Stereotypical American imagery such as a couple kissing under a rainbow combines with metaphors of sexual orgasm such as exploding fireworks in graduate student Jamie Kovach’s art.
Two of Kovach’s paintings were selected out of more than 100 UNM graduate art submissions for the 18th annual Juried Graduate Exhibition, curated by David Pagel, an art critic from Los Angeles. The exhibit of 17 pieces is in the UNM Art Museum and includes ceramics, mixed media, paintings, lithographs, video projection, photography and sculpture.
Kovach said her paintings were inspired by paint-by-number projects sold in the ‘50s, and she said she aims for a coloring-book style.
“There’s the very phallic Eiffel tower and then there’s the female reproductive system roller coaster and there’s rocket ships exploding and volcanoes and all that good stuff,” she said. “But a lot of it is because I really am drawn to that imagery, and I paint it because I want to feel like it’s OK to love really tacky things.”
Pagel was invited by the Graduate Art Association, of which Kovach is the vice president. In selecting pieces to include in the exhibition, he said he looked for those with a strong sense of individuality that spoke for themselves.
“I wanted something that I hadn’t seen before, that was sufficiently developed to go beyond itself,” he said. “I didn’t want something that was perfectly resolved, perfect masterpieces, but I wanted to show someone with enough of a focus to be building something of their own.”
One of the pieces is an entire workspace scene, every part of it made with a felt-like cloth. A cloth sewing machine sits on the cloth coffee-stained table and a cloth package of chicken flavored ramen lies crumpled in the cloth trash can on top of cloth lined paper. Another piece emits low whale recordings from the ends of two copper-engraved logs.
Graduate artist Stephanie Brunia, whose photograph of a scarred man’s torso was selected for the show, said the criteria for judging depend on the juror, and she said this year’s show is very eclectic.
“I know some people who get in every year and some who don’t get in at all,” she said. “It just is what strikes the fancy of whoever is judging. I really like the show because everything seems so disparate, yet it somehow makes sense together in its disparity.”
Pagel said juried art shows are uncommon at universities, and he said it requires the artists to take risks.
“They throw themselves into a bucket, and someone comes and picks a few of them out, and every year they willingly do it,” he said. “I think there’s something more daring about this, in the hopes that something interesting comes out of it.”
Pagel said choosing curators from outside UNM was important to the project’s success because many teachers struggle to make unbiased decisions about their students’ work. He said the students were absent when he toured the studios examining pieces.
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Often in art departments “the faculty gets close with the students and it’s awkward,” he said. “I teach in a graduate art program and I would never choose a handful of my artists and skip other ones for a show.”
Pagel said UNM’s art programs are well developed and are at a similar level to others across the country.
“To me, the level is really comparable in terms of seriousness, focus, commitment, dedication, experience, talent. The programs are at a pretty high level,” he said.
Reasons, Excuses, Alibis & Non Sequiturs
18th annual Juried
Graduate Exhibition
Running through May 6
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday through Saturday
UNM Art Museum
Suggested $5 donation
