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!
Art MFA Student, Saúl Ramírez, reviewed by the Albuquerque Journal
Congratulations to MFA student Saúl Ramírez, whose work was recently reviewed in the Albuquerque Journal. Their thesis exhibit, “Seeds of Compromise: In Search of Digestive Architectures,” is currently on view at the AC2 Gallery.
Assistant Professor, Amanda Curreri’s, Newest Exhibition “Liber Floridus”
Congratulations to Assistant Professor and graduate director Amanda Curreri, who, along with multimedia artist Andy Ness, created the exhibition Liber Floridus presented by the Wege Gallery. Curreri contributed woven textile-based works, while Ness contributed...
Engaged Practices, Professor Subhankar Banerjee’s Showcase, looking at Nature Journaling as Pedagogy
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.