The Center for Environmental Arts and Humanities at The University of New Mexico and the UNM Art Museum will host a public talk by storyteller and cartoonist Zeke Peña. The Center appointed Peña as its inaugural Art & Ecology Artist-in-Residence for the 2020-2021 academic year.
The presentation is Monday, April 5, at 6 p.m. This Zoom webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Peña is a storyteller and cartoonist from El Paso, Texas. He makes comics and visual narratives to reclaim stories and remix history. While doodling in the margins of his notebook, he received a degree in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin.
His work is a mash-up of political cartoon, border rasquache and Hip Hop culture that addresses universal themes of identity, politics, ecology and social justice. He has won awards for his book illustrations and his work is in several American and Xicano art collections.
He is currently writing and sketching forthcoming comic and book projects. During the Art & Ecology residency, Peña is creating comic illustrations for his ongoing River Stories.
The creation of the Center for Environmental Arts and Humanities was made possible with a five-year (2017-2022) seed grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the long-standing financial support from the Lannan Foundation. Subhankar Banerjee, professor of Art & Ecology, is the founder of the Center and currently serves as its director.