UNM Art Department

The UNM CFA Dean’s Office and Department of Art are pleased to announce that fen root has been awarded the UNM SOMA Summer Travel Grant. ✨

This grant is awarded to a UNM graduate student to attend SOMA Summer 2026, a 4-week program in Mexico City. The $4,000 USD grant, plus an award by SOMA ($800 USD) is applied to the cost of attending the SOMA Summer program. Congratulations to fen!!

Fen Root is a multimedia artist based in Albuquerque (born 1995 in Washington, D.C.) whose work stages playful and critical encounters with technologies of representation. Working across performance, sculpture, photography, video, and installation, Root creates environmental and standalone works that investigate the social and psychic dynamics of territory, and the mutuality of identity, self, and place. Fen’s practice has its roots in performance, specifically postmodern dance and somatic movement. Combined with extensive research into Black feminist geography, media regimes, and political ecology, her practice has expanded to the realms of sculpture, video, and installation, often taking Blackness as a starting point to examine the limits of ontology, opacity, and nomadic subjectivity.

What a great exhibition, "Pintando Puertas: El arte que rompe fronteras" at Masley Gallery ✨

On view from April 22–May 6, 2026, the exhibition brought together work by elementary students and UNM Art Education.

Thank you to the educators who made it possible: Claudio Perez, Arline Murray, Kathryn Peacock, and Lauren Gutierrez, along with all of the participating students.

With the semester officially over, the exhibition was a great way to bring things to a close ❤❤❤

The University of New Mexico will be closed for Memorial Day!!

📷: MFA Recent Graduate, Saul Ramirez, Work from “Seeds of Compromise: In Search of Digestive Architectures."

We are proud to celebrate recent MFA graduate daniela del mar , recipient of a 2026 Dedalus Foundation Master of Fine Arts Fellowship in Painting & Sculpture ✨

Awarded annually to only four graduating MFA students across the United States, the fellowship recognizes outstanding artists working in painting and sculpture and includes a $15,000 stipend.

daniela del mar (they/ellx) is a q***r, Kiltre transdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator working between Tiwa, Tewa, and Pueblo Territory (New Mexico) and Diaguita Territory/Wallmapú (Central and Northern Chile). Their practice brings together weaving, sculpture, book arts, poetry, and collaborative publishing through work grounded in reciprocity, abolition, public intervention, and land-based practice.

Their work centers sculptural (concrete) poems that bring together text, textile, translation, and ecological kinship. Through installation and collaborative practice, daniela explores anti-colonial language, memory, and intergenerational knowledge while imagining Native Presents and Native Futurisms across hemispheres. They have co-founded several collaborative publishing initiatives, including the Poetry Salon Broadside Project, letra chueca press, and Seed & Bloom. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries, museums, universities, and community spaces.

Congratulations, daniela!!

📷: Image 2. “untitled (como tocar),” 2024, steer manure and wildfire carbon, 96 x 100 ft.

Faculty Highlight ft. Szu-Han Ho ✨

We’re thrilled to celebrate Szu-Han Ho and share the exciting news that they have been named a 2026 grant awardee by the Asian Cultural Council as part of the 2026 Grant Cycle!!

As they begin their sabbatical, Szu-Han will continue their research in Taiwan, deepening their understanding of Taiwanese sound art while building bridges between sound artists in Taiwan and their home state of New Mexico.

Ho will engage with Taiwan’s contemporary sound art and experimental music scenes by meeting sound artists, curators, and scholars; practicing deep listening; visiting venues, galleries, and museums; attending workshops; and creating field recordings of local soundscapes. Their travels will include connecting with artists and curators across Taiwan’s west coast and spending time with Indigenous artists on the east coast, with the hope of developing collaborative links between practitioners in Taiwan and New Mexico

Congratulations, Szu-Han!! We can’t wait to follow your research abroad. 🌎

Congratulations to Kat B. and Shaun Pinello ✨

Kat and Shaun are the 2026 recipients of the Covington-Rhode Senior Prize, made possible through the generosity of UNM alumna Dr. Patricia Covington and Shari Rhode.

Kat B.’s multidisciplinary practice explores memory, place, and human connection through sculptural works incorporating metals, textiles, found objects, and other materials.

Shaun Pinello’s work bridges philosophy, material experimentation, and visual storytelling through ink, comics, and community-based art practices.

We are so proud of both of you and excited on what's next! 🌟

📷: University Marketing and Communication

We are incredibly honored to have received a $650,000 one-time grant from the Frederick Hammersley Fund for the Arts at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

The gift will support acquisitions and conservation initiatives while honoring the legacy of Frederick Hammersley (1919-2009), an influential American abstract painter who taught at UNM and made Albuquerque his home.

The grant is designated for the acquisition of visual art that reflects Hammersley’s dedication to experimentation, the exploratory nature of artmaking, mastery of artistic skills and the practice of artmaking as a source of personal growth and community engagement.

Funds will focus on works created after 1945 by artists who have a connection to New Mexico, demonstrate sustained engagement with the broader art world, and are recognized for innovative contributions to modern and contemporary art.

The grant will also support artists via purchases and will expand public access through exhibitions, digital resources and interpretation. Additionally, funds may be used to conserve existing artworks in UNMAM’s permanent collection.

Advisors to the Hammersley Fund for the Arts created the large gift to recognize UNMAM’s innovative approach to involving students in its daily operations.

"As the staff utilized students as part of the decision-making process, non-art students from across the campus found the museum’s programming relevant to their studies. Attendance skyrocketed. Kudos to staff, students and faculty for working together as a team,” said Joseph Traugott, a fund advisor.

Kathleen Shields, also a fund advisor, noted that advisors were impressed with how UNMAM involves students in the selection process for acquisitions, a form of teaching that Hammersley valued.

"The fund advisors are here in New Mexico and have extensive experience in the art and museum communities in the state. They’re paying attention to what we’re doing. That means a great deal," said UNMAM Director Arif Khan.

We are so grateful for this meaningful award. Read more in bio.

Photograph by Stefan Jennings Batista.

Art Happenings ✨

“Impermanence” by Toryn “Kai” Kelly
📝 May 11-21, 2026, Opens This Week!
Reception: Friday, May 15, 2026, 7:00-8:00 pm
📍John Sommers Gallery

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“Traces” Works by Advanced Photo Students
📝 May 11-15, 2026, Opens this Week!
Reception: Friday, May 15, 2026, 5:00-7:00 pm
📍6th St. Studio
1029 6th St, Albuquerque, NM 87102

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“Seeds of Compromise” MFA Thesis Exhibition by Saul Ramirez
📝April 11-May 11, 2026, Ends This Week!
📍(AC)2 Gallery
301 Mountain Rd. NE

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“Fatty Acids” A Collaborative Printmaking Exhibition
📝April 30-May 15, 2026, Ends this Week!
📍Tamarind Institute
2500 Central Ave SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106

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“The Underground Library” from RAVEL
📝 May 9-14, 2026, Ends this Week!
📍Bachechi Open Space
9521 Rio Grande Blvd NW, Albuquerque, NM 87114

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“How to Have a Flying Dream” by Nancy Dewhurst
📝May 15-July 7, 2026, Opens This Week!
Reception: Friday, May 15, 2026, from 5:00 7:00 pm
📍Gallery One's Art Vault
First floor of City Hall at 1 Civic Plaza NW

Art Happenings ✨

“How to Rescue Almost Anything”
📝 April 29-May 6, 2026, Ends this Week!
📍6th St. Studio The Harwood Art Center
1029 6th St, Albuquerque, NM 87102

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Collective Material-BFA Capstone Art Exhibition
📝 April 27-May 7, 2026, Ends This Week!
📍John Sommers Gallery

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Art Education Student Teaching Celebration
📝 May 7, 2026, 5:00-7:00 pm, This Week!
📍Masley Gallery

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Art Decompression Session
📝 Tuesday: May 5, 2025, 11:00-2:00 pm
📍Art Lobby

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“Accidental Sync: Everyone's Trying Their Best (The Politics of Performance)”
📝 Wednesday: May 6, 2026, 7:00-9:00 pm
📍ARTSLab
131 Pine St. NE, Albuquerque, NM

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Puppet Show and Workshop
📝 Thursday, May 7, 2026, 1:00-4:00 pm
📍Front of Art Lobby

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“The Underground Library” from RAVEL
📝 May 9-14, 2026, Opens this Week!
Select Performances: Thursday, May 7, 2026, 6:30-9:00 pm
Reception and Performances: Saturday, May 9, 2026, 10:00-1:00 pm
📍Bachechi Open Space
9521 Rio Grande Blvd NW, Albuquerque, NM 87114

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Shimmer: Vibrant Art/Science of New Mexico Opening LASER Panel
📝 March 28-May 9, 2026, Ends this Week!
📍Sci Art Santa Fe
Panel Presenters: Chad Colby, Jess Merritt, Deidre Greenly, Nico Rasmussen, and Jeanette Hartmann

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“हवा तुम, घुल जाना, खो जाना, मगर मिल जाना [Oh wind (if you must), dissolve, wander (get lost), but be found (find me)”
MFA Thesis Exhibition by Sachika Goel
📝May 6-8, 2026, Opens this Week!
Performance: Wednesday, May 6, 2026, 2026. 6:15 pm
Artist Talk: Friday, May 8, 2026, at 3:00 pm in the conference room
📍Open Space Visitor Center

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Impossible Sound: Side B
📝 Thursday, May 9, 2026, 5:00-9:00 pm
📍ni de aquí, ni de allá .artspace
2009 Ridgecrest Dr SE, Albuquerque NM