Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts (SVA) is pleased to present the Class of 2024 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Thesis Exhibitions, on view from April 2-20, 2024. The MFA thesis exhibitions feature works of graduating students in BU’s MFA programs in Graphic Design, Painting, Sculpture, Print Media & Photography, and Visual Narrative. This is the first thesis exhibition for the Print Media & Photography and Visual Narrative programs since their launch in 2022. With 61 participating students, the MFA Class of 2024 represents the largest cohort of graduating MFA students in the BU School of Visual Arts.
Also new for this year, SVA’s thesis exhibitions have expanded beyond BU and the traditional gallery space. The MFA Painting Thesis Exhibition will be on view at Boston University Art Galleries’ Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery; BU Art Galleries’ 808 Gallery hosts the MFA Print Media & Photography and MFA Graphic Design (Side B) Thesis Exhibitions; and the MFA Visual Narrative Thesis Exhibition is taking place at the College of Fine Arts’ Commonwealth Gallery. The MFA Sculpture Thesis Exhibition will be a satellite show off-campus, on view in Allston at 1270 Commonwealth Avenue, an empty space that was once a drugstore and pharmacy.
“These MFA graduate students reveal highly individualized practices informed by culture, locale, historical research, texts, the property of materials, and the body’s relationship to the physical world. The studio is a site of transformation where the expansion of learning and the compression of making meet, as Painting MFA candidate James Gold aptly describes it in his catalog statement,” says Dana Clancy, BU School of Visual Arts Director and Associate Professor of Art, “Our graduate Class of 2024 are artists and designers who have weathered much recent cultural change and flux. A sense of experimentation and attention to community are both fostered through intense studio work, dialogue, and shared social time in and across programs.”
The BU community and the public are invited to experience the exhibitions and attend the receptions. Details regarding the exhibition hours and public receptions on April 12 and April 19 are listed below.
BU SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS MFA 2024 THESIS EXHIBITIONS
Dates, Times & Locations
April 2-20, 2024
- MFA Painting Thesis Exhibition
- Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am to 5pm
- MFA Print Media & Photography and MFA Graphic Design (Side B) Thesis Exhibitions
- Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am to 5pm
- MFA Visual Narrative Thesis Exhibition
- Gallery hours are Mondays through Fridays from 7am to 8:30pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 8:30pm
- MFA Sculpture Thesis Exhibition
- Exhibition hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11am to 5pm and by appointment only on Thursdays (please email MFA Sculptor Mae-Chu O’Connell, mlocon@bu.edu, to schedule a visit)
Exhibiting Students by Program
MFA Painting
Cody Robert Hook Bluett • Sarai Bustos • Tea Chai Beer • Huakai Chen • Natalie Conway • James Gold • Abbi Kenny • Yingxue Daisy Li • Julia McGehean • Sayak Mitra • Linda Obobaifo • Stephanie Petet • Jacob Salzer • Sidharth Shah • Sophie Thervil • Ellen Weitkamp
MFA Sculpture
Helena Abdelnasser • Liam Coughlin • Alyssa Grey • Mae-Chu Lin O’Connell • Yolanda He Yang
MFA Visual Narrative
Sandeep Badal • Lafleche Giasson • Camila Kerwin • Ariel Cheng Kohane • Isabelle Rousseau • Sadie Saunders • Ella Scheuerell • Avanji Vaze • Xinhui Wang • Dajia Zhou
MFA Print Media & Photography
Sofia Barroso • Delaney C. Burns • Julianne Dao • Emily Taylor Rice
MFA Graphic Design
Charles Castro • Yidie Chen (Tica) • Qianyue Chen (Rachel) • Kristen Davis • Alexina Federhen • Dhwani Gopal Garg • Ren Lanzi • Liang Yi Lee (Gloria) • Chi Wei Lin (Eric) • Veridiana Monteiro Victorelli • Carolina Izsak • Arjun Lakshmanan • Christine Seungmin Roh • Raquel Rabines • Kristina Shumilina • Weimiao Sun (Davis) • Arfindo Briyan Santoso • Mengqi Tuo (Bella) • Dharshanya Venkataramanan • Lindsay Towle • Mengdi Wang (Cornelia) • Ash Wei • Xin Yue (Cecilia) • Yinxue Zou (Lucy) • Yingchen Zhou (Molly)
Faculty Advisors, Chairs, and Collaborators
Lynne Allen, Professor of Art, Printmaking, Chair of MFA Print Media & Photography • Kristen Coogan, Associate Professor of Art, Chair of MFA Graphic Design • Deborah Cornell, Professor of Art, Chair of BFA Printmaking • Joel Christian Gill, Associate Professor of Art, Chair of MFA Visual Narrative • Josephine Halvorson, Professor of Art, Chair of MFA Painting • Toni Pepe, Assistant Professor of Art, Chair of Photography • Christopher Sleboda, Associate Professor of Art, Chair of BFA Graphic Design • David Snyder, Assistant Professor of Art, Chair of MFA Sculpture • Lissa Cramer, Director, Boston University Art Galleries • Dana Clancy, Director, School of Visual Arts
Free Admission
All exhibitions are free admission and open to the BU community and the public.
Parking/Transportation Information
The BU Art Galleries and Commonwealth Gallery are all accessible by the MBTA Green Line, taking the B line to the Amory Street station. Limited street parking is available on and around Commonwealth Avenue. Please visit BU’s Transportation website for a list of public parking lots near BU College of Fine Arts.
Related Events
MFA Exhibition Receptions
Painting & Visual Narrative Reception
Friday, April 12 • 6-8pm • Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery, and Commonwealth Gallery • 855 Commonwealth Avenue
Graphic Design and Print Media & Photography Reception
Friday, April 19 • 6-8pm • 808 Gallery • 808 Commonwealth Avenue, enter at Essex Street and Commonwealth Avenue
Sculpture Reception
Friday, April 19 • 7-9pm • 1270 Commonwealth Avenue (vacant CVS in Allston)
MFA Special Events
Visual Narrative Book Talk 1 – MFA visual narrative students will present professional graphic novel book pitches, read excerpts, and exhibit pages from their books-in-progress.
Wednesday, April 10 • 3-5pm
Howard Thurman Center, Room 104, 808 Commonwealth Avenue & Online
Visual Narrative Book Talk 2
Friday, April 12 • 3-5pm
Howard Thurman Center, Room 104, 808 Commonwealth Avenue & Online
MA Art Education Exhibition and Reception
Alongside the MFA Thesis Exhibitions, the MA Art Education students install the artwork created by their students from Boston-area schools. MA Art Education students prepare to be teaching artists by engaging in coursework and research that include interdisciplinary studies, collaboration with other programs and colleges, arts-based research methods, and immersive practice in PreK-12 schools, museums, or in the community.
Exhibition
April 16-26, 2024 • Gallery 5 • 855 Commonwealth Avenue
Reception
Friday, April 16 • 5-7pm • Gallery 5 • 855 Commonwealth Avenue
Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With more than 34,000 students, it is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 17 schools and colleges, along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University’s research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada. Learn more at bu.edu.
Established in 1954, Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is a community of artist-scholars and scholar-artists who are passionate about the fine and performing arts, committed to diversity and inclusion, and determined to improve the lives of others through art. With programs in Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, CFA prepares students for a meaningful creative life by developing their intellectual capacity to create art, shift perspective, think broadly, and master relevant skills. CFA offers a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, as well as a range of online degrees and certificates. Learn more at bu.edu/cfa.
Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts prepares students to think seriously, to see critically, to make intensely, and to act with creative agency in the contemporary world. The School of Visual Arts merges the intensive studio education of an art school with the opportunities of a large urban university, and is committed to educating the eye, hand, and mind of the artist. With rigorous graduate and undergraduate fine art programs that are rooted in studio practice, CFA School of Visual Arts provides highly motivated students with programs in the bedrock disciplines, of the fine arts coupled with a vast array of electives and liberal arts opportunities.
