Category: Featured News
College of Fine Arts NewsConfidence in Abstraction: Brandon Zech’s review of Raychael Stine’s “Falls and Springs and Stardust Things”
Brandon Zech of Glasstire: Texas Visual Art recently reviewed Professor of Painting and Drawing Raychael Stine’s exhibition, “Falls and Springs and Stardust Things,” in his piece “Chimerical Colors.” Zech writes, “Raychel Stine’s paintings are full of pleasurable...
Clarence Cruz Leaves a Lasting Native Pottery Legacy at UNM
Clarence Cruz, who is Tewa from Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo), serves as the Professor of Ceramics in the Art Department. He has been a prominent and familiar figure on campus since his student days.
UNM Students Feed the Fun in “Little Shop of Horrors”
UNM Theatre and Dance brings the cult-classic Little Shop of Horrors to the stage this season. Part B-movie spoof and part social satire, Little Shop of Horrors follows a meek and shy flower-shop worker whose discovery of a mysterious plant changes his life forever....
From UNM to Texas: Raychel Stine continues to shine in “Falls and Springs and Stardust Things”
Raychael Stine, Professor of Painting and Drawing, recently created a show titled “Falls and Springs and Stardust Things” at the Cris Worley Fine Arts Gallery in Texas. Stine makes luscious, joyful paintings that integrate a variety of painterly languages and approaches to mark, texture, and levels of visual legibility, allowing for playful slippage between formal and material abstraction.
Regional Premiere of Somewhere – a new heartfelt and poignant play
Juli Hendren thinks about the future a lot. Specifically, how we move forward and through catastrophe. Her answer – make work about it. Her current directorial challenge, Somewhere: A Primer for the End of Days, is a contemporary piece that examines intimate, human...
Exploring Art: Marisa Demarco, Szu-Han Ho, and Raven Chacon’s “Tiguex”
Marisa Demarco and Szu-Han Ho bring sound, performance, and installation into conversation with memory, place, and collaboration. Their works span immersive choral pieces, site-specific soundscapes, and experimental compositions that challenge how we listen and connect.
UNM Artists Take the Spotlight in Southwest Contemporary Vol. 12: Obsession
Southwest Contemporary Vol. 12: Obsession features some incredible work from several of the amazing people who comprise the Art Department. Current second-year MFA students Luka Berkley and Justine Kablack, recent MFA graduate Taylor Engel, and instructor Jessamyn Lovell all have work featured in this most recent issue of Southwest Contemporary.
Spotlight on Art Studio & Art History Faculty: Featured Exhibitions
Art History Professor Ray Hernández-Durán was recently featured in two articles and interviewed by the Latin American and Iberian Institute. UNM News published “UNM Professors Create Exhibition, First-Ever Scholarship of Local Chicano Artists’ Work” by Anna Padilla, highlighting an exhibition curated by Hernández-Durán and Dr. Irene Vásquez. The show, now on view at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, features six talented New Mexican Chicano artists whose work has been historically underrepresented in academic scholarship.
Art Faculty: Awards, Residencies & Revisited Projects
Distinguished Professor Jim Stone is an exhibiting artist who uses photography. His photographs have been published in three monographs and exhibited internationally; they are represented in the permanent collections of over 30 major museums and public archives.
Emmi Whitehorse at 12th Site SANTA FE International
Art Alum, Emmi Whitehorse’s work is featured in the 12th Site SANTA FE International with a piece titled “Cloud Gate” (2025). Whitehorse was born in Crownpoint, New Mexico, and is a member of the Navajo Nation. She earned her BFA in painting here at UNM, and she also went on to get a master’s degree, majoring in both printmaking and minoring in Art History.
Art Faculty Summer Research
We are so proud of our faculty and the incredible achievements, creative projects, and research they’ve pursued over the summer. Their dedication and innovation continue to inspire our community. Here’s a glimpse into some of their recent work. Andrea Polli is currently a Professor and Director of STEAM NM with appointments in the College of Fine Arts and School of Engineering.
Art Alum News, Featuring Joanna Keane Lopez and Eric Paul Riege
Here are this week’s highlights of two alum who have received notable recognition and appreciation for their artistic contributions.
Meet Our New Art Faculty
We’re thrilled to welcome three extraordinary artists and educators to the Department of Art!
Rambod Vala is a multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, and educator whose work spans graphic and moving images. His practice integrates video, installation, typography, storytelling, and layered narrative structures interweaving realism and fantasy, politics and romance, skepticism and belief.
Experimental Art & Technology Faculty Shine in “Signal and Trace” Exhibition
“Signal & Trace” highlights artworks at the intersection of human experience and technological mediation, engaging with systems of surveillance, autonomy, memory, and identity.
MFA Student Luc Biscan-White and alum Miguel Lastra at SOMA Summer 2025
MFA student Luc Biscan-White and alum Miguel Lastra were selected to attend SOMA Summer 2025, an intensive program for artists in Mexico City.
Voces Del Pueblo Programs & Events
Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico, curated by Art History Professor Ray Hernández-Durán, Ph.D., and Irene Vásquez, Ph.D. This is an exhibition 7 years in the making that features a group of New Mexican artists who were among the...
MFA Photography Alumni, Anna Rotty and Brianna Tadeo, Selected for “FORECAST 2025” at SF Camerawork
The Department of Art is thrilled to congratulate MFA Photography alumni Anna Rotty and Brianna Tadeo on the selection of their work for “FORECAST 2025” at SF Camerawork!
What the land knows: the Radical Art ▽ Ecology Lab (RAVEL) in and around Los Alamos
The UNM Department of Art’s RAVEL Lab was featured in a recent e-flux journal article by Brian Karl. Published on June 13, 2025, as part of e-flux Education’s mid-June focus on U.S. institutions across the South and Southwest, the feature spotlights the RAVEL Lab within Art & Ecology program at The University of New Mexico.
Covington-Rhode Senior Prize Winners: Viola Murphy and Josiah Garza
The UNM Department of Art is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Covington-Rhode Senior Prize.
Albuquerque Journal Highlights MFA Student, Sarah Bennett-Davidson
The Department of Art at UNM is proud to share that Sarah Bennett-Davidson, an MFA student at the University of New Mexico, has been featured in a recent Albuquerque Journal article reviewed by Logan Royce Beitmen. “Interference” at Bingo Art Studios and...
How to Apply
• All students must be admitted to the University, whether as an incoming freshman, transfer student, or non-degree student. Apply online through the Admissions Department at UNM
•After meeting all CFA admission requirements, students must apply to become a declared major.
Academic Advisement
The College of Fine Arts Student Success & Advisement Center is committed to serve the UNM community with compassion, guidance, and respect as we promote academic excellence.
To speak with a CFA advisor, please call (505) 277-4817.



















