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.
Multimedia artist Luca Berkley (AKA Jack Lope, Jenn Deere, and Piper Pellegrini) critiques the narrative surrounding American ranching through performance, online as well as on stage. Luca is an artist, drag king, and ex-ranch worker who, as the article stated, “has a multidisciplinary practice is their obsessive love for, yet persistent skepticism toward, white cowboy culture.”
Luca Berkley, Jack Lope, 2019, 2019-present, drag performance. Photo: Hannah Glaw
Justine Kablack is a multimedia media artist who is featured in Obsession for the way they “devoutly repeat images of the road, embracing its contradiction as both limitless and constrained…In this series, Kablack daringly attempts to be in two places at once: the physical contours and the daydream of where it might lead.” Kablack does this through a series of lithographs, sculptures, graphite, and sumi ink on paper.
MFA alum, Taylor Engel, is also featured on Southwest Contemporary: Obsession for their varied and chaotic artworks, which envelop viewers in a shared experience of all-consuming obsession, codependency, and repetition. Engel is an undisciplinary artist working in performance, sculpture, painting, sound, and installation. They received their MFA from the University of New Mexico in Sculpture (2025) and a BFA from Pratt Institute in Graphic Design (2015).
Taylor Engel, Fantasy∞, installation view, 2025
Jessamyn Lovell, a principal lecture, is an artist, educator, and licensed private investigator. Lovell’s work on No Trespassing (where they surreptitiously document their estranged father) and Dear Erin Hart (where Lovell found, followed and photographed their identity thief) led them to obtain their private investigator’s license. In the article, Lovell said, “By day, I am a parent, artist, and educator, while most nights I assume my role as a licensed private investigator, out on surveillance or conducting research.” Such fascinating work from these talented artists!
Jesse Lovell, Practiced Disguises studio study: Barfly Disguise (AKA “Chelsea”), 2023, archival inkjet print, 42 x 38 in
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
READ MORE the Southwest Contemporary Issue
https://southwestcontemporary.com/obsession-luca-berkley/
https://southwestcontemporary.com/obsession-justine-kablack/
https://southwestcontemporary.com/obsession-taylor-engel/
https://southwestcontemporary.com/obsession-jesse-lovell/
EXPLORE the work of Luca Berkley by checking out his website at lucamaudeberkley.com or following on Instagram @jacklope.etc.
EXPLORE the work of Justine Kablack by checking out their website at justinekablack.com or following on Instagram @kab_ine.
EXPLORE the work of Taylor Engel by checking out their website at taylengel.com or following on Instagram @til3br3ak3rpt2.
EXPLORE the work of Jessamyn Lovell by checking out their website at jessamynlovell.com or following on Instagram @filmnotdead.
Juli Hendren thinks about the future a lot. Specifically, how we move forward and through catastrophe. Her answer – make work about it. Her current directorial challenge, Somewhere: A Primer for the End of Days, is a contemporary piece that examines intimate, human...
Marisa Demarco and Szu-Han Ho bring sound, performance, and installation into conversation with memory, place, and collaboration. Their works span immersive choral pieces, site-specific soundscapes, and experimental compositions that challenge how we listen and connect.
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.
