2025 MFA thesis exhibition

The 2025 VCUarts MFA thesis exhibition marks a significant milestone in the history and evolving trajectory of Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts. For the first time in the program’s history, the thesis exhibition, a cornerstone of the university’s academic and artistic calendar, was presented at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. This institutional expansion not only amplifies the visibility of the graduates’ work but also signals an institutional commitment to expanding the reach and resonance of graduate work, positioning these emerging practices within the larger framework of contemporary art and critical dialogue.

Featuring twenty-six artists across six departments—Craft/Material Studies, Graphic Design, Kinetic Imaging, Painting + Printmaking, Photography + Film, and Sculpture + Extended Media—the exhibition represents the culmination of two years of sustained inquiry, critical experimentation, and rigorous studio engagement. The resulting works are as materially diverse as they are conceptually layered, reflecting the complexity and vitality of the cultural moment in which they were produced. These practices are united by a shared commitment to pushing disciplinary boundaries while exemplifying the intellectual rigor and exploratory depth that characterize graduate study at VCUarts.

This year’s exhibition unfolded across two sites: the ICA and the Anderson, VCUarts’ historic gallery space and long-time home of the MFA Thesis Exhibition since its inception in 1973. The inclusion of the ICA—a contemporary art institution with international reach—signals a generative shift in the program’s scale and ambition, offering a curatorial and architectural framework commensurate with the scope and criticality of the work presented.

Curated by Misa Jeffereis (Associate Curator, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis), Egbert Vongmalaithong (Assistant Curator, ICA at VCU), and Chase Westfall (Head of Gallery and Exhibitions, VCUarts Qatar), the 2025 exhibition reveals a cross-section of emergent practices that are rooted in collaboration, experimentation, and the urgency to make meaning in an ever-changing world. 

As noted by the curators, “This exhibition threads together various themes, including material exploration, memory, intimacy and distance, value, and the ways we relate to objects, space, and each other... and engages with ideas of proximity and distance as a metaphor for how we observe and encounter the world around us.” As such, the exhibition embodies the essence of graduate study, to deepen individual artistic practice while engaging critically with the broader dynamics that shape our cultural and material realities.

Thesis catalog