College of Fine Arts News
Faculty, Alumni, & Student Highlights
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...
UNM Art History Student Selected for Competitive Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Internship
The Art History program at UNM emphasizes the study of visual art as a means of understanding the intellectual and cultural history of humanity. The program provides a firm grounding in art history and covers a geographical and chronological range of art history....
‘Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas,’ Volume XVI, Fall 2024, Now Available!
“Hemisphere” is an annual publication produced by graduate students affiliated with the Department of Art at The University of New Mexico.
UNM graduate’s documentary nominated for Sports Emmy
Fritz Bitsoie holds many titles – father, husband, Diné/Navajo filmmaker, cultural storyteller, and now, Emmy-nominated film director.
Subhankar Banerjee Leads in Environmental Arts & Humanities
Subhankar Banerjee, professor in the UNM Department of Art, is a photographer, writer, curator, and environmental humanities scholar. He is also the founder and director of the Center for Environmental Arts & Humanities at UNM.
On Earth Day, the Center opened a small exhibition of Banerjee’s work, “BioDiversity,” at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton. After being on display for a year, the full contents of the“BioDiversity” exhibit will become part of the permanent archive at the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center at IAS.
UNM Musicology Celebrates 10 Years
By Melissa Ríos, UNM Musicology Graduate Student & Musicology Research Assistant April 2025 April 17th marked the celebration of a decade of musicology at UNM. To celebrate the occasion, Dr. Heidi Jensen, who was the first graduate of the revamped program in 2015,...
Evany López Receives UISFL Award for Undergraduate Research
Art History student, Evany López was awarded an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Research (UISFL) Award to support summer travel to Mexico.
Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding Teaching Assistants of the Year Awards
Two graduate students here at the UNM Art Department are being honored with the Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding Teaching Assistants of the Year Award!
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.