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MFA Thesis Exhibitions at Tyler School of Art and Architecture investigate today’s big issues

Tyler School of Art & Architecture at Temple University opens their 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibitions! Themes of collective identity, preservation of memories, living in a time of disease, and communal healing and catharsis permeate works by 25 graduate students. Exhibitions change weekly and are on view Weds- Sat, starting today, March 9th, through Saturday, April 16th, 2022.

Many vertically oriented rectangles with similar imagery on them, of nude figures with thick limbs, entrapped and entangled, which line up despite the gaps between the rectangular surfaces.
Todd Stong (MFA ‘22), “Archway” (detail), 2021 monotype polyptych, 165”x157″

Tyler School of Art and Architecture Opens 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibition Series

Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University opens its 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibitions 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 vulnerability; racial reckoning and ecological peril; 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.”

Abstract artwork made of woven paper of yellow, blue, and printed photos, creating a faint silhouette of a person.
Malene Djenaba Barnett (MFA ‘22), “Made for Mom,” 2021, woven inkjet print, 36″x48″

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 at 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.

MFA Thesis Exhibitions Schedule

Read more about participating students here. The MFA Thesis Exhibitions schedule is as follows:

Temple Contemporary

March 9–12

March 16–19

March 23–26

March 30–April 2

April 6–9

April 13–16

Temple University Rome Gallery of Art

March 29–April 2

April 5–9

April 12–16

Virtual Graphic and Interactive Design Exhibition

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.

Fabric artwork with a checkered blue background, roses, white flowers, circles and squares with black and white patterns inside of them, and a big red curtain flying in the wind in the center of a circle made out of a double helix.
Lena Kolb (MFA ‘22), Something More to Dream, 2021, yarn and cotton fabric, 36”x47”
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