The University of New Mexico’s Graduate Art Association presents the Annual Silent Art Auction on Friday, Nov. 20 from 6-9 p.m. at the CFA Downtown Studio. This event is free and open to the public.

Artworks of various media created and donated by UNM faculty, MFA students, and alumni of the MFA program will be available at the event. Live music will be provided by The New Mexico Winds Woodwind Quintet and the Ensemble-in-Residence in the UNM Department of Music.

The Silent Art Auction is the Graduate Art Association’s primary fundraiser, and provides an opportunity for art students and the wider Albuquerque arts community to engage in a conversation about art and its significance.

Katelyn Bladel, GAA vice president and a primary organizer of this event, said, “The auction presents a group of artworks that address diverse concepts, undertake critical research, and utilize numerous creative processes and media. Yet all are connected by the shared experience of the artists' time at the University of New Mexico.”

In addition to recognizing the skill and dedication of UNM student, faculty, and alumni artists, the auction celebrates the vitality of arts appreciation and patronage in Albuquerque.

Featured artists:

  • Sarah Vosmus and Hollis Moore will have their limited edition, collaborative print inspired by the New Mexico landscape, for sale at the auction. Both Vosmus and Moore create colorful work inspired by natural environments that involve layering multiple printmaking processes such as lithography and woodcut.
  • Jim Stone, After a 30,000-Acre Range Fire: Albany, Texas. Stone is a renowned photographer whose works have been collected by major institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art.
  • Sage Dawson, Requiem for Night Flights. Her work contemplates notions of landscape and architectural space, using specific sites to articulate how space encodes notions such as memory, impermanence, or disparity.
  • Sam McBride, will create a live painting during the course of the evening as one of several raffle items at the auction. Visitors will be able to observe her process in action, ask questions, and purchase raffle tickets as the painting progresses. McBride employs exuberant impastos and incorporates a variety of techniques and materials into her paintings. Her painting process is a dynamic interaction during which “a story emerges, shifts and morphs as the picture takes place.” 

The UNM Graduate Art Association represents graduate students of the Department of Art and Art History to the greater UNM and New Mexico communities. The organization is run entirely by elected graduate students, with the guidance of appointed Faculty Advisors. Their mission is to provide special opportunities for AAH graduate students and enrich their overall experience at UNM.

More information about the Graduate Art Association can be found here.