Art student's work chosen for NYC billboard
December 18, 2024
Melissa Lind, current UNM-Taos art student and emerging New Mexico photographer, was chosen by Paige Beeber, NYC curator, to feature her photograph on a billboard in New York City.
Opening January 10, 2025, SaveArtSpace, in collaboration with the UNM-Taos Art Department and See You Next Thursday (SYNT), will launch two public art installations on billboard ad spaces in New Mexico and New York City. The New York artist featured in New Mexico is Cristina Vergano, curated by Sarah Stolar.
The New/New initiative aims to create a dialogue between the bustling streets of New York and the serene landscapes of New Mexico, recognizing that both are sites of powerful, transient connections. Whether through the physical spaces that shape our lives or the metaphysical journeys that shape our souls, these places, with known vortexes, are a testament to the shared human experience that connects us across time and place. Artists were invited to interpret the "Transcendental Landscapes" theme as expansively as possible.
The metaphysical aspect may involve explorations of identity, memory, spirituality, or the subconscious, while the physical aspect might include depictions of natural environments, urban spaces, or entirely imagined worlds. This theme was open to any creative expression that engages with the idea of "landscape" or “place” in its broadest sense, encouraging submissions from all mediums and disciplines.
Melissa Lind
This exhibition is to uncover the diverse ways in which landscape and place—real or imagined, external, or internal—serve as powerful vessels for transcendence and discovery. This initiative will bridge the connections between the metropolitan energy of New York and the magical allure of New Mexico, celebrating the profound links that bind two vastly different places rooted in rich artistic legacies.
Melissa was raised and educated in the American Southwest in a lower-middle-class family. She has always seen nature as her church, which informs her approach to art and the materials she uses: photography, glass, metal, wood, sand, rock, and vibrant color. Melissa practiced as a licensed landscape architect for a decade before founding and becoming the creative director of Dwelling Creative, a creative agency for architects and builders in 2010. She is currently taking Sculpture and Portfolio Development at UNM-Taos.
For more information, visit https://www.saveartspace.org/new-new and https://melissalind.com/
