The University of New Mexico-Taos Department of Fine Arts and Digital Media presents an art exhibition by Jessamyn Lovell: She’s Everywhere Now. The opening reception, with the artist in attendance, is set for Thursday, March 2 from 5-7 p.m. in the Atrium Gallery at Fred Peralta Hall.

She’s Everywhere Now is 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, N.M., 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 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.

Jessamyn_Lovell
Jessamyn Lovell

“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," said Lovell. "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.

Lovell (b. 1977, Syracuse, N.Y.) is a gender-fluid artist, reluctant academic, and licensed private investigator based in Albuquerque, N.M. 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 UNM’s main campus in Albuquerque. 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.

She’s Everywhere Now opens March 1 and runs through March 19, 2023. The UNM-Taos Atrium Gallery is located in Fred Peralta Hall on the Klauer campus and is open on weekdays from 9 to 5 p.m.

The UNM-Taos Department of Fine Arts, Film and Digital Media offers an Associate of Fine Arts and an Associate of Arts in Digital Media Arts. Fine Arts courses include a variety of studio disciplines including art practices, drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, metals, photography, and printmaking as well as art history. The Film and Digital Media Arts program offers filmmaking, graphics, animation, and multimedia using digital tools in preparation for a career in media arts. Students are supported in following their personal goals beyond community college, including pursuing degrees or working within the art community of Taos and beyond.