Painter Laurie Nye brings her vibrant, nature-inspired work to UNM as the 2026 Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist Fellow. Free, public events include an artist talk February 19 and an open studio on April 2.
Laurie Nye’s colorful paintings of natural scenes, trees, flowers and plants explore and present the possibilities of utopia, and embody feelings of expression and freedom.
Nye, who is based in California and Tennessee, has been awarded the 2026 Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist Fellowship at the University of New Mexico Department of Art.
Nye is interested in connection to nature and the celebration of nature. She approaches the world as a living being, a mother earth, and through her painting, she is dedicated to ideas of strengthening our relationship to nature, and the intimate bond we can find with our individual immediate surroundings. She is invested in looking, sensing, feeling and seeing through the creation of the work. The elements of color, line, and shape are paramount to her practice. Her curvy lyrical positive and negative shapes, full, emphatic and soft materiality, varied brushwork, vivid and pastel color, and sophisticated use of line presents a picture plane that melds flatness with painterly shifts and gossamer space.
Her work references Post-Impressionism, particularly that of the French group the Nabis, with its modes of using personal feelings and ideas through exploration of the landscape, nature, flowers and plant life. Nye also has a background in surface design and sources inspiration from textiles and fabrics, often thinking about the artist collective the Vienna Workshop, which was interested in exploring the intersection of painting and design.
Nye will present an artist talk at the Albuquerque Museum, Thursday, February 19, 5 pm, and host an open
studio on Thursday, April 2, 3-6 pm, at the UNM Annex Graduate Studios (#105 on the UNM Campus Map). Both events are free and open to the public.
Laurie Nye Artist Talk
Thursday, February 19, 5 pm
Albuquerque Museum
Laurie Nye Open Studio
Thursday, April 2, 3-6 pm
UNM Annex Graduate Studios
Established in 2017 in partnership with UNM’s Department of Art, the Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist Program honors Hammersley’s legacy and influence as a painter, printmaker, conceptual thinker and broadens awareness of his life and work. The program invites prominent contemporary painters from around the world to come live and work in Albuquerque. Funding for this program is provided by the Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist Program Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation. Through this program, visiting artists are provided with housing, a studio near the UNM Department of Art graduate students, conduct studio visits with the Fine Arts Graduate candidates, hold workshops, a public lecture, and an open studio event.
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