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!
UNM Artists Take the Spotlight in Southwest Contemporary Vol. 12: Obsession
Southwest Contemporary Vol. 12: Obsession features some incredible work from several of the amazing people who comprise the Art Department. Current second-year MFA students Luka Berkley and Justine Kablack, recent MFA graduate Taylor Engel, and instructor Jessamyn Lovell all have work featured in this most recent issue of Southwest Contemporary.
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.