March 29 - June 16, 2025 

Extant Erosions blends science and art through a series of works created by Albuquerque-based artist Emma Ressel. 

In Extant Erosions, Ressel examines natural history museums as a prism through which we refract our human understandings of nature, land, and time. As we hurtle toward what some scientists believe to be our planet’s sixth mass extinction, Ressel sees the natural history museum as an important space for the public to encounter present and past life, but also as an insufficient and even perverse gesture to “save” what has been lost.  

The show is comprised of still life photographs of specimens in museum collections and a reworked collection of 100-year-old glass lantern slides housed in the geology department at UNM. Together, the photographs and backlit slides meander through time, asking us to consider how animal preservation, dioramas, and photo documentation shape our perception of the natural world. 

This exhibition is on view on the Museum's 2nd floor through Monday, June 16. It is included with museum admission. 

About the artist: Emma Ressel received her BA in Photography from Bard College and is currently an Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of New Mexico, where she holds a fellowship with the Center for Regional Studies. Ressel was a 2023-2024 Emerging Artist Member at Strata Gallery in Santa Fe and the 2022 recipient of the Film Photo Student Project Award. Her work is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Jurassic Technology. In addition to working toward her MFA, Ressel teaches photography at UNM. Next year she will complete a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Center for Regional Studies at UNM. This exhibition is Ressel’s MFA thesis exhibition submitted to the Department of Art at the University of New Mexico.