SAIC MFA Show

April 28–May 16, 2018

The MFA Show is the culminating presentation of over 100 MFA candidates and an opportunity for new and ambitious work to be presented to the public. For more than six months, graduating MFA artists work with a team of three distinguished Guest Curators and twelve Graduate Curatorial Fellows to envision the exhibition. This invested approach allows for dialogue, process, and collaborative decision-making to guide the artists and curatorial teams as they work together to bring the MFA Show to fruition over time.

This year’s Guest Curators are Anthony Elms, Chief Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Philadelphia; Jenny Gheith, Assistant Curator, Painting and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); and Kate Nesin, New York–based art historian and independent curator. They have worked in collaboration with a team of Graduate Curatorial Fellows: Qais Assali, (MA Art Education 2018), Duncan Bass, (Dual MA Art History and Arts Administration 2019), Madalyn Brooker, (MA Art History, Theory, and Criticism 2018), Katie Cato, (MA Art History, Theory, and Criticism 2018), Luna Goldberg (MA Art History, Theory, and Criticism 2018), Garbo Sihan Hu, (MA Arts Administration and Policy 2018), Lindsay Hutchens, (MFA 2017, MA Visual and Critical Studies 2018), Stephanie Koch, (MA Visual and Critical Studies 2018), Makayla May, (MA Art History, Theory, and Criticism 2018), Carlos Salazar-Lermont, (Dual MA Art History and Arts Administration 2019), Adia Sykes,(MA Arts Administration and Policy 2018), and Maria Urigoitia Villanueva, (MFA Design for Emerging Technology 2018).

The process is overseen by Kate Zeller, Director of Exhibitions, with Maire Witt O’Neill, Exhibition Producer, and lead staff: Curt Miller, Exhibition Manager; Michael Hall, Senior Exhibition Manager; Josh Fairbanks, Exhibition Manager; Hannah Barco, Assistant Director; Lindsey Barlag, Alumna Producer for Performances; Graduate Curatorial Assistants Chase Kaiser and Lindsey Bell; and all in collaboration with Site Managers and student technicians.

Shifting the Center

Co-curated with Adia Sykes, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago IL - August 29–October 14, 2017

Shifting the Center showcases projects by current MFA and BFA students that consider individual experience and the everyday through the use of architecture and site. These artists intervene into spaces of confinement, reassembling familiar visual markers and, in doing so, question sites that often go unnoticed. Viewers are invited to reconsider overlooked spaces and their relationship to the built environment.

Artworks by Ivana Brenner, Ashley M. Freeby, William Wiebe, Ryan Goh and Hope Wang, Catherine Hu, Falak Vasa and Ayesha Singh.

L A S T I N G : Exploits of Endurance

Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 6:00 p.m. to midnight

Last. Most recent. Final. Resilient. L A S T I N G extends an invitation to participate in a six hour voyage that launches into dialogues of existence and persistence as experienced through the works in SAIC’s MFA Show 2017. Join as artist guides help us to navigate forms of endurance through a series of simultaneous, durational and iterative performances, workshops, artist panels, and more. Dinner will be served to fortify us along the way. This prolonged evening seeks to cultivate a thoughtful, decelerated viewership for performances and programs that take us through the cycle of resistance, patient weathering, and restoration. L A S T I N G culminates in a final euphoric celebration with a one hour dance party in the gallery for this last day of the exhibition.

Participating artists include: Joey Asal, Angela Azmitia, Adam Bach, Alex Bach, Tiana Birrell, Mark Blanchard, Christopher Bleuher, Dalton Carter, Fabienne Elie, Dylan Fish, Joe Houlberg, Chin-Ting Huang, Jennifer Chen-su Huang, Haerim Lee, Meredith Leich, Angel Marin, Jordan Miller, Nuria Montiel, Michelle Marie Murphy, George Olken ,Máire Witt O’Neill, Alex Peyton-Levine, Michael Powell, Elliott J. Reichert, Emilio Rojas, David Siever, Jacqueline Surdell, Maryam Taghavi, Darryl Terrell, Marcela Torres, Allen West, Raina N. Wodatch, and Anna Wolfe-Pauly.

Organized by Graduate Curatorial Fellows Courtney Cintron, Lindsay Hutchens, Jameson Paige, Pia Singh, and in collaboration with the 2017 MFA Show Curatorial Teams and the Department of Exhibitions, with special thanks to Assistant Director Hannah Barco.

photos by Farah Haidar and David Yun