Category: Faculty Spotlight

His practice merges the historical methods of carving green wood with embossed patterning inspired by traditional leather and tinwork of the Southwest. Randall’s sculptures are shaped not only by his hand, but also by time. Each piece is left to respond naturally to...

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“Signal & Trace” highlights artworks at the intersection of human experience and technological mediation, engaging with systems of surveillance, autonomy, memory, and identity.

Professor Ray Hernández-Durán and Dr. Irene Vasquez are leading a groundbreaking project documenting first-generation New Mexican Chicana/o activism. The initiative includes an art exhibition, catalog, events, and an evolving archive, highlighting a pivotal movement in New Mexico’s history. The exhibition debuts April 25, 2025, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.