March 9–April 16, 2022
Tyler School of Art and Architecture
2001 North 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
United States
Themes of shared identities, racial reckoning, ecological peril, and communal healing and catharsis pervade works by 25 students.
The Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University opens its 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibitions series this month with works by 25 students in Philadelphia, Rome and online, the culmination of two years of intensive artistic and critical development.
Through works on paper and canvas, photography, fibers ceramics, metals, time-lapsed and mixed media, the MFA students speak to individual and collective lived experiences that touch on cultural, social, racial, gender, familial, and class identities; loss, grief, trauma and public vulnerability; racial reckoning, ecological perils and living in a time of disease; preservation of inherited histories and memories, and communal healing and catharsis.
Associate Dean and Graduate Studies Director Chad Curtis described this year’s graduating MFA candidates as exceptional makers, both in their studio practices and the influences on their aesthetic approach.
“Beyond their creativity and skills as artists, what truly sets them apart is their character. They are passionate, sensitive, and generous artists and community members, and their impact on the world will be felt in their professional lives,” said Curtis. “More importantly, they will affect change by how they choose to live their lives, and the communities they create and participate in.”
Tyler’s annual MFA Thesis Exhibitions showcase the breadth of artistic possibilities in its MFA program as well as the intersectionality of studio practice and education for which Tyler is known. The exhibitions will be held March 9–April 16, 2022 in the Temple Contemporary galleries, 2001 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122 and Temple University Rome Gallery of Art, Temple University Rome Campus, Lungotevere Arnaldo Da Brescia, 15 Rome, Italy 00196.
When they graduate, Tyler’s MFA Class of 2022 will join a community of distinguished alumni that includes Moe Brooker (BFA ’70, MFA ‘72); Edgar Heap of Birds (MFA ‘79); Harriete Estel Berman (MFA ’80); Virgil Marti (MFA ‘90); Anoka Faruqee (MFA ‘97); Trenton Doyle Hancock (MFA ‘00); Will Villalongo (MFA ‘01); Erin Riley (MFA ‘09); Amber Cowan (MFA ‘11) and Kara Springer (MFA ‘17), among others.
Read more about participating students here.
About the MFA Program at Tyler
The Master of Fine Arts program at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University provides a rigorous two-year course of study in which students deeply explore a chosen discipline while broadly investigating a diversity of practices in art-making. Students spend extensive, intensive studio time in their core area of practice and research, and engage in critiques and critical discourse within a boundary-pushing community that values a robust exchange of ideas. Students can amplify this immersive, interdisciplinary training with studies in arts management and certification in teaching in higher education and cultural analytics.
