Las Cruces, NM—The University Art Gallery (UAG) at NMSU is proud to present an exhibition of tour de force artworks—several new additions to the permanent collection acquired over the past two years. Works including those by Joshua Shane Flores, Felice House, Zachery Lechtenberg, Mónica Martínez, Jason Middlebrook, Jenny Morgan, Christine Nguyen, Wendy Red Star, Jim Waid, Terri Warpinski, Kerianne Quick, and selections from the Don M. Gonzales Poster Collection will be on view from June 9 through August 18, 2017. Two public receptions will be held: an opening reception, a “Celebración de verano,” on Friday, June 9 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and a closing reception, the “3rd Annual UAG Mixer,” on Friday, August 18, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served; all are welcome to these free community events.
Each year, the UAG actively acquires locally and globally significant artworks to incorporate into its permanent collection, which has exceptionally strong holdings of twentieth and twenty-first century photographs and prints and nineteenth century Mexican retablos. The New Acquisitions / Nuevas Adquisiciones exhibition features gifts and acquisitions from 2015 to the present, including artworks by NMSU students who have received the Mary Lawbaugh Purchase Award during the past three iterations of the UAG’s annual Juried Student Show, which takes place each spring. Thus, New Acquisitions / Nuevas Adquisiciones spotlights diverse, prolific artists whose professional practices align with the UAG’s educational mission and the teaching missions of the Department of Art and NMSU.
Of particular note in this exhibition is eleven lithographic prints from the UAG’s Don M. Gonzales Poster Collection. This named collection, a generous bequest made to NMSU last year, is comprised of more than 80 early to mid-twentieth century propaganda and advertising posters produced in the Americas and Europe. By appointment, the Don M. Gonzales Poster Collection is available for study by any interested person seeking to view or research these historic prints.
As well, as a leading contemporary art center in the Southwest, the UAG further supports its exhibiting artists by collecting works made by these persons to foster long-term relationships on behalf of the university. This practice is evidenced in New Acquisitions / Nuevas Adquisiciones. As such, works on view collected in this manner are by Felice House, Re: Visioning the West (2015); Terri Warpinski, Between Here and There (2015); Jason Middlebrook and Christine Nguyen, GEOMAGIC: Art, Science and the Zuhl Collection (2016); and Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke [Crow]), Wendy Red Star: Inscriptions of Identity (forthcoming in 2018).
Information from NMSU