Author: Michael Chesnick

Alejandro Macias felt a mix of nerves and pride as he introduced his work to actor and Chicano art collector Cheech Marin at a recent exhibition opening. Then Marin smiled and told him something unexpected: He’d dreamed about one of Macias’ paintings the night before.

“I’ll go ahead and take that as a good sign that I’m doing something correctly,” the University of Arizona associate professor said with a laugh.

Macias has been honored for doing a lot of things correctly since joining the School of Art faculty in 2019 as a painting and drawing teacher — including an Arizona Higher Education Award and multiple residencies, fellowships, grants and other awards. The New York Times even used his “American Mexican” painting as a supporting image to Pulitzer-winning opinion writer Carlos Lozada’s Oct. 20 essay, “You Caught Me. I’m Speaking Spanish.”

So far this year, Macias has presented work in six group exhibitions, including “Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art” at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside, California. It features nearly 40 Chicano and Latinx artists from across Texas and the borderlands like Macias, who was raised near the Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas.

Macias is exhibiting three self-portrait paintings in the show, including the one Marin dreamed about, “Turning Point” — featuring a video loop of Macias’ own navigation across the desert terrain in Mesa, Arizona — along with “Man on Fire (III)” and “Ascension III.”

“I described my work to Cheech as an exploration of identity, assimilation and place,” Macias said, “particularly how the U.S.–Mexico border continues to shape the lives, bodies and narratives of those connected to it.”

Marin rose to fame in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s as part of the comedy duo Cheech & Chong, the television series “Nash Bridges” and the movie “Tin Cup,” filmed in Tubac and Tucson. He established “The Cheech” in 2022 with the Riverside Art Museum as the first North American facility dedicated exclusively to Mexican American and Chicano art — donating his collection of over 700 pieces.

“Meeting Cheech Marin was definitely surreal because I had an opportunity to speak about my work on such a personal level to a cultural icon,” Macias said. “Because he’s such a passionate art collector, he was deeply invested in what the artists had to say.”

Marin did a walk-through with 25 artists in early October, spending several minutes with each.

“Meeting (Macias and) so many talented artists in ‘Soy de Tejas’ was inspiring,” Marin said. “Each one offered a unique perspective on what it means to be connected to Texas and to identity. I was especially struck by the emotional honesty that runs through all of the works.”

That honesty is what sets Macias’ work apart, according to one of his former students, Vanessa Saavedra, a 2025 MFA graduate and now a School of Art adjunct instructor who took over Macias’ painting and drawing classes this semester while he’s on sabbatical.

“His work is visually pleasing, but the content can be challenging or uncomfortable for the viewer,” Saavedra said. “Alex isn’t afraid of criticism or rejection, and that fearlessness is incredibly inspiring. It’s powerful to see someone so grounded in their beliefs and so committed to expressing them for the greater good.”

Macias draws from his personal and regional histories in the borderlands to explore themes of assimilation and migration. His practice integrates traditional rendering, abstraction and multimedia approaches, using the human figure — often himself — as a central point of his works.

“These remain challenging times, but I do still believe that art has the power to foster dialogue, empathy, and understanding, even if the progress seems to be incremental,” Macias said. “My hope is that the work continues to offer a more nuanced, humanized view of the border experience, countering the harmful rhetoric and narratives that often dominate the mainstream. Having hope is the first step and I have plenty of it.” 

Local exhibition has university ties

He and Saavedra are part of a group exhibition at the Tucson Desert Art Museum, “Cruzando La Línea: Contemporary Art in the Borderlands,” through June 27, 2026, alongside School of Art Professor David Taylor and Professor Emeritus Alfred Quiroz.

“We all have a connection to the University of Arizona as either educators or former students, and it feels special to be part of such an esteemed group that has contributed to important local and national conversations about the tensions and complexity of border life,” Macias said. His work in the show stems from his 2024 solo exhibition, “Land of Wolves,” at New York City’s LatchKey Gallery, where he held “a mirror to Border Patrol agents of Mexican descent who have surveilled the borderlands” he said.

Taylor, who is also associate dean of Faculty Affairs for the College of Fine Arts and a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow in photography, has seen Macias’ influence in and out of the classroom.

“Since joining the School of Art, Alex has been an outstanding colleague and teacher,” Taylor said. “His studio practice, which is deeply reflective of both his first-person expertise and research program, complicates and expands upon Latinx representation. Working across painting, drawing and multimedia, his output is innovative while also acknowledging a legible set of influences.”

Saavedra, who grew up in Nogales, Sonora, also received her BFA from the School of Art. She was one of Macias’ first students when he started teaching at Arizona. He also mentored her in Saavedra’s MFA thesis year and hooded her at graduation in May, which Macias called “one of the most significant and important professional moments of my life.”

“Now that both Alex and the university have trusted me to cover his classes during his sabbatical, I can see things from the other side — perhaps how he once saw me — and that makes me even more appreciative of his patience with my process and trajectory,” she said.

Saavedra’s work in the Tucson Desert Art Museum exhibition highlights the complexities of migration and cultural intersection. With her paintings and drawings, she also gives voice to the silenced lives of women across Latin America.

“It’s incredibly fulfilling to see Vanessa contribute to our art community through her own practice,” Macias said. “Her work is meticulous, profound, and is already making an impact in such a short amount of time. … To see her grow in the span of six years makes you realize how important higher education can be.”

Teaching honor ‘means a lot’

Not only did Macias participate in the University of Arizona’s 2024-25 Research Leadership Institute cohort, but he also was honored in late September for his commitment to teaching and mentorship in receiving the Alberto “Tito” Rios Outstanding Literary/Arts Award at the Arizona Higher Education Awards in Tempe.

“Being recognized by peers and institutions that understand the intersection of art, education and community engagement means a lot to me,” Macias said. “I found the whole (Tempe) ceremony to be incredibly overwhelming and emotional because I shared space with educators who dedicated their lives to sharing knowledge with others.”

Through Nov. 29, he’s sharing another space at Tucson’s Etherton Gallery with School of Art Professor Lawrence Gipe and MFA alum Jim Waid. Macias’ solo show, “In the Cases,” includes a variety of drawings and mixed media works from 2017-2025, mostly figurative and on paper, that explore his ongoing interest on the border as “a physical and psychological construct,” Macias said. He added that presenting with Gipe and Waid “has been inspiring, and both artists bring decades of experience and visual language that have contributed to the Tucson community” and elsewhere.

During his sabbatical, Macias is focused on developing new work for more exhibitions, including projects that further integrate painting with video documentation and installation. He’s part of a group exhibition, “The Armor We Wear,” at 516 Arts in Albuquerque, New Mexico, curated by Olivia Amaya Ortiz, a 2018 School of Art BFA graduate. The show, which also includes 2018 BFA alumna Elizabeth Denneau, runs from Nov. 8 to Jan 31.

“My work will continue to explore themes of culture, migration and belonging,” Macias said, “but in a more intimate approach that respectfully documents the lives of people who contribute to their border communities.”

Meanwhile, his paintings will stay on display at the Cheech Center through Jan. 11. Macias’ work also was included in the first two iterations of “Soy de Tejas” in San Antonio and Fort Worth, Texas. He has high praise for the exhibition’s curator, Rigoberto Luna, whose exhibition explores migration, indigeneity, race, gender and mythmaking, while also celebrating the joy, resilience and traditions that define Latinx communities.

“Rigoberto has been building bridges across the coasts of the United States to recognize and uplift artists on a national level,” Macias said. “It’s honestly history in the making.”

Since 2019, Macias has presented his work in at least 65 selected exhibitions across the nation, including six with Luna as a curator. Macias participated in the 2024 Texas Biennial at Sawyer Yards in Houston, the 2024 Border Biennial at the El Paso Museum of Art and the 2023 Arizona Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art. In 2023, he was the recipient of the Lehmann Emerging Artist award, which included a two-person exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum. He’s held solo shows at Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in Lubbock, Texas; Presa House Gallery in San Antonio; Tucson Museum of Art; and LatchKey in New York.

Macias’ work is included in the permanent collections of the Newark Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, El Paso Museum of Art, University of Arizona Museum of Art (which acquired his first “Man on Fire” painting), Tucson Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum and the Brownsville (Texas) Museum of Art. He participated in notable residencies at Elizabeth Murray in Troy, New York; Vermont Studio Center; Chateau d’Orquevaux in France, Studios at MASS MoCA, Wassaic (N.Y.) Project, CALA Alliance in Phoenix and Uncool Artist in Brooklyn, New York.

“The accolades Alex’s work has received are a clear indication of its significance,” Taylor said. “It’s been a pleasure to see his art career flourish, and we are enormously fortunate to have his influence and mentorship in our program.” 

When Macias returns to the Arizona campus in spring 2026, he can’t wait “to bring these new experiences and perspectives back to the classroom … and to continue guiding students as they find their own voices and purpose as artists,” he said. And in the summer, he will be a workshop instructor in mixed media portraits at North Carolina’s prestigious Penland School of Craft.

“Teaching remains one of the most rewarding parts of my career,” Macias said. “My students’ energy and curiosity constantly reinvigorate my practice and desire to share everything I can.”

• Artist website: alexmaciasart.com
• Instagram account: @alex.macias.art

University of Arizona School of Art faculty members Lawrence Gipe and Alejandro Macias and MFA alum Jim Waid are presenting their artwork at Tucson’s Etherton Gallery from Sept. 23 to Nov. 29.

The opening reception is scheduled Saturday, Sept. 27, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the gallery, 340 S. Convent Ave. A look at the group exhibition:

Lawrence Gipe

Professor, Painting & Drawing
Exhibition title: “Casbah Noir”

In his words: “My latest suite of paintings are derived from screenshots I take from my computer while researching films. Just after World War II, for about 10 years until 1955, Hollywood became enthralled with setting their movies in exotic French colonial contexts, especially North Africa. Starting around 1946, they began to replay the formula of Casablanca over and over in a sub-genre that I call Casbah Noir. My intention with this series is to investigate Hollywood’s role in creating stereotypes that persist in our country’s current perception of that region.

Etherton says: “Lawrence has created a powerful series of paintings that slow the cinematic tempo to reveal the ideological foundations of colonialism embedded in the seductive language of film noir. In these films the Casbah becomes a metaphor for otherness, unknowability, and eroticized danger. Casbah Noir asks how Hollywood’s cinematic myths continue to shape cultural memory and political ideology today.”

Alejandro Macias

Associate Professor, Painting & Drawing
Exhibition title: “In the Cases”

In his words: “My work is mostly figure-based, and I use the figure as a way to respond to my own identity, but also social-political concerns related to the borderlands. In the show, you’ll see a variety of works spanning from like 2018 until 2025. Most of the work will be on paper. I’m interested in paper because of its durability and versatility. I’m interested in like graphite drawing because of its formal qualities, its immediacy, the fact that I can think about like technical aspects of the drawing but also abstract it. … I wanted to point out some of the work because of its color. I’m interested in the serape for its connection to my own Mexican American identity and the way I can also abstract color. And I’m also like interested in paper and in the fact that I can like mount it on panel and I can include a variety of media like found objects and like wood and collage as a way to further abstract the figure, and that it acts as a metaphor as well for my own identity.”

Etherton says: “We’re over the moon to be exhibiting “In the Cases.” … Raised along the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, Macias draws from personal and regional histories to explore themes of assimilation, migration and cultural hybridity. His practice integrates traditional rendering, abstraction, and multimedia approaches, often using the human figure as a central point of his practice.”

Jim Waid

MFA ’71, Painting & Art History, University of Arizona
Exhibition title: “In stars”

In his words: “I chose my title because the In starts are like the intermediate stages of the insect as they’re growing, and each one metamorphoses into a different form. And then finally the caterpillar or the butterfly arrives. And I think of that as having a resonance with the way I paint, because things are always transforming and moving into something else, evolving into something else. And until it reaches that final state, we don’t know what it’s going to look like.”

Etherton says: “Jim is widely regarded as one of Arizona’s most significant painters. For over five decades, he has created stunning, abstract landscapes that translate the desert into densely layered, color-saturated compositions.”

Artist’s websites

• Lawrence Gipe: lawrencegipe.com
• Alejandro Macias: alexmaciasart.com
• Jim Waid: jimwaidartist.com

As the 2025-26 school year begins, the School of Art is welcoming five faculty and staff members to new positions.

Dr. Mont Allen

Position: Assistant Professor of Practice, Art History

Bio: Allen came to the School of Art a year ago as a principal lecturer in Art History before being promoted to a full-time faculty member in July. He teaches courses ranging from ancient Greek and Roman to Renaissance and Baroque art. He is the winner of five teaching awards, including both the Liberal Arts Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award and the Faculty Mentor of the Year Award from Southern Illinois University and the ‘Everyday Hero’ Award from UC Berkeley. With a doctorate in Ancient Art History (UC Berkeley), master’s degrees in the History of Religion (Syracuse University) and Modern European History (UC Berkeley), and a bachelor’s degree in Geography, his interests range widely, from Greco-Roman sculpture and painting, ancient sculptural tools and techniques, and the archaeology of the classical world, to Greek mythology and its visual depictions, early Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist art, and the long history of western art, as well as intellectual history and urban geography.

Quote: “Nothing brings me greater joy than discussing art and sharing ideas with other minds afire in the university classroom.” — Dr. Mont Allen

Okyoung Noh

Position: Assistant Professor of Practice, First Year Experience

Bio: Noh completed her MFA at the University of Michigan, where she served two years as Graduate Student Instructor for the year-long Integrative Project capstone course and was recognized as an Elilse Choy Lee scholar. Noh’s work spans community engagement, performance, video and installation in exploring issues of identity and mis/dislocation related to the experience of Asian women. Her work has been exhibited and/or performed in the U.S. and internationally. She will also be an artist in residence at MASS MoCA.

Quote: ”Informed by her experience in art education, Okyoung invites audiences to participate in and interact with her installations, performances, and discussion-based workshops in order to reflect on questions of immigration, identity, language and value creation.” — Laura Braverman, former Curatorial Assistant of the Museum of Modern Art

Website: oknoh.com

Kaitlyn Jo Smith

Position: Career-track lecturer in Photography, Video and Imaging (PVI)

Bio: The interdisciplinary artist received her MFA in Photography, Video and Imaging from the U of A School of Art and taught courses as an adjunct instructor the last few years. Inspired by a rural upbringing, Smith’s practice explores the intersections between work and worship by considering the implications of automation on labor and religion in relation to America’s working class. Through both traditional photographic means and the implementation of automated technologies and machine learning, her work challenges the authority of algorithms while fostering a dialogue around future applications of artificial intelligence. Smith’s work has been shown nationally and internationally. She is the 2023 recipient of the Alice C. Cole ’42 Fellowship in Studio Art, was longlisted for the 2021 Lumen Prize in Art and Technology (London) and received the College Art Association’s Services to Artists Committee Award for her video Lights Out.

Quote: “Kaitlyn has been a great asset to our extensive image/photography program. She has the ability to uniquely link established artistic techniques with cutting-edge technologies for relevant purposes.” — Sama Alshaibi, Regents Professor

Website: kaitlynjosmith.com

Megan McNulty

Position: Undergraduate Academic Advisor

Bio: McNulty advises majors and minors and prospective students in Studio Art, Art History and Art & Visual Culture Education. From 2022-24, she was a full-time Degree Auditor for various graduate programs (including the School of Art) across the University of Arizona. Originally from Mesa, Arizona, she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science in May 2022 from the U of A, with a concentration in Law and Public Policy and a minor in Criminology. She received a certificate in Risk Management and Insurance from Rio Salado College in April 2025.

Quote: “I find advising especially rewarding because it allows me to build meaningful relationships with students, meet them where they are, and help them navigate their path towards achieving personal and academic goals.” — Megan McNulty

Ginette Gonzalez

Position: Program Coordinator, Student Services

Bio: Gonzalez supports the school’s advising office, including helping students with internships and independent study. A native Tucsonan, she was the School of Art’s Administrative Associate from 2016 to 2022. She is a first-generation college graduate and earned a BA in Classics in 2012 and an MBA in 2020 from the University of Arizona. She also earned an MA in Classics from Villanova University in 2014.

Quote: “I’m excited to streamline processes in advising to and support the advising office, students and faculty.” — Ginette Gonzalez

• Full School of Art Directory

Editor’s note: As the University of Arizona School of Art moves closer to its 100th anniversary in 2027, we’re profiling former faculty and students.

Judith Greene Golden, a powerful voice in contemporary photography who taught at the School of Art in the 1980s and ’90s, engaged with themes of gender, identity, popular culture and the influence of the media.

Golden, who died on Jan. 27, 2023, at age 88, described herself as an “alchemist.”

“With the magic of photography, I transform reality into the mystical realm of myth, dreams and spirit,” said Golden, one of the early feminists working in self-portraiture, role-playing and media critiques.

When she retired from teaching in 1996, the university’s Center for Creative Photography honored her legacy by establishing the Judith Golden Archive, which houses a comprehensive collection of her photographic prints and archival materials and an online gallery of her work.

Jacinda Russell, a 1999 MFA School of Art graduate in photography, learned about bookmaking from Golden and helped transfer the photographer’s slides to the CCP archive from 1997 to 1999.

“Judith’s method of artmaking was hands-on — a mixed media approach — something that is viable and sought-after today when people want to create outside the digital space,” Russell said. “She collaged, hand-painted, assembled and reinvented portraiture.”

Born on November 29, 1934, in Chicago, Golden was raised on the city’s multicultural South Side, an experience that sparked her lifelong interest in global cultures and human complexity. As a child, she took art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she later earned her BFA in 1973 from the School of the Art Institute. In 1975, she completed her MFA at the University of California, Davis, studying under notable artists William Wiley, Manuel Neri, Roy DeForest, Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson — central artists in the California Funk movement who instilled in Golden a sense of play and a need to mix mediums. 

Golden taught at UCLA, where she worked closely with acclaimed artist Robert Heinecken from 1975 to 1979. The Hollywood influence of that time subtly shaped her visual style, blending traditional photographic technique with multimedia elements to offer a satirical commentary on celebrity culture and the constructed nature of identity.

Her “Chameleon Series” included 50 three-dimensional, hand-colored self-portraits, which transformed her from a delicate woman into “tough street guy,” said Arthur Ollman, who organized Golden’s solo retrospective “Myths and Masquerades” at San Diego’s Museum of Photographic Arts in 1986. She did a series of movie posters, where she rephotographed posters from “B” films and replaced the heroine’s heads with her own. Golden also made some artist books, one of which copied pages from an illustrated Kama Sutra and the Hindu book on erotic love by Vatsyayana — incorporating her face in the place of some females.

In 1981, Golden moved to Tucson to join the School of Art faculty. Immersed in the area’s rich Native American cultures, she began to explore spiritual and mythical themes, particularly the use of masks in ceremonial rituals — a motif that would become central in her later work.

“Her photographs during this period reflected a deeper, more symbolic approach, combining personal introspection with her unique take on cultural storytelling,” said Fern Martin, a Los Angeles producer and author who was Golden’s daughter-in-law.

In 1990, Golden was awarded an Honorary PhD from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, recognizing her contributions to both photography and arts education.

Golden’s photographs have been exhibited internationally and are part of prestigious museum collections, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Her work is featured in seminal texts such as “The History of Women Photographers” by “The History of Women Photographers” by Naomi Rosenblum and “Seizing the Light: A History of Photography” by Robert Hirsch.

“I was never one of her students, but Judith taught me a subject close to her heart … bookmaking,” said Russell, a retired associate professor of art who taught at Ball State University. “I learned many methods of binding, something I would take with me in both my MFA thesis exhibition and eventually the classroom in the years that followed. I would grow to love this medium and consider it is an essential part of my art practice.”

One of Russell’s jobs at the CCP involved scanning Golden’s slide collection — including the photographer’s “Ode to Hollywood,” “People Magazine,” “Julia’s Braid” and “Chameleon” series — and the task helped make Golden’s work memorable for years afterward.

“It was the ‘Portraits of Women’ series that struck me though,” Russell said. “Judith photographed women in photography who were known at the time but would make an indelible mark in the future, including Barbara Kasten, Judy Dater and Susan Rankaitis.”

Throughout her life, Golden received numerous grants and honors, including support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Polaroid Corp.

As an educator, Golden was “fiercely committed” to mentoring young artists, Martin said.

“Her decades of teaching at UCLA and the U of A left an indelible mark on generations of students, many of whom cite her as a foundational influence in their creative lives,” Martin said. “Her teaching combined technical excellence with a deep philosophical engagement with art as a form of social and personal inquiry. She insisted on a rich blend of technical expression and meaning in all finished pieces, no matter beginner or grad student.”

Martin said Golden was a “deeply loving and caring mother” who struggled as a single parent to balance her artistic and academic pursuits while trying to be a grounding presence to her family.

Golden is survived by her son, David, and daughter, Lucy, and grandchildren Julia, Joseph, Jonathan Joshua and Camille, and a wide community of friends, colleagues and former students.

“Judith leaves behind a body of work that speaks with clarity, courage and compassion — a legacy that will continue to inspire and challenge the way we see the world,” Martin said. “She was a fearless advocate for the truth and power of art and or constant reinvention of her art and herself.”

Fern Martin, Colleen Mullins, Arthur Ollman and the Center for Creative Photography contributed to this story.