Jessamyn Lovell is an artist, educator, and licensed private investigator living in Albuquerque, NM. Lovell’s work on No Trespassing (where she surreptitiously documented her estranged father) and Dear Erin Hart (where she found, followed, and photographed her identity thief) led her to obtain her private investigator’s license. Lovell’s work has been featured by media outlets such as Hyperallergic, Wired, This American Life, the Today Show, BBC World News, and many more.
She is the recipient of several awards, including the Aperture Portfolio Prize and the Center for Teaching Excellence in Teaching Award, and was recently a Center for Teaching Excellence Fellow at UNM. Lovell is currently integrating her skills as a private investigator into her artistic practices as an ongoing conceptual art piece, titled D.I.Y. P.I. (Do It Yourself Private Investigation) and works with the internationally known performance troupe La Pocha Nostra as a producer and performer.
Recently, her image You Tried, from her ongoing project Catastrophe, Crisis, and Other Family Traditions, was selected by Hank Willis Thomas to be featured in the recently released Issue 18 of the German art magazine Der Grief! Der Grief is an award-winning platform for contemporary photography that champions diverse voices and emerging talent. The new issue: Der Grief 18- “Tomorrow is Today” by Hank Willis Thomas, asks us to pause at the edge of “now” and look toward what comes next. If tomorrow arrived today, how would we choose? Would we lean into love, into action, into community?
Congratulations to Jessamyn! The department is incredibly grateful for all the work you do. Excited to see what comes next!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
EXPLORE the work of Jessamyn Lovell by following on Instagram @filmnotdead.
READ more at https://jessamynlovell.com/portfolio/previous/index.html
https://dergreif.org/
Sabrina Carletti is an Assistant Professor of Art History whose research focuses on the interdisciplinary study of modern and contemporary Latin American art and culture. Her work explores the intersections of artists’ practices, literature, media, and the production of knowledge, rethinking how the conceptual terms used to describe artistic practice shape our understanding of what art does.
The UNM CFA Dean’s Office and Department of Art are pleased to announce that Armando de la Torre has been awarded the UNM SOMA Summer Travel Grant. This grant is awarded to a UNM graduate student to attend SOMA Summer 2026 @somamexico, a 4-week program in Mexico City....
We’re excited to welcome Rachel Zollinger to our faculty this Fall as our newest professor in Art Education. Rachel Zollinger is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and scholar whose research explores multispecies and emplaced pedagogies at the intersection of...