FACULTY
Jaime Knight - Chair, Department of Fine Arts
Jaime Knight is an artist, musician and educator whose practice investigates the radical intricacies of queer subjectivity. Born and raised in Albuquerque, he did his growing up in California. He received his BFA from the University of New Mexico, an MA in Arts Education from San Francisco State University and an MFA from the University of Iowa. His work utilizes drawn and printed material, sculptural objects and installation, and time-based media. Some of his recent projects explore the correlation between the AIDS crisis and nuclear threat of the Reagan era, ideas of queer utopianism and longing and representations of gays in history and contemporary media. His upcoming work is focused on the craft of hand papermaking. jaimecknight.com
Jaime teaches across the art curriculum in Photography, Sculpture, Art Practices, Graphic Design, Printmaking and Book Arts.
Email: jaimecknight@unm.edu
Megan Bartley-Matthews
Fine Arts Program
Megan Bartley-Matthews is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice begins and ends with clay. Rooted in an upbringing within a ceramic community outside Philadelphia, she grew up inside the methodologies, influences, and artistic traditions that continue to shape her work. Beginning in functional pottery, Megan now investigates how vessels and materials can hold more environmental and emotional functions, working across drawing, sculpture, language, photography, and time-based media.
She holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art, which included a year of concentrated art-historical study in Rome, and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. Megan has taught widely, including with The Clay Studio of Philadelphia’s Claymobile program, and has supported the fabrication and installation of large-scale artist projects in institutions and museums internationally. She brings clay’s responsive and relational qualities into her teaching, emphasizing process, intention, and dialogue.
Megan teaches Ceramics and Sculpture
Email: mbartleymatthews@unm.edu
Kimberly Thompson - Faculty
Fine Arts Program
Kimberly Thompson is a professional goldsmith, who specializes in producing wearable works inspired by cultural relics and sacred geometry. Over the past decade, she has studied numerous techniques from around the world in the classical tradition of metal arts and jewelry fabrication. Through her work as an instructor of small metals and metalsmithing, she passes her knowledge of the craft to the next generation of perspective artists. After receiving her MA in Art History from CSU Sacramento, in addition to her training as an art historian, Kimberly has committed herself to the continual education and promotion of craft-based arts. She has taught both Art History and Metalsmithing at multiple college campuses throughout California. https://dorisjeandesign.com
Kimberly teaches Jewelry and Small Metal Construction I and Jewelry and Small Metal Construction II as well as Topics courses in Metals and Art History.
Email: thompsonkj@unm.edu
Christopher Schuldt - Faculty
Fine Arts Program
Christopher Schuldt is a painter in the expanded field. His practice is invested in abstraction as a method of reaching toward latent meaning in forms drawn from his life experiences and the systems of knowledge that structure his understanding of the world. He teaches Painting and Art Practices at UNM Taos. Christopher earned a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, in Minneapolis MN, in 2019, and an MFA from University of New Mexico in 2024. He was part of the Site Scholar program and exhibited work with the 2023 Site Scholar cohort at SITE Santa Fe. He has also recently shown work at the University of New Mexico Art Museum, John Sommers Gallery, Sanitary Tortilla Factory, and Bingo.
Christopher teaches Drawing,I and II, Painting I and II and Art Practices I and II
Email: cschuldt9@unm.edu
Izumi Yokoyama - Faculty
Fine Arts Program
Izumi Yokoyama, a multi-media artist in Taos, New Mexico, is known for her diverse artistic mediums. Born in Niigata, Japan, Yokoyama obtained her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and moved to the high desert. Her creative expression ranges from ink pen drawings, installations, murals, calligraphy, interactive community projects, and dynamic performances. Yokoyama's work has been showcased locally, nationally, and internationally. The Harwood Museum of Art acquired one of her new drawings for their permanent collection, and she is slated to have a solo show at the Denver Botanic Gardens Museum in 2026.
Izumi teaches Drawing I and II and Sculpture
Email: iyokoyama@unm.edu
Gary Cook - Associate Professor
Fine Arts Program
Associate Professor Gary Cook has forty years of teaching experience. Over his career he has taught all levels of painting, drawing and printmaking as well as classes on consciousness, creativity, healing and personal awareness. He has developed programs with visual artists, writers, musicians, dream shamans, dancers and global educators. He teaches for both the art department and the Holistic Health and Healing Arts Program. Four museums, ten universities and fifteen galleries have exhibited his paintings and prints. He earned his MFA at Northern Illinois University and BFA at Michigan State University.
Gary teaches Drawing I, Drawing II, Painting , Painting II, Intro to Printmaking, and Monotype.
Email: gary@unm.edu
Katy Ballard - Faculty
Fine Arts Program
Katy Ballard is an artist, activist, feminist, historian, and educator. She earned her Ph.D. in Visual Studies and Artistic Practice from Texas Tech University, where her research focused on art curriculum, art history, visual studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Her doctoral work centered on queer performance art and artists, during which she collected oral histories of drag performers in Lubbock, TX. This work continues to inform both her teaching and activism. Ballard is currently developing her studio practice using a variety of techniques that blend her socially engaged art process, rooted in feminism, body politics, and domestic spaces. She grew up across the United States and, for the past 11 years, has made her home in Taos, New Mexico, where she has curated and led community activism efforts, including LGBTQIA+ Pride Month programming and events.
Katy teaches Art History
Email: ballardk@unm.edu
Adrian Pijoan - Faculty
Fine Arts & Film and Digital Media Arts Program
Adrian is a new media artist and filmmaker based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In his work Adrian explores the relationship between contemporary anxieties and stories of the paranormal. Sightings of Adrian have been reported at UFO festivals, Bigfoot research conferences, and in the dark recesses of the comments sections of low-view-count YouTube videos. Adrian received his MFA from the University of New Mexico in 2016. Adrian's work has been shown at Silicon Valet; De:Formal; The Sanitary Tortilla Factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Biquini Wax gallery in Mexico City; as part of the International Symposium of Electronic Arts in Vancouver, Canada; and other traditional and nontraditional spaces. https://adrianpijoan.net
Adrian teaches online Introduction to Photography, Art and Ecology, and Introduction to Photoshop
Paula King - Faculty
Fine Arts Program
Serving UNM-Taos since 2008, Paula shares her love for working with student learners, art-making, and the study of art appreciation and art history through online education. Paula's experience includes teaching studio art, digital photography, image editing, video production, and new media. She delivers art instruction to learners across the state of New Mexico and beyond. She continues to improve the experience of online instruction through research and training, designing UNM-Taos art courses to Quality Matters Standards. Degrees: Master of Fine Art Studio Art / Art History, Universidad de Guanajuato, Mx., Master of Science Studio Art / Art History, Texas A&M University, Bachelor of Fine Art, Studio Art / Art History, University of Texas, Austin.
Paula teaches online Introduction to Art
Email: pk1ng@unm.edu