Congratulations to Professor Subhankar Banerjee, whose classes “Introduction to Art and Ecology” and “Biodiversity, Creative Practice, Justice” explored nature journaling as both a visual and literary practice, culminating in a showcase last week. Banerjee, Art professor and founder and director of the Center for Environmental Arts & Humanities, described the motivation behind the project as creating “to have an alternative outlet to engage, not only a class project, but for their own life, and their own journey of learning at UNM,” particularly in the context of students living in “the digital space.” He further says, “Teens, as well as young adults, are spending increasingly more time on the internet.
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. This is all represented in her latest exhibit, and especially in one of her paintings at the exhibit titled, Time Passages (the universe she is beautiful beautiful beautiful), 2025, acrylic and oil on canvas. Matthew Bourbon wrote an article for Glasstire, an organization that exists to expand the conversation about visual art in Texas, titled “One Work, Shot Take: Raychael Stine at Cris Worley Fine Arts.” Here he writes how he was lured into the display, but how he found himself fixated on Time Passages (the universe she is beautiful beautiful beautiful) 2025. He says the following with regards to this piece, “While the colors in this particular painting are mostly night shades set in deep tones, the top of the painting reads like the bending of bright light along the stratosphere before an astronaut enters orbit. That’s how Stine balances it all; she depicts the stuff of our lives like our companion dogs or our delight in beautiful flowers and then cracks our vision open into the eternity of materials that make up the firmament above and within.” He also makes a remark about Stine’s painting technique also by saying, “Perhaps the main source of Stine’s strength as an artist is the incredible dexterity in her paint application; it makes viewing her exuberant paintings a welcome indulgence. She adroitly slows our examination by layering thick impasto and then speeds our looking with myriad fuzzy lines flowing down the canvas like waterfalls.” We are so grateful to have her here be a part of the Art Department sharing her strengths with her students and teaching them to find their own strength as well.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
READ MORE about Matthew Bourbon’s review at https://glasstire.com/2025/10/04/one-work-short-take-raychael-stine-at-cris-worley-gallery/
LEARN MORE about Stine’s exhibition at <a href="https://www.criswo
Art MFA Student, Hanna Brody, featured in The New York Times
Art MFA student, Hanna Brody, recently completed a painting for author T Kira Māhealani Madden that was featured in The New York Times. Her book, titled “Somebody Killed Her Assailant. Was Justice Served?” has a featured review written by Catherine Chidgey and original art by UNM MFA student Hanna Brody.
Analisa Peña awarded Hulsman Undergraduate Library Research Award’s Emerging Researcher
Congratulations to Analisa Peña, who was selected as the 1st place winner in the 2026 Hulsman Undergraduate Library Research Award’s Emerging Researcher category regarding her work, The Many Faces of Christ: Understanding ‘Trifacial Trinity’ by Gregorio Vasquez Arce y Ceballos.



