NMSU Art Museum

NMSU Art Museum The University Art Museum serves as a showcase for the visual arts in the border region.

Our focus includes the alignment of our exhibitions and programming with the contemporary and interdisciplinary teaching missions of the NMSU Department of Art faculty, graduates students, and undergraduates and the whole of New Mexico State University. We curate original exhibitions; and steward over 4,200 works in the university’s permanent collection. The latter includes the country’s largest collection of Mexican retablos (devotional paintings on tin) as well as photographs, paintings, prints and graphics, book art, and small scale sculpture and metals. The Gallery provides curatorial and exhibition management experiences for graduate and undergraduate students.

We're baa-aaaack! 🎃 Nightmare at the Museums returns on Friday, October 30 from 6-9 pm. Buy your tickets and get ready f...
10/09/2026

We're baa-aaaack! 🎃 Nightmare at the Museums returns on Friday, October 30 from 6-9 pm. Buy your tickets and get ready for a spook-tacular evening of haunted houses, creepy crafts, costume contests, and much more! Tickets at $13; children under 12 and NMSU students with their school ID get in for free!

Nightmare at the Museums is a fundraiser for NMSU Museums and Collections. Thank you for your support!

Get your tickets here👀➡https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com/registration-form/?formId=9bd5bcd7-6817-4dd7-b3b3-c0fe152afbb8&envId=p-E-OMB_qy3USeTydKW5Fl7g&zone=usa

Join us on October 16 for an Artist and Curator Walkthrough of our new exhibition Marietta Patricia Leis: Breathing Less...
10/05/2026

Join us on October 16 for an Artist and Curator Walkthrough of our new exhibition Marietta Patricia Leis: Breathing Lessons at the NMSU Art Museum. Artist Marietta Patricia Leis and curator Marisa Sage will discuss the works on view, and the collaborative ideas that shaped the exhibition.

The walkthrough begins at 5 pm, followed by the opening reception from 5:30-7:30 pm. We hope to see you there!

Stefan Jennings Batista works as a visual artist and educator in Albuquerque, NM. Batista’s practice is rooted in photog...
10/03/2026

Stefan Jennings Batista works as a visual artist and educator in Albuquerque, NM. Batista’s practice is rooted in photography and expands across printmaking, illustration, commercial image-making, and design. His work broadly investigates the relationships between place, time, identity, and landscape, drawing on visual languages and ideas from 18th-century science, religious iconography, and mysticism. Through these references, he explores how systems of knowledge, belief, and representation shape our understanding of the world and our place within it. His work has been presented in exhibitions, publications, and creative projects throughout the United States and internationally. He teaches photography and illustration at Central New Mexico Community College. He has received degrees in art from the University of New Mexico and the Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, FL.

See more of his work in Lean In, a group exhibition with Batista, Dorielle Caimi, and Veronica Primerano from October 16, 2026 - March 6, 2027.



🖼️: Stefan Jennings Batista, Succulent Lungs. Dried cactus, scanner photograph, inkjet prints, 6 x 6 ft. displayed as a grid of 18 x 24 in prints. Courtesy of the artist.

Veronica Primerano’s recent work explores the relationship between color and shapes, where she references artists Josef ...
10/02/2026

Veronica Primerano’s recent work explores the relationship between color and shapes, where she references artists Josef Albers and Agnes Martin, exploring grids and interconnected color-filled shapes. Similar to Martin’s artistic practice, the process of drawing the grids itself is an act of meditation, while drawing over a painting or incorporating a grid into a shape is an act of protecting something meaningful. She attended Santa Monica College, Columbia College in Chicago, and graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Painting and a minor in scientific illustration. She has exhibited at Dove Biscuit Studio in Los Angeles, CA; at Judith Rivera Contemporary Gallery and Arlington Heights Library in Illinois; and at Gutstein Gallery in Savannah, GA.

See more of Primerano's work in Lean In, a group exhibition with Dorielle Caimi and Stefan Jennings Batista, from October 16, 2026 - March 6, 2027.



🖼️: Veronica Primerano, The Vibes #3. Spray paint and acrylic markers on woodcut panel, 16.25 x 12.25 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Dorielle Caimi is a 15th-generation New Mexican who currently lives and works in Santa Fe, NM. Using figuration, vivid c...
10/01/2026

Dorielle Caimi is a 15th-generation New Mexican who currently lives and works in Santa Fe, NM. Using figuration, vivid colors, and symbolism, Caimi’s paintings employ humor and abrupt juxtapositions of bodies and objects to reexamine societal ideas regarding women and the traditional female gaze. Recent work explores the relationships we have with our inner companions—our demons, angels, imaginary friends, and the anthropomorphized voices of our own minds. Caimi completed a BFA in Painting from Cornish College of the Arts in 2010, and her works have been exhibited internationally and reviewed in publications such as American Art Collector, Juxtapoz Magazine, and The Huffington Post. In 2015, Caimi was awarded the $10,000 William and Dorothy Yeck Award for work that "visually responds to painting in the 21st century." Her works have been acquired by several public and private collections.

See more of Caimi's work in Lean In, a group exhibition with Veronica Primerano and Stefan Jennings Batista from October 16, 2026 - March 6, 2027.



🖼️: Dorielle Caimi, detail of Unfruitful, 2025. Oil on canvas, 74 x 36 in. Courtesy of the artist.

The UAM proudly presents "Lean In", an exhibition presenting works by three New Mexico-based artists who have been influ...
09/30/2026

The UAM proudly presents "Lean In", an exhibition presenting works by three New Mexico-based artists who have been influenced and mentored by artist Marietta Patricia Leis during her nearly 50-year career as an interdisciplinary artist.
Featuring works by Dorielle Caimi, Veronica Primerano and Stefan Jennings Batista, "Lean In" demonstrates that a successful artistic practice extends beyond the objects produced in the studio; it is also built through relationships, discipline, and the transmission of knowledge.

Lean In is on display in the museum’s Mullennix Bridge Gallery from October 16, 2026 through March 6, 2027. Join us for the opening reception on October 16 from 5:30-7:30 pm.

Meet the artist behind On the Edge! Shirley Crow, based in Tesuque, NM, is a painter who creates abstract works expressi...
09/29/2026

Meet the artist behind On the Edge! Shirley Crow, based in Tesuque, NM, is a painter who creates abstract works expressing her enduring wonder for the universe and the miracle of being alive. She has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions nationally, including Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas; Forsyth Center Galleries, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas; University of New Mexico Medical Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Zane Bennett Gallery in Santa Fe. Crow holds a B.S. in Art Education from the University of Missouri, and has taught and practiced in several states throughout her career.

Meet the artist behind Breathing Lessons! Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1938 and raised in East Orange, Marietta Patric...
09/28/2026

Meet the artist behind Breathing Lessons! Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1938 and raised in East Orange, Marietta Patricia Leis’s early memories of her grandmother’s gardens continue to shape her sensitivity to hue and atmosphere. After studying dance and painting in New York and Los Angeles, she moved to New Mexico in 1982 to pursue an MFA at the University of New Mexico. There, she developed a visual language that merged drawing, photography, and constructed forms with an interest in public art, education, and mentorship. Leis has exhibited extensively and her artworks can be found in the permanent collections of institutions around the world, including Haegeumgang Theme Museum in South Korea; Fundación Valparaíso, Mojacar, Spain; Rothko Museum, Daugavpils, Latvia; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea - Pinacoteca di Teora, Italy; and the Harwood Museum, Taos, NM.

A little behind the scenes look at what’s coming to the museum 👀 Be sure to follow along for more previews of our upcomi...
09/23/2026

A little behind the scenes look at what’s coming to the museum 👀 Be sure to follow along for more previews of our upcoming exhibitions!

Address

1308 E. University Avenue
Las Cruces, NM
88003

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

(575) 646-2545

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