Marcus Xavier Chormicle’s work with New Mexico State University’s Museum of Art has spanned several roles over the last five years including interning, photographing exhibitions, documentation and years of digital marketing. Most recently, he led a series of OutsmART workshops and taught the participants about photographer Cindy Sherman. Inspired by her “Untitled Film Stills” on display in the UAM, he guided students as they used props to create and photograph a scene that expressed their vision of their own future.
As a Las Cruces lens-based artist, someone who creates art using a camera, employing photography, film or video as a primary medium, Chormicle expresses his own lived experiences and his family’s personal narratives.
The next step in his personal narrative is a giant one.
Chormicle recently received the Latinx Artist Fellowship that will support him and his art for the next five years. He is among 15 artists working in the U.S. who will receive $50,000 per year for an initial commitment of five years. Designed to address systemic and longstanding lack of support for Latinx artists, the Latinx Artist Fellowship is administered by the US Latinx Art Forum in collaboration with the New York Foundation for the Arts and supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
For Chormicle, a lineal descendant of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, winning this fellowship means validation, opportunity and the means to continue his practice.
“The style of photo I do would be best categorized as post-documentary photography,” Chormicle said. “I’ve also worked with other mediums, including video, printmaking, installation and sculpture. When I hit the limitations of what I feel my photo practice is able to express, I’ll bring these other elements into conversation with my photography.”
The fellowship will provide him with the funds and flexibility to continue his work as he takes the next step in his career – a master’s in fine arts. But it also will allow him to explore other opportunities.
“The fellowship really opens up the doors to the rest of the art world,” he said. “I’m able to speak directly to people who can benefit from the work.”
Chormicle plans to showcase his work in more exhibitions and events. For example, he’ll be showing at a gallery in Santa Fe the same weekend as the Santa Fe Indian Market in August, which hosts more than 1,000 artists across over 200 Tribal Nations.
“There are so many young native people and artists in town during that weekend,” Chormicle said. “To get to connect with other people who intrinsically understand that relationship to their own homelands is going to be something that’s really sweet. I’m really looking forward to that.”
Reflecting on his career so far, Chormicle credits NMSU and the UAM with many important firsts. “The people at the Art Museum, Marissa Sage, Jasmine Herrera, Courtney Uldrich, Eva Gabriela Flynn and Keslee Bennet have all been a huge part of my life and work and career over the last five years. That support was the beginning of my relationship with art institutions,” he said. “They’ve always come out to my exhibitions whenever they’re in the area. It’s been enormous in my life and career.”
Chormicle was surprised to be selected, since he wasn’t aware he’d been nominated for the Latinx Artists Fellowship. The recognition cements the values he shares for his art, his hometown and for the programs and outreach at the UAM.
“The thing that's been special about working in Las Cruces and El Paso and being an artist here is that there's such a great enthusiasm and hunger for artwork here,” Chormicle said. “I really appreciated how much the people in my hometown have come out and supported me, my family, friends and other community members.
“I'm really grateful for this opportunity because I think it's going to help me double down on what I've done and be able to continue to make work that is really about a deeper understanding of our shared experiences here in in our region.”
Chormicle has two exhibitions coming up in El Paso and Santa Fe. His show “BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO" opens from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, July 25 at El Paso Frame Co. at 3800 N Mesa St A-1. The exhibition will be on view through September. Next up, his show “Say Uncle” is opening from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, August 15 at Smoke the Moon in Santa Fe. It will be on view through September 15.
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CUTLINE: Prayer For My Triste Install: Las Cruces, New Mexico, 2024. Courtesy of Marcus Chormicle.
CUTLINE: Say Uncle Install: Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, 2025. Courtesy of Marcus Chormicle.
CUTLINE: Marcus Xavier Chormicle, one of the fifteen 2025 Latinx Artists Fellowship awardees. (Photo by Santana Ochoa)
CUTLINE: Still Playing With Fire Install: Las Cruces, New Mexico, 2022. Courtesy of Marcus Chormicle.
CUTLINE: Still Playing With Fire Excerpt: Las Cruces, New Mexico, 2020. Courtesy of Marcus Chormicle.
