“Art History: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” opens Friday at the University Art Museum at NMSU. The pop-up exhibition is curated by current and recently graduated NMSU students. Scott Brocato talked about the exhibit with UAM’s interim director, Jasmine Herrera, and UAM’s curatorial intern MJ Yurcic.
Scott Brocato:
Jasmine, we'll start with you. Talk about the exhibit and its purpose.
Jasmine Herrera:
Yeah, so when we were closing up the spring semester, we realized that we had a window in our Bunny Conlon Modern and Contemporary gallery. And we had about 9 to 10 weeks that we had a slot to fill. And so over the summer, I knew I was going to have MJ and then Lucy Andres and Anakat Lopez. And so we came up with an idea to have some brainstorming sessions to let them carry an original exhibition in the space. And so over a couple of different sessions, we threw around, I don't know, 20 different ideas. And I sort of let them take the lead and this is what we landed on. And so they really wanted to explore the NMSU permanent art collection through the lens of art history and common art historical imagery that everyone's used to seeing and sort of dissect art pieces through that lens.
Scott Brocato:
And MJ, talk about the concept itself.
MJ Yurcic:
We wanted to take pieces from the collection that were either explicitly referencing artworks from the past, art historical canon, but also works that were kind of more implicit in their reference to art history pieces from the past. And so a lot of the work for this exhibition was writing about the pieces. So this exhibition will be guided by a little pamphlet, an exhibition guide that has texts for each pairing in the show that will walk the readers and the viewers through each of the pieces and the pairings.
So that was kind of like a lot of the work, which was really interesting to do because usually exhibitions are produced throughout like a year or two, and this was produced within five weeks. And so that was actually really fun to get to write all of this material super quickly and make these connections super quickly. And it ended up actually being super fun and dynamic. We got to learn about each other's strengths in the writing process and all of that and the research process.
Scott Brocato:
The contemporary artists, did they choose their own recognizable artwork?
Jasmine Herrera:
So our entire collection, including the retablos, is just over 4,000 pieces. The contemporary side is just over 2,000.
MJ Yurcic:
So we looked through the whole entire collection and we all kind of just picked out what we liked, what were our favorites, but then also pieces that, yeah, might be pretty--
Jasmine Herrera:
Have strong connections.
MJ Yurcic:
Yeah, connections. And so yeah, that's kind of where we went. And then it's kind of a range. So there are students, there are pieces in this show from students that we've acquired pieces from, but then there are also pieces from really well-known artists like Andy Warhol is one of those. So it's like a really wide range.
Scott Brocato:
Talk about some of the themes and issues.
MJ Yurcic:
Yeah, so basically, like I said, it kind of spans. So some of these are more indirect references and that's kind of more visuals. We're kind of doing more formal analysis of the works. But then some are actually very explicitly talking about labor, talking about the art historical canon and its problems, particularly being focused on the Western lens. So we try to like break out of that and pick artworks that aren't typically in the art historical canon alongside artworks that are, and so that those works can kind of have conversations between each other. But yeah, I think a lot of that is going to be guided through the writing. And it will be interesting to kind of see which ones are more explicitly doing that and which ones are more visual or abstract.
Scott Brocato:
And what do you hope people take away from the exhibit when they see it?
MJ Yurcic:
I really hope people who have always been interested in art history like this can get some really clear examples of how this stuff kind of works and how visuals and themes and motifs are really cyclical throughout time. But then also for the students, for the art history students, for the studio art students, and then any student across campus who might be interested in this, I really hope that this is immersive and like a real-world example of how to apply what they've been learning within a gallery setting, within looking at art, and within collections and museums.
Scott Brocato:
Jasmine, what would you like to add to that?
Jasmine Herrera:
I think this whole experience has been really just exciting and meaningful for the students. I really wanted them to have the autonomy to execute an exhibition from start to finish, from the curatorial research component to...I mean, MJ designed this beautiful postcard that's in front of us. All of the marketing was created by these students. They sent out the emails like the one you got targeting media to garner interest for the show. I mean, I had them work on the budget. They proposed images that they wanted framed. So it really is a crash course on how to create and produce an exhibition from start to finish, which is a very rare opportunity for an undergraduate student to have.
So I hope that they just are able to utilize this experience, have it on their resumes, apply to grad school. I mean, it was just such an important opportunity, both for them and myself, and I think it's informed how I'm thinking about summer programming. This was such a successful collaboration that I think it's something we could carry forward in future years in having curatorial students create and curate exhibitions for our summer programming.
For more information about "Art History: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," go to uam.nmsu.edu.
