
The Covington-Rhode Award Winners
We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the Covington-Rhode Award, made possible through the generous support of UNM Alumna Dr. Patricia Covington and Shari Rhode.
Congratulations to Lauren Reddington, Andrew Roibal, and Liz Courts!
Lauren Reddington is a visual artist born and raised in New Mexico. She is in her last semester at the University of New Mexico, graduating with a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in photography. Through photography, Lauren became obsessed with the fear of forgetting and became reliant on the mediums’ role as a memory collector. She finds documentary photography appealing because it unearths self-discovery and provides educational tools to better understand the land she grew up on. Her practice currently focuses on uranium contamination in her hometown of Grants, New Mexico where she challenges the normalcy herself and her community have adopted to the land contamination and steady cancer rates through visual art such as video installation, immersive exhibitions, and photographs. After graduating, Lauren plans to further explore her personal practice through collaborating with other artists and furthering her research on uranium contamination in New Mexico.
Andrew Roibal is a Native American artist based in the Southwest. After spending many years doing artwork as a hobby, he pursued art in college to develop his skills across a variety of mediums, specifically photography. His preferred subject matter includes portraits, landscapes, and miniatures, portrayed in vivid circumstances through a lens of indigeneity.
Liz Courts is an interdisciplinary artist that works with multiple mediums to craft narrative works that embrace emotional catharsis and community. Curiosity and experimentation with materials and fabrication methods is at the heart of her practice, allowing her to choose the right approach for her storytelling. She is graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Studio, with a minor in Arts Leadership and Business. Following graduation, she will be attending Rochester Institute of Technology in New York to purse an MFA in Fine Arts, with an eye to pursue the possibilities of combining art, design, and technology.
Here’s to celebrating the remarkable achievements of these talented individuals!
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.