NMSU Art Museum reveals new exhibitions

The University Art Museum on the New Mexico State University campus will debut three new exhibitions opening Friday, Sept. 27. Included are a group exhibition showcasing artwork by Andy Warhol and his contemporaries, and solo exhibitions by New York-based artist and educator Carlos Rosales-Silva and New York-based sculptor Carolyn Salas.

“Warhol & Friends” highlights significant artists such as Jasper Johns, Roy Litchenstein, Sol Lewitt and Fritz Scholder along with pop culture giant Andy Warhol. This group exhibition examines “popular art” as a visual and material investigation of themes related to artistic authorship, repetition, representation, appropriation and collaboration. At the Bunny Conlon Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery, the exhibit invites viewers to contemplate the relationship of images and the everyday world. This exhibition is curated by Jess Ziegenfuss in collaboration with NMSU Art Museum Collections Curator Courtney Uldrich, with curatorial support from NMSU undergraduate student MJ Yurcic.

“Border Destroyer” is a monumental mural project installed in the Mullennix Bridge Gallery, in which El Paso-born Carlos Rosales-Silva transforms two 60-foot gallery walls in the museum with a two-part mural critiquing unjust land boundaries and border control while depicting the liberating force of art and education. Drawing from modernism’s roots in Indigenous design and traditional Mexican material culture, Rosales-Silva connects varied cultural and ecological iconography from the border region within this textured mural, blurring the lines between architecture, landscape painting and abstract art.

“I grew up in a family of creative individuals: builders, welders, party planners, musicians, and poets,” the artist stated in a news release. “They laid a strong foundation for me early on, but my surroundings also played a significant role. The specific architecture of my hometown, filled with painted walls, community murals, and sign paintings—the michoacanas, panaderias, memorial murals, decoration at quinceañeras—greatly inspired my work.”

“Night Vision” is a solo exhibition showcasing the sculptures of artist Carolyn Salas. In her site-specific exhibition, the museum explained in a release, Salas crafts multidimensional chromatic objects that oscillate between geometric abstraction and figuration. Inspired by research on healing therapies and dream analysis, Salas’ compositions make references to ritual, female strength and resilience, mental health and art history.

Further, Salas uses the walls and floors of the gallery as sculptural elements, carving human size shapes into protruding pieces of drywall and inviting viewers to sit on geometric benches that grow out of the cement. This museum described the installation as “a vision that transforms viewers’ conceptions of space, place, and their relationships to objects, form, and materialism.”

“Warhol & Friends” will be on view from Sept. 27, 2024 through July 19th, 2025. “Border Destroyer” and “Night Vision” will run from Sept. 27, 2024 through March 8, 2025. An opening reception will be held for all three at the University Art Museum from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27.

An artist lecture by Carolyn Salas will take place at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 26, in the Department of Art Bleachers in collaboration with the Lilian Steinman Visiting Artists & Scholars Lecture Series. An artist talk with Carlos Rosales-Silva will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 3.

“Legacies of Pop” a virtual panel discussion with curator Dr. Ziegenfuss and artists Carolyn Salas and Carlos Rosales-Silva will take place via Zoom at 5:30 p.m., on Oct. 29. A screen printing workshop will take place at 1 p.m. on Nov. 2 at the University Art Museum. “Murals 101”, a guide to creating murals with Carlos Rosales-Silva and local artists will take place on Nov. 14.

The University Art Museum, 1308 E. University Ave., Las Cruces, is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. Admission to all programming is free and open to the public. More information is available via uam.nmsu.edu.