May 6–July 24, 2016
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
Washington University in St. Louis
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
samfoxschool.wustl.edu/MFA16
samfoxschool.wustl.edu/gradart
www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu
The Graduate School of Art’s 2016 MFA thesis exhibition at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is the culmination of an intensive two-year critically engaged studio program undertaken by the following students: Caitlin Aasen, Mr. Jonathan P. Berger, Candice Block, Sam Boven, Kendall Lee Brown, Jackson Bullock, Eric Burwell, Christopher Thomas Campbell, Garrett Clough, Wyndi Antoinette DeSouza, Nicole Fry, Sarah Harford, Madeline Marak, Holly McGraw, Yvonne Osei, Danica Radoshevich, Shirin Rastin, Rachel Ahava Rosenfeld, Adam Turl, and Julie Weinberger.
Students embrace a variety of innovative practices that challenge the conventional and habitual in a program that generates a diversity of ideas, methods of production, and strategies of distribution. The themes explored in this year’s show include the politics of race, the role of gender, the poetics of the everyday, and utopian/dystopian futures. The exhibition also reveals the effects of travel—the elements of space, time, history, memory, and the very notion of the urban experience—on studio practice. The Sam Fox School is proud to celebrate this year’s graduating MFA students.
Learn more about the MFA program through the work of our students.
View publications highlighting studio practice and student exhibitions.
MFA in Visual Art at the Sam Fox School
The Graduate School of Art is located in a vibrant arts community and ranked 12th among the top MFA programs by U.S. News and World Report. The school offers a two-year, studio practice program with myriad opportunities for collaboration, cross-disciplinary work, and research. It is an open landscape for the emerging artist—one that reflects the dynamic cultural shifts, global perspectives, and evolving technologies that shape today’s complex art world. While learning to articulate their place within broader social and political contexts, students challenge traditional hierarchies and embrace new forms of aesthetic thinking that range from embodied environments and site-responsive work to de-skilled, DIY/maker or post-studio forms of production. Graduate seminars provide a rigorous investigation of various contexts for art making, while the thesis seminar supports students in the exploration of their formal and theoretical concerns.
Graduate studios: Newly renovated graduate studios opened in the fall of 2015 in a dedicated space, offering 24/7 access to facilities that support collaboration, disciplinary-specific work, and expanded practices.
Financial aid: A variety of financial aid options are available, including named scholarships, which are awarded on a competitive basis. Each MFA student is also offered a minimum of two teaching or research assistantships as part of their financial aid support and practical training.
Study abroad: The Graduate School of Art offers opportunities for study abroad, including a Sommerakademie program in Berlin and Venice. Sommerakademie primarily explores the international contemporary art center, Berlin, through lectures and discussions with artists, curators, and scholars.
Recent Distinguished Visitors, Critics, and Fellows: Luis Cruz Azaceta, Mark Dion, Henrik Drescher, James Elkins, Karen Finley, Hal Foster, Coco Fusco, Ivan Gaskell, Mariam Ghani, Michelle Grabner, Ann Hamilton, Sam Durant & Candice Hopkins, Alfredo Jaar, Nina Katchadourian, Chelsea Knight, Ellen K. Levy, Won Ju Lim, Steven Henry Madoff, Lydia Matthews, Christopher Michlig, Danny Orendorff, Trevor Paglen, Andrea Stanislav, Renata Stih & Frieder Schnock, Jan Tumlir, Victoria Vesna, Carrie Mae Weems, and Eric Wesley
For more information about the Graduate School of Art, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, please contact Patricia Olynyk, Florence and Frank Bush Professor of Art and Director of the Graduate School of Art.
