Sneak Peek BFA Exhibition
April 28th at 5:30 P.M.
Las Cruces, NM– The NMSU Department of Art is pleased to announce a “Sneak Peek'' at the 2023 BFA exhibition for fall graduates. The show will give a hint of what’s to come from the December exhibition, featuring the work of Bobbie Montes Larez, Evelynn Lopez, Natalie Morales, Susana Campos, and Yunnel Acevedo. Sneak Peek will explore ideas of identity and how our environments influence our perspective of not only ourselves but of the world around us.
Bobbette (Bobbie) Montes Larez is a photographer who is entranced by the bonds which people form. The themes she primarily covers concern interpersonal relationships regarding how relationship dynamics work, along with commentary on how relationships form and the meanings behind them. Due to this, she focuses on creating a whole series with each photography project she works with to capture these relationship dynamics in depth. She often describes her work as “love letters” to the people she has had relationships with, along with those who have experienced the relationship dynamics she portrays.
Evelynn Lopez's series After it all, I’m thankful you are mine explores the identity of her parents during their teenage years and her early childhood. She is working to develop a sense of understanding for her parents; shortcomings, and all. This work is an homage to her parents, where the act of forgiveness and appreciation is emphasized. Staple elements of her work include raw, heavily textured substrates, expressive mark-making, emphasis on materiality, pink, text, cockroaches, and the occasional fly.
Natalie Morales’ work reflects fleeting experiences and emotions associated with touch through charcoal drawings focusing on portions of the nude figure and hand indentions. She reflects on how memories influence peoples’ perspectives, seeking to invoke unconscious reactions to visuals of touch. A certain touch can be perceived in many ways; it may be endearing to one person and cause another to feel uncomfortable. The drawings seek to convey the vulnerability and mortality associated with the memories of touch.
Susana Campos presents you with flowers of the desert. Archived as a series of vessels are the stories of Latinx women that migrated to the US from the border cities and towns that line the US-Mexican border. Bringing a mixture of organic and geometric forms, Susana shares stories of trauma and pain and the inevitable product of these experiences through resilience and survival that questions and transforms identity as life happens. In key events of these women’s life, they have given away elemental pieces of themselves as a form of survival and resilience. These vessels are the pieces of the women that were shed in the midst of struggle. Although deformed and seeking life without ever really achieving it, these flowers are strong and part of nature, like clay, transcending through time like the vessels you eventually find in history museums.
Yunnel Acevedo seeks to tap into the memories of people and recreate them into a warm nostalgic trip, so that maybe we can see how much of the past can be a treasured motivation to make our future brighter. The world we call home is full of obstacles and disappointments. What if it was a place overflowing with wonder and excitement? We should go back to the way we saw the world as kids, seeing nothing but the brighter side of the worst. He wishes for people to live every day with that optimism and see how every day could be the greatest day ever.
The exhibition will be on display from April 28th to May 13th, in the Serafino Student Collaboration Space, located in Devasthali Hall on the second floor at the NMSU. Please join us for the opening reception for Sneak Peek in conjunction with Epic Coalescence 2023 BFA Thesis Exhibition and Echoes of an Empty Space 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibition on Friday, April 28, 2023, from 5: 30p.m - 7: 30p.m. Keep an eye out for future announcements regarding the upcoming December 2023 BFA thesis show!