A new gallery at UNM focuses on LGBTQ community art.
Alma Rosa Silva-Banuelos, the center’s program coordinator, said the gallery is Albuquerque’s only permanent showcase for non-hetero artists.
“I think there’s a different appreciation when the LGBTQ community comes out to see art that is created for and by the queer community,” she said. “It reflects the LGBTQ perspective in art, and really it showcases another aspect of our culture that normally you don’t get to see, because we get diluted amongst other artists.”
The gallery’s first exhibit, “Gender: Transgression and Identity,” was provided by the Harwood Art Center. It’s located inside the LGBTQ Resource Center.
Silva-Banuelos said the gallery showcases LGBTQ artists once a year to coincide with the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
“Since the Harwood had already curated such a fabulous exhibit and not everybody got to see it, we wanted to bring it over to the University campus to create more access and let the student population have access to come and see it on campus,” she said. “Now it sparked the idea for us to showcase LGBTQ artists and allies monthly.”
The exhibit’s centerpiece is a large Día de los Muertos altar in honor of several LGBTQ youth that have committed suicide this year, Silva-Banuelos said.
“It’s a pretty powerful altar this year, because when you really see (the) seven youth up on our alter, all of the end dates are 2010,” she said. “And we wanted to make sure that those young people that took their lives for being bullied for being gay or being perceived as gay weren’t forgotten.”
In honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance, Silva-Banuelos said the center will host events today, Friday and Saturday to note transgender people’s struggles.
The resource center will debut an exhibit every month, although December and January will feature the same exhibit because of winter break, Silva-Banuelos said. The December exhibit will feature UNM student Debbie Alarcon’s work.
“I do a lot of strong women figures. A lot of goddesses,” Alarcon said. “Right now I’m working on Frida Kahlo. But I also do nature. I think every artist is individual in what they’re trying to give and what they’re trying to express as an artist. Now that the center’s open, I think it’s a great opportunity for them to put that out there.”
Silva-Banuelos said LGBTQ artists are showcased in galleries around Albuquerque, but they often don’t have exhibits dedicated to them.
“I know there are a lot of LGBTQ artists that get mixed in with different installations, and what we’re trying to do is really draw those artists out of those installations to give them a focused location to be able to exhibit their art,” she said.
The gallery is currently accepting submissions from artists, whether LGBTQ-identified or not, and Silva-Banuelos said they expect to have a flourishing gallery once submissions roll in.
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“I think once we really get this call out, we’re going to be booked through the next couple years — 2011, 2012 and beyond,” she said.
