The 2024 Juried Student Show opened Friday, March 22, 2024, at the New Mexico State University Art Museum. This year’s show was juried by Celia Álvarez Muñoz, who was also the last artist whose art was exhibited in the museum. During the opening night, several students received donor-funded awards for their pieces.
Jennell Juarez won the Self Portrait Award for her painting “Emotional Obscurity.” The painting is a self-portrait that shows Juarez with an unreadable expression.
“I feel like it’s hard to pinpoint one because it brings up so many different [emotions]. It’s like, all of them can bleed together. And [that emotion is] what I’m drawn to. It’s like they all collide into one like simple expression,” Jaurez said.
The Juried Student Show is the first place Juarez has submitted work to.
“It was kind of nerve wracking…. But it was a nice surprise to get something in and just it’s wonderful to see peers and friends in the same space,” she expressed.
(Leah De La Torre)
Eleazar Maslian’s “Pasalubong (Souvenir)” won the Department of Alumni Award. It is a mixed media portrait of his mother that he made using paper negative weaved with luster paper.
“I was just incorporating the influences of the United States in the Philippines. Levi’s has been of big importance to us, so I weaved the Levi’s logo into negative photo paper,” Maslian said.
He submitted the piece after hearing about the show from an email the school sent out. He said he felt great about winning, especially since it wasn’t expected.
“Just pitch in the best artwork you have. And then just to be confident about it,” Maslian advised students considering submitting their work in future shows.
Citlali Delgado, a Studio Art major and vice president of NMSU College Assistant Migrant Program, won the College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Award, for her mixed media painting, “Profile Patrol.” Delgado grew up in El Paso, TX and often uses her work to uplift Mexican-Americans and their culture. “Profile Patrol” was no different.
The piece shows a family being chased by a security guard in Wal-Mart. It is an artistic protest against Senate Bill 4. Gov. Greg Abbot passed this bill late last year, which allows Texas police to arrest people they suspect of crossing the border illegally.
“That is just blatant racism right there. And we need to, you know, get people educated and advocate for our immigrant community because that is not humane at all. And that’s just systematic racism right there,” Delgado said.
She had originally planned on submitting a different painting for the show. When Muñoz saw “Profile Patrol”, she asked her to submit it instead of one of her other submissions.
“I said to [her], ‘You’re the boss,’ and she trusted me to finish it because it was like halfway done. And so you know, her wish is my command. She’s a very amazing woman,” Delgado said.
Delgado also won Juror’s Best in Show and Mary Lambaugh Purchase Award for her oil on canvas piece “Coatlicue.” This wasn’t Delgado’s first time receiving recognition for her work. She received the Excellence in Painting Award at last year’s Juried Student Show and has also had her work displayed in the El Paso Museum of Art.
“I feel like there’s a lot of good things happening in a short amount of time,” Delgado said, “It’s a little bit overwhelming, but all in a good way.”
For more information on the Juried Student Show, visit the UAM website. The exhibition will be open for viewing in Devasthali Hall until April 20, 2024.
