Fine art by NMSU fine art graduating seniors

The NMSU Art Museum (UAM) website is currently featuring the work of five bachelor of fine art graduating seniors: Shaunia Grant, Katelyn LaPage, Olivia Lemmons, Alexxis Ortiz and Jose A. Suarez.

The show, “Fluxx 2020 BFA Student Exhibition,” is online at www.artdepartment.nmsu.edu (click on “Fluxx”).

“The five artists, forming the spring 2020 BFA cohort at NMSU, each engage in research examining their understandings of themselves within a complex world made all the more convoluted by the incursion of COVID-19 into their practice,” said NMSU Art Department Head Julia M. Barello. “United in their clarity and commitment that saw them through the completion and documentation of their work with a minimum of tools and a lack of studio facilities, their accomplishments are, with more reason, laudable given these challenging times. 

Here are the five artists:

• Shaunia Grant: “The act of taking medicine becomes mundane and allows for the ignoring of the complex place it takes in the lives of those who need it. In my work, I hope to express the mundane yet necessary reality that a body is needed in order to continue supporting life, but it is not always a source of comfort.”
• Katelyn LaPage: ““The photographs explore complex issues of identity from multiple perspectives, examining the contrast between exterior and interior in both the concept of social structures and the emotional and psychological boundaries of identity.”
• Olivia Lemmons: ““With an immense passion for tapping into the subconscious, I document my experience of transcendence of the day-to-day through the process of awakening to a higher consciousness through the practice of painting and sculpture.”
• Alexxis Ortiz: “[I compose my] body of work through contemporary art trends and emerging technologies with striking effectiveness offering viewers aesthetic pleasure lending way to critical consciousness.”
• Jose A. Suarez: “The underlying study is of power and dominance fueled through the confidence of identity, built on the fictional religious-based interpretation of my Catholic past.”