Boston University School of Visual Arts Hosts the 2023 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Thesis Exhibitions
Boston University School of Visual Arts Hosts the 2023 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Thesis Exhibitions
Featuring 42 graduating students from BU’s MFA Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Design programs, the exhibitions are on view April 6-22 at Boston University’s Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery and 808 Gallery
Boston University School of Visual Arts is proud to celebrate their 2023 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduates with the opening of the 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibitions, on view from April 6 through April 22, with a reception open to the Boston community on April 14 from 5-7pm. The exhibitions feature 42 graduating students from BU’s MFA Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Design programs and span two buildings.
Boston University Art Galleries’ 808 Gallery hosts the MFA Graphic Design exhibition “Hide Self View.” The MFA Painting and Sculpture theses are displayed in both the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery and Commonwealth Gallery at the BU College of Fine Arts building.
“Together we sincerely congratulate the MFA Class of 2023 for their extraordinary work. Questions of individual agency and collective impact are brought to the foreground by Hide Self View, an exhibition responsive to the experience of shared screen-space and personal vulnerability. The MFA Painting and Sculpture exhibitions also mine the gap between internal experience and externalized material expression, making invisible feelings and forces physical in a myriad of ways.”
Taking its name from the Hide Self View feature in popular video conferencing software like Zoom, which allows users to hide themselves from view during online meetings, the title of the 2023 MFA Graphic Design Exhibition serves as a framing metaphor, gesturing to the role of graphic designers in most visual communication: working behind the scenes to craft the graphic textures that shape collective and individual experiences.
2023 MFA Graphic Design Thesis Exhibition, “Hide Self View”
2023 MFA Graphic Design Thesis Exhibition, “Hide Self View”
“The 26 Graphic Design MFA candidates featured in this exhibition come from across the United States and China, as well as from Peru, India, and Taiwan,” says Christopher Sleboda, Associate Professor of Art, Graphic Design. “Each designer brings unique perspectives and experiences to this collective presentation of their thesis work, an event that serves as one of the culminating milestones of their studies at Boston University.” A team of MFA Graphic Design students designed all exhibition graphics, the catalog, and associated materials. Graduating students in the MFA Thesis course taught by Professor Sleboda also designed, built, and installed their group exhibition, creating an exhibition that is cohesive and collaborative while showcasing each student’s work.
In Stone and Commonwealth Galleries, the works by graduating MFA Sculpture students demonstrate their interest in experimentation with a broad range of unconventional materials. “A tally of these materials would overwhelm: everything from ceramic and plexiglass, latex and lumber, paper and steel (sometimes corroded by vinegar), to chicken bones, SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast, also known as kombucha leather), actively composting bloodworms, fungus, and other less-than-palatable substrates,” says David Snyder, Assistant Professor of Art, Chair of Graduate Studies, Sculpture. “The results of the experiments—though wildly different—share an attentive appreciation for rich surface detail, as well as an uncompromising, specific approach to the use of physical space as a primary component of the work itself.”
Josephine Halvorson, Professor of Art and Chair of Graduate Studies, Painting, explains how the MFA Painting Class of 2023 shows viewers how through painting, people can see deeply inwards and far outwards. “As a material process that typically privileges the sensation of touch, it is rarely too far from the body of its maker. The smallest aspects of everyday life to the biggest events of our time can be made palpable through depiction, abstraction, and the wonder that making brings,” says Halvorson.
The MFA exhibitions are free, and open to the general public.
visit the official mfa 2023 exhibitions website
BU SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS 2023 MFA THESIS EXHIBITIONS
Dates & Times
April 6-22, 2023 • 11am-5pm • Galleries are open Tuesdays-Saturdays; closed Sundays, Mondays, and major holidays
Location
MFA Painting & Sculpture Thesis Exhibitions
Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery • 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
MFA Graphic Design Thesis Exhibition
808 Gallery • 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Brookline, MA 02446
Exhibiting Students by Program
Graphic Design
Lauren Albensi • Valeria Alvarado Gutiérrez • Graham Atherton • Hongjie Chen • Yulu Chen • Wanzhu (Summer) Cheng • Yingxuan (Eilis) Dan • Hannah Diamond • Jesse Finkelstein • David Gao • Nina Gozzi • Beiqiao Liu • Sarah Olick • Annabella Pugliese • Shuning Ren • Olivia Sanderford • Siddharth Thanganatarajamani • Jing-Yi Tsai • Yu-Ting (Tommy) Tsai • Tiana Umbach • Reshma Vijayan • Sophia Viviano • Jialun Wang • Shu Wang • Riva Weinstein • Sishu Zhong
Painting
Megan Arné • Bunny Correia • Sakshi Doshi • River Kim • Young Kim • Madelaine Kobe • Andrew Lyman • Bill Mattern • Luke Morrison • Shayan Nazarian • Stephen Proski • Vincent Samudovsky • Hannah Steele
Sculpture
Ry Beloin • Leah Naxon • Sohyoung Park
MFA 2023 EXHIBITIONS
The 2023 MFA Exhibition features forty-two graduating students in MFA Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Design. The 808 Gallery hosts the MFA Graphic Design exhibition titled Hide Self View. The MFA Painting and Sculpture theses are displayed in both the Stone Gallery and Commonwealth Galleries. Our exhibitions span two buildings, reflecting our sense of opening up following years of restrictions under Covid-19. The work explores the relationship between the self and larger systems. It also explores what it means to create a mental, physical, and social space.