mara Kerkez

The Art Museum at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico’s Cen­ter for the Arts presents Jus­tine Andrews’ lec­ture on “Books as Art: Medieval Begin­nings,” Tues­day, Feb. 26 at 5:30 p.m. in the main gallery.  The event is free and open to the public.

Andrews talks about her research regard­ing her new work ana­lyz­ing the rela­tion­ship of iden­tity to Gothic art and archi­tec­ture from Nicosia and Fam­a­gusta, Cyprus, which will be included in her new book.

Andrews joined the fac­ulty of the Depart­ment of Art His­tory at UNM in 2004, where she is a pro­fes­sor of West­ern Medieval, Byzan­tine and Islamic Art and Archi­tec­ture with an empha­sis on the inter­ac­tion between these cultures.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact the art museum by call­ing (505) 277‑4001 or email, artmuse@unm.edu.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

Pinder Takes Lead at College of Fine Arts

February 11, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Kym­berly Pinder

Kym­berly Pin­der was appointed dean of the Col­lege of Fine Arts last July. She grad­u­ated from Yale Uni­ver­sity with a mas­ter of arts, mas­ter of phi­los­o­phy and a doc­tor­ate, all in art his­tory. In her short time at UNM, she is already mak­ing head­way, build­ing on exist­ing ini­tia­tives in the col­lege and look­ing to expand.

Art majors – fine arts, per­for­mance and oth­er­wise – don’t usu­ally fol­low a pre­de­ter­mined career tra­jec­tory. “The future for some­one with an arts degree is nei­ther as lin­ear or trans­par­ent as a busi­ness degree. Artists pur­sue some­thing because they are com­pelled to do it. It is their pas­sion. To be suc­cess­ful at it, artists often pur­sue a multi-pronged path­way,” she said.

To help cur­rent stu­dents under­stand what the pur­suit of art and work is, Pin­der wants to bring in alums. “They can explain how their expe­ri­ences brought them to become an opera man­ager, or graphic designer in a com­pany,” she said.

Pin­der wants to see more stu­dents have intern­ships – not only because they gives them rel­e­vant expe­ri­ence, but also might help shape their career path. “I did a six-month post grad­u­ate intern­ship at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art after grad­u­at­ing from Mid­dle­bury Col­lege. I went in think­ing I wanted to be a cura­tor. While there I con­ducted tours, did some research and wrote labels. I loved doing tours, but I didn’t like it when the groups left! I learned that I wanted to teach – to have a longer term rela­tion­ship with stu­dents,” she said.

Pin­der also dis­cov­ered that the dead­lines and pres­sures in the museum pre­vented her – and oth­ers – from doing sus­tained research they enjoyed. Those were rev­e­la­tions she took away from the intern­ship that made her pur­sue a Ph.D.

Another way stu­dents get expo­sure to the breadth and scope of the arts world is through the Arts Man­age­ment Pro­gram. “There are so many ways that arts orga­ni­za­tions oper­ate that peo­ple are unaware of. Our pro­gram pro­vides interns to var­i­ous orga­ni­za­tions, which gives stu­dents real world, real work expe­ri­ence that looks good on resumes and on grad school appli­ca­tions,” Pin­der said.

Pin­der held a com­pe­ti­tion in the fall for an art piece that would be repli­cated as the college’s hol­i­day card. “We selected two, one for the hol­i­days and another to use year round. The orig­i­nal pieces will hang in my office,” she said. Pin­der would also like the stu­dents to have access to their own gallery space some­where in the city. “Not only would their work be exhib­ited, but they would learn all that goes into gallery work.

With stu­dents, Pin­der is orga­niz­ing a day-long cam­pus art event. She explained, “They will present per­for­mances and exhi­bi­tions. It could become some­thing the com­mu­nity looks for­ward to and appre­ci­ates each year.”

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Campus Community, University News | |

Lecture Explores How History of Photography Mediates Aspects of Modern Life

February 5, 2013 | By Mara Kerkez

The UNM Depart­ment of Art and Art His­tory, with in-kind sup­port from the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Art Museum, spon­sors a Pub­lic Talk, “Rep­e­ti­tion and Dif­fer­ence: The Dis­sem­i­na­tion of Pho­tog­ra­phy,” with Geof­frey Batchen, on Tues­day, Feb. 12 at 5:30 p.m. in the new Sci­ence & Math Learn­ing Cen­ter build­ing, Room 102.

A Beau­mont Newhall Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor of Pho­tog­ra­phy, Batchen’s work as a teacher, writer and cura­tor focuses on the his­tory of pho­tog­ra­phy with a par­tic­u­lar inter­est in the way that pho­tog­ra­phy medi­ates aspects of mod­ern life. This makes pho­tog­ra­phy an espe­cially chal­leng­ing phe­nom­e­non to study and much of his work addresses the method­olog­i­cal task that this study poses for art his­tory. In addi­tion to his exper­tise in the gen­eral the­ory and his­to­ri­og­ra­phy of pho­tog­ra­phy, Batchen helped pio­neer the study of ver­nac­u­lar photography.

Some of his impor­tant pub­li­ca­tions include: Burn­ing with Desire: The Con­cep­tion of Pho­tog­ra­phy (1997), Each Wild Idea: Writ­ing, Pho­tog­ra­phy, His­tory (2001), For­get Me Not: Pho­tog­ra­phy and Remem­brance (2004), William Henry Fox Tal­bot (2008), and Sus­pend­ing Time: Life, Pho­tog­ra­phy, Death (2010) and he co-edited Pic­tur­ing Atroc­ity: Pho­tog­ra­phy in Cri­sis (2012).

Batchen has also curated exhi­bi­tions for muse­ums through­out Europe, North Amer­ica, Japan, Brazil and Aus­tralia. He has taught at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego, the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, the Grad­u­ate Cen­ter in New York and is cur­rently Pro­fes­sor of Art His­tory at Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­sity of Welling­ton in New Zealand.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |