DALLAS — Jan. 18, 2026 — Mundus Artium Press announced today that artist, educator, and curator Marilyn Waligore has been named the recipient of the 2025 Orpheus Texts Visual Artist of the Year Award, honoring a career that bridges visual innovation, environmental urgency, and sustained cultural leadership.
Waligore’s work confronts one of the defining crises of the contemporary world: ecological collapse driven by overconsumption and industrial excess. Through sculpture, photography, and video, she transforms the discarded byproducts of consumer culture — aluminum beverage cans, plastic bottles, and industrial detritus — into meticulously crafted works that are at once seductive and unsettling.
Drawing on the historical language of still life painting, Waligore reimagines a genre long associated with abundance and mortality. Where 17th-century Dutch painters arranged flowers, fruit, and skulls, Waligore substitutes crushed aluminum cans and plastic waste — materials engineered for convenience and disposability, yet nearly indestructible in the natural world. Her practice reframes these objects as both literal evidence and symbolic emblems of environmental degradation.
Her recent series, “Sea Creatures,” exemplifies this approach. Discarded cans are reassembled into faceted, jewel-like fish that appear to float alone or advance in ominous formations. Set against luminous fields of reflective plastic and metallic surfaces, the works evoke the beauty of an aquatic ecosystem while simultaneously underscoring its contamination. The result is a visual tension between allure and alarm, prompting viewers to reckon with the long-term consequences of a throwaway culture.
In addition to her artistic practice, Waligore has built a distinguished record as a curator and cultural organizer. Her curriculum vitae lists 27 curatorial projects, each representing years of research, collaboration, and production. Jurors for the Orpheus Texts award noted the depth of labor behind these efforts, which have included conceptual development, scholarly research, artist selection, exhibition design, publication oversight, and public programming.
Among her most recent projects are “Book Arts” and “The Light in Between: Photographs of Alan Govenar,” both presented in 2025 at the University of Texas at Dallas. “Book Arts” brought together 15 artists and writers working at the intersection of text and image, offering rare public access to artists’ books through an ambitious installation. “The Light in Between” honored UTD alumnus Alan Govenar, situating his photography within his broader work in film, writing, and theater. Both exhibitions were accompanied by symposia, published reviews, and illustrated catalogs, reflecting Waligore’s commitment to interdisciplinary exchange.
Brief lines on a résumé, the award jurors noted, cannot fully capture the scope of Waligore’s contributions. Through her creative work, teaching, and curatorial leadership, she has advanced a vision of art as a public service — one that engages ethical responsibility alongside aesthetic rigor.
Spring 2026 will mark Waligore’s final semester teaching at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she has directed the photography program. The Orpheus Texts Visual Artist of the Year Award recognizes not only her recent achievements but a lifetime of work dedicated to cultural enrichment and environmental awareness.
About Marilyn Waligore
Marilyn Waligore is Professor of Visual and Performing Arts / Photography at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she directs the photography program. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and undergraduate degrees in art and English from the University of California, Berkeley.
Waligore has exhibited internationally in Hong Kong, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Thailand, and nationally at venues including SIGGRAPH (Los Angeles), the New York Digital Salon, the School of Visual Arts (New York), the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Silver Eye Center for Photography (Pittsburgh), the Houston Center for Photography, the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, the Dayton Art Institute, Laguna Gloria Art Museum (Austin), and the Texas Biennial.
Her honors include fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and Arts Midwest/National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Moss/Chumley North Texas Artist Award. Her work is held in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her writing has appeared in Leonardo and Photography Quarterly. She is represented by RO2 Gallery in Dallas.
Mundus Artium Press
Email: news@mundusartiumpress.org
Web: www.mundusartiumpress.us
+1 972-886-5050