Billie Grace Lynn’s Mad Cow Motorcycle is made of cow bones, bicycle frame, and a motor.

Billie Grace Lynn, associate professor of sculpture and head of 3D art in the Department of Art and Art History at UM, is the prestigious West Collection 2011 Grand Prize Winner, receiving $25,000 to traverse the country on the skeleton of a cow—her electric/hybrid Mad Cow Motorcycle.

An eight-foot by three-foot sculpture of cow bones, bicycle frame, and motor, and outfitted with a Florida M A D C O W license plate, cowbell, and cupholder, the Mad Cow Motorcycle has already been spotted around Miami. Lynn dons her black leather jacket, cowhide chaps, and udder-shaped helmet and rides the bovine bones around Miami Beach, inviting stares, questions, and conversations. “It’s a Mad Cow!” she calls out along the boardwalk. “Save as many as possible! Go vegetarian! Save the Earth! Eat less meat!”

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The Lowe Art Museum, in partnership with the Department of Art and Art History in the College of Arts and Sciences, presents “Women, Windows and the Word: Diverging Perspectives on Islamic Art,” the third exhibition in the ArtLab @ The Lowe series, on view in the Richard and Shelley Bermont Focus Gallery through April 22, 2012.

Thirty-one works of art on display, all selected from the Lowe’s permanent collection, provide student curators and museum visitors the opportunity to explore the complex theme of Islamic art through three distinct but intertwining themes: the role of Muslim women as creators and subjects of art, Western views of the Islamic world, and the importance of decoration and the written word. The exhibit was curated by Karen R. Mathews, lecturer in the Department of Art and Art History, and her museum studies students.

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The works of graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) students will be on display at the University of Miami’s CAS Gallery from May 4-13. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Thursday, May 12 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the gallery, 1210 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables campus.

The BFA is a four-year program with 72 credits completed in the Department of Art and Art History, with the balance of the 120 credits being in general education courses, giving students an in-depth education in the arts combined with a liberal arts education. Graduates often go directly into careers in graphics, photography, museum, or gallery work, while some go on to graduate school or start careers in the fine arts.

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