Establishing Our Own Art History: The Influence of Judy Chicago Installation

The University Art Museum (UAM) is proud to present the first Master’s of Art thesis exhibition in the UAM by MA candidate Courtney Uldrich. Establishing our Own Art History: The Influence of Judy Chicago, curated by Courtney Uldrich, explores themes produced throughout the career of leading Feminist artist Judy Chicago, while analyzing the impact of her work on other women-identified artists housed in the NMSU Permanent Art Collection at the University Art Museum (UAM). Through photography, video, prints, artists books, and an array of mixed-media works, the exhibition explores key concepts in Chicago’s career including: historical erasure of women; gender constructs; personal heritage and identity; environmental issues; and mortality. Expanding upon the scholarship of Judy Chicago’s career, this exhibition provides a critical look at how her work influenced and intertwined with other women-identified artists, principally Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ artists. In 2016 a new collecting mission was established to transition the UAM’s focus onto collecting significant works by leading female, LGBTQ+ and other underrepresented artists to more accurately reflect the diverse cultural and social communities in the Southwest region. This curatorial project is an intentional step towards recognizing the continued focus of diversifying the NMSU Permanent Art Collection. Included artists such as Wendy Red Star, Paula Wilson, Rose B. Simpson, and Las Hermanas Iglesias, reflect how the lack of representation of this history is essential to contemporarily understanding these important topics.