Date: 9/28/26
Contact: Eva Gabriella Flynn,
Education and Outreach Coordinator, NMSU Art Museum, artmuseum@nmsu.edu, 575-646-2185


English | Espanol

Lean In

Opening Reception: October 16, 2026-March 6, 2027; 5:30-7:30 pm
Exhibition Dates: October 16, 2026 - March 6, 2027

Las Cruces, NM–The NMSU Art Museum (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. The artists featured in this exhibition explore diverse concepts related to mysticism, resilience, and color theory, but all three have benefited from exposure to Leis’ ongoing dedication to a successful studio practice. Lean In is on display in the museum’s Mullennix Bridge Gallery from October 16, 2026 through March 6, 2027. 

Lean In, featuring works by Dorielle Caimi, Veronica Primerano and Stefan Jennings Batista, 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. Across the distinct practices of these three artists, Marietta Patricia Leis’s influence can be understood not as a singular aesthetic language, but as a model for sustained and rigorous engagement with making. The exhibition also emphasizes that this exchange does not require artistic practices to look alike. Caimi’s psychologically charged figurative paintings, Batista’s investigations of photography, landscape, mysticism, and systems of knowledge, and Primerano’s exploration of grids, color, and structure each move in distinct conceptual and formal directions. What connects them is an understanding of artistic practice as something cultivated over time through attention, rigor, and community. In this sense, Lean In not only highlights the impressive work of these three artists, but it also honors Leis as a mentor whose most enduring contribution may be the knowledge she continues to place in the hands of others.

About the Artists:

Dorielle Caimi is a 15th-generation New Mexican who currently lives and works in Santa Fe, NM. She previously worked as Leis’ assistant from 2016-2017. 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. 

Stefan Jennings Batista, a current collaborator of Leis, 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. 

Veronica Primerano currently assists Leis on special projects, and lives and works in Santa Fe, NM. 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.

Programming:

Lean In is on view in the Mullennix Bridge Gallery at the University Art Museum from October 16, 2026 through March 6, 2027. The community is invited to join the museum at the public opening reception on October 16. The evening begins with a walkthrough of concurrent exhibition Marietta Patricia Leis: Breathing Lessons with the artist and curator at 5 pm, followed by a reception from 5:30-7:30 pm. For a detailed calendar of events, please visit uam.nmsu.edu. 

Concurrent with Lean In, the UAM is excited to present an accompanying exhibition in the Contemporary Gallery: Marietta Patricia Leis: Breathing Lessons. The UAM will also be opening Shirley Crow: On the Edge in the Bunny Conlon Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery the same evening. This solo exhibition traces the trajectory of artist Shirley Crow’s career and examines the visual language Crow has cultivated across pastel, ink, graphite, acrylic, and oil paint.

Museum Information:

The UAM is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm, at 1308 E. University Ave., Las Cruces, New Mexico, 88003. Admission to all programming is free and open to the public. For more information and a detailed calendar with associated programs and dates please visit uam.nmsu.edu.

Image Credits: 

Left to right: Dorielle Caimi, Unfruitful; Stefan Jennings Battista, detail of Succulent Lungs; Veronica Primerano, detail of The Vibes #3.

Links to high-resolution Images:

For more information on exhibitions, visit Upcoming Exhibitions