The New Mexico State University Art Museum will host exhibitions featuring the work of bachelor of fine arts and master of fine arts candidates. The MFA exhibition is titled “Leftovers: 2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition.” The BFA exhibition is called “Dis | Connected BFA Thesis Exhibition.”
“Leftovers” and “Dis | Connected” will have a joint opening reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, in the University Art Museum. The reception is free and open to the public. The exhibitions will run through Dec. 18. A web-based, virtual tour will be made available for those unable to make the opening the following week. The art museum is located at 1308 E. University Avenue.
Maggie Day, Alex Nipper and Donovan Noelle Swann will share their work in the MFA exhibit while works of Brontë Procell, Brigitte Kearns and Analinda Gonzalez will be featured in the BFA show.
To register for free tickets to attend the opening reception or to see both exhibitions in person, visit UAM’s timed-ticket website at: https://uam.nmsu.edu/timed-tickets/.
“Leftovers,” the MFA exhibit in the UAM’s contemporary gallery, examines how each artist exposes facades to question their own narrative through the use of materials, process and objects as they relate to specific times and places.
“Each artist exercises a keen awareness of the expectations and materialization of social constructs, the performances that exist within various communities, and the related impacts on the development of personal and collective identity,” said Bree Lamb, NMSU art assistant professor.
Day’s installations, a combination of ceramic and domestic objects, expose the complicated and overwhelming ideas of societal structures within the domestic space. Nipper’s work manifests a daydream, a place of complex experiences that replace the facade of mundane daily activity with simulated entertainment, creating a land that truly satiates his appetite for happiness. Swann’s work presents a combination of archiving, rearranging and reimagining, where she creates dynamic narratives utilizing vernacular images to challenge the traditional American domestic landscape.
“Dis | Connected,” presented by the NMSU Department of Art and hosted by the UAM, will be shown in the Bunny Conlon Modern & Contemporary Art Gallery and exhibits the relations between immigration, psychology versus physiology, and transcendental environment.
Procell examines body image through food symbolism, exploring both physical and mental aspects of self-reflection. Kearns captures the feelings of transcendence and tranquility present in the desert landscape. Gonzalez expresses the hardships caused by her father’s deportation. Understanding how controversial the American immigration system is, Gonzalez chooses not to directly comment on the political aspects of her familial separation, but rather to shed light on her family’s story.
Both exhibitions will include free artist talks. BFA artists will have a virtual talk from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30. To register visit: https://nmsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUuduirrjIpHNUHPTiLhzxgNntDTqbEl_CZ
MFA artists will present an in-person talk from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2 at the art museum.
For more information about this and other free, community-wide events, visit the UAM’s website https://uam.nmsu.edu/.