New Mexico State University's Visiting Artist and Scholars lecture series will host Jessica Jackson Hutchins, an artist who uses found items to create sculptural installations, large scale ceramics, collages and paintings. She will give a presentation at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Health and Social Services Annex, Room 101A. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery)

This piece by artist Jessica Jackson Hutchins titled "Lascaux" shows a re-morphed old armchair slumping forward into the floor. Hutchins will give a presentation at NMSU on Nov. 7 as part of the Department of Art's Visiting Artist and Scholar lecture series. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery)

From couches to bottle caps, Jessica Jackson Hutchins uses many types of commonly found items to construct sculptural installations, large-scale ceramics, collages and paintings. Hutchins will give a presentation at New Mexico State University as part of the Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, in the Health and Social Services Auditorium, Room 101A.

The Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series is sponsored by the NMSU Department of Art in the College of Arts and Sciences and paid for by the Lilian Steinman Visiting Artist Fund.

“Jessica’s works are a way for her to explore the intimacy of the mutual existence between art and life,” said Marisa Sage, director of the NMSU Museum of Art. “Her transformations of everyday household objects, from furniture to clothing, are infused with human emotion and rawness, and also show a playfulness of material and language that is both subtle and ambitious.

“We are fortunate to have an artist of her caliber come to NMSU. In addition, Jessica will be featured in our inaugural exhibition at the NMSU Museum of Art titled ‘Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020’ as part of grand opening celebration of Devasthali Hall next February.”

Hutchins, who lives and works in Portland, Ore., recently had solo exhibitions at the Columbus College of Art and Design, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Hepworth Wakefield Museum, The Broad Art Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Her work has been incorporated into public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Margulies Collection, Miami; and the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Ore.

The lecture series is free and open to the public.