2023 MFA Thesis Exhibitions

The Newcomb Art Department announces the Master of Fine Arts 2023 Thesis Exhibitions. All Tulane MFA Thesis Exhibitions take place in the Carroll Gallery in the Woldenberg Art Center. They are open to the public and free.

Ina Kaur: ਇੱਕ ਦੂਜਾ (ik Duja) “the Other one”

As a woman and an artist living in a heightened global, political, ecologically imbalanced, and socially unequal and unjust world, Ina's work attempts to continuously move beyond cultural constructs, freeing from restrictive beliefs and assigned identities. As an interdisciplinary practitioner critiquing the otherness and oppressed identities, the work empowers the self to navigate freely and fluidly, embracing the 'other' and 'one's' own new unsettled freedom as it celebrates the ever-shifting and constantly evolving notion of self, home, and belonging.

Opening reception: Friday, March 10, 5:30 – 7:30pm

Exhibition on view: March 9 – March 17

website: www.inakaur.com IG: @studio_inkspace

Felicita Felli Maynard: Acaba, y empiezas tu, como  la agua que brilla sin luz (It ends, you start, like water that shines without light)

As a first-generation Afro-Latine interdisciplinary artist, archivist and researcher, Maynard works across various forms of mediums to critique the way beings from the African diaspora past, present and future have been memorized by history. A direct analysis of how structures of colonialism, capitalism and time have directly impacted and shifted the experiences of descendants of the African diaspora.

Opening reception: Friday, March 10, 5:30 – 7:30pm

Exhibition on view: March 9 – March 17

website: www.photofelli.com IG: @photofelli

Stephanie Steele: Ocular Navigations of Internal and External Space

Stephanie E. Steele (S.E. Steele) is an educator and artist who blends printmaking and photographic techniques to create largescale works on paper. She examines the interconnection between our internal perception created through cognitive vision, and the navigation the external world experienced through optical phenomena.

Opening reception: Friday, March 24, 5:30-7:30pm

Exhibition on view: March 23 - April 7

website: https://www.sesteelefineart.com IG: @sesteelefineart

Erica Westenberger:  Twisting in honey and swallowing dust

Erica Westenberger is an interdisciplinary artist who renders illusory narratives about experiences of internal conflict. Through graphite drawing and sculptural processes, she builds motifs that explore the complexities of mental health under the framework of myth. Tension is used as a recurrent theme within formal relationships and allegorical motifs to suggest the underlying states of apprehension that are a part of nuanced internal journeys.

Opening reception: Friday, April 14, 5:30 – 7:30pm

Exhibition on view: April 13 - 21

website: www.ericawestenberger.com IG: @erica.westenberger

Lee Laa Guillory: This is her body, which has broken for you

Guillory’s practice investigates, through ritual-based photographs and performance, the transgenerational trauma to which Black femmes in rural Louisiana have been subjected. Her intimate photographs, carefully staged and lit, frequently focus on hair and hair maintenance, and depict femmes in emotional states ranging from that of quiet reflection to that of raw fury.

Opening reception:  Friday, April 14, 5:30 – 7:30pm

Exhibition on view: April 13 - 21

Black Arts Consortium Graduate Working Group Workshop

On Friday, November 4, 2022, Tulane’s Studio Art graduate program welcomed scholars from Northwestern University’s Black Arts Consortium Graduate Working Group for a series of workshops/studio visits. Throughout the day, each of the participants (all of whom are working towards the completion of their dissertation/ thesis) were given the opportunity to briefly speak about their works in progress and receive diverse and affirming feedback from peers. 

This workshop was supported by the Katherine Steinmayer McLean Visiting Studio Artist Fund.

Objects in Focus: Clothes by Betsy Packard, MFA 1978

Join us for this month’s Objects in Focus gallery talk, which will focus on work of Betsy Packard (MFA, 1978).
 

Friday, November 4, 12 pm

Newcomb Art Museum

This talk will be led by Alex Landry, Curatorial Assistant at the Newcomb Art Museum and a 2nd-year Art History MA student.

This event is free and open to all.

Up next @TulaneArt

Open NOW in the Carroll Gallery, Vacancy, an MFA Thesis Exhibition by Jarrod Jackson. The exhibition is on view Feb. 20 – March 4, 2020  (*closed on 2/24 and 2/25). A reception will be held on  Friday, February 28, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm, with a walkthrough by the artist at 6:00 pm. Carroll Gallery hours:  M – F, 9 am – 4 pm. Gallery closed on official Tulane holidays, including Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras (Feb. 24 and Feb. 25).

Please join the Newcomb Art Department for the 2020 Art History Graduate Student Association Lecture, "The Apocalypse of the Duc de Berry and the Apocalyptic Great Schism," by Richard K. Emmerson, Visiting Distinguished Professor, Florida State University, on Thursday, February 27th at 6 pm in Stone Auditorium. This lecture is supported by the Terry K. Simmons Fund.

On Friday, February 28th we will be screening "Unveiled Views: Muslim Women Artists Speak Out," a film by Alba Sotorra, at 5:30pm in Stone Auditorium. The Middle East Film Nights at Tulane series is sponsored by Newcomb Art Department, Newcomb Intitute, and CELT (Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching). This is a FREE screening and refreshments will be served.

MFA Thesis exhibitions 2020

The Newcomb Art Deparment at Tulane University is pleased to present our 2020 MFA Thesis Exhibitions at the Carroll Gallery in the Woldenberg Art Center.

The exhibitions include works in  sculpture, painting, photography, and glass by MFA candidates Blas Isasi, Jarrod Jackson, Juliana Kasumu, Sara Abbas, and Mark Morris. 

Please join us on Friday, February 14th for a gallery reception from 5:30 - 7:30 pm and a walkthrough with artist Blas Isasi at 6:00 pm in the Carroll Gallery.

Alumni News: Abdi Farah, Kristi Knipe, and Cora Lautze at the CAC

Cora Lautze, Work Promotes Confidence

The Contemporary Art Center's 2019 Open Call Exhibition Identity Measures opens on Saturday August 3rd, Hancock Whitney White Linen Night, and features the work of three recent alumni of Tulane's Studio Art graduate program:  Abdi Farah (MFA, Painting, 2018), Kristina Knipe (MFA Photography, 2016), and Cora Lautze (MFA, Printmaking, 2019).

Identity Measures is predicated on the understanding that identity is shaped by a variety of historical, racial, gendered, socioeconomic, geographical, physical, and ideological experiences through time. By opening up a dialogue about difference through the language of contemporary visual art, this exhibition claims that one’s structural location in the world matters to the articulation of personal and collective identity—a process that poses itself as a dynamic site of agency, creativity, resistance, visibility, ambiguity, and belonging.

The exhibtion is organized by guest curator, Dr. Jordan Amirkhani, an art historian, critic, curator, and educator based in Washington, DC, where she serves as a Professorial Lecturer in Global Modern and Contemporary Art History at American University. 

Opening reception: Saturday, August 3, 5:30pm - 9:30 pm, at the CAC.
Admission will be FREE and open to the public.

MFA Open Studio Night

Tulane University Newcomb Art Department will host an MFA Open Studio Night on Tuesday, May 7th from 5 – 8pm in the Woldenberg Art Center.

First year students

• Sara Abbas
• Jarrod Jackson
• Juliana Kasumu
• Blas Isasi Gutiérrez
• Mark Morris

Second year students

• Joris Lindhout
• Allison Beondé
• Holly Ross
• Joshua Edward Bennett
• Johnny Glass
• Cora Lautze

MFA Open Studios

The Newcomb Art Department at Tulane University invites you to attend our MFA Open Studio event, Thursday, November 1st from 5:30-7:30pm at the Woldenberg Art Center.

Sara Abbas (Painting) Studio 502
Joshua E. Bennett (Digital Arts) Studio 123
Allison Beondé (Photography) Studio 500
John Glass (Glass) Studio 119
Blas Isasi Gutiérrez  (Sculpture) Studio 123F
Jarrod Jackson (Painting) Studio 504
Juliana Kasamu (Photography) Studio 500
Cora Lautze (Printmaking) Studio 123D
Joris Lindhout (Digital Arts) Studio 506
Mark Morris (Glass) Studio 115
Holly Ross (Ceramics) Studio 108


[photo: Juliana Kasamu, Process #2, 2015]

MFA Thesis Exhibitions: Abdi Farah and Skylar Fein

Newcomb Art Department, Tulane University MFA Thesis Exhibitions

Abdi Farah:  KNEEL
Skylar Fein:  School’s Out Forever

exhibitions on view:  March 22 – April 6, 2018

opening reception: 
Thursday, March 22, 5:30 – 7:30 pm, walkthroughs by the artists at 6:00 pm

Gallery hours: M – F, 9 am – 4 pm
Gallery closed on official Tulane holidays, including March 30.

MFA Thesis Exhibitions: Sadie Sheldon and Cassie White

Newcomb Art Department / Tulane University MFA Thesis Exhibitions

Sadie Sheldon:  Scenic Viewpoint
Cassie White:  Kin

exhibitions on view: March 8 – 16, 2018

closing reception: Friday, March 16, 5:30 – 7:30 pm
with walkthroughs by the artists at 6:00 pm

Carroll Gallery hours: M – F, 9 am – 4 pm
Gallery closed on official Tulane holidays.

MFA Thesis Exhibitions: Carola Casusol and Danielle Inabinet

Newcomb Art Department / Tulane University
MFA Thesis Exhibitions

Carola Casusol Demythified Borders
Danielle Inabinet  Manipulations: Vessels in Porcelain

exhibitions on view through March 2
closing reception:  Friday, March 2, 5:30 – 7:30 pm, with walkthroughs by the artists at 6:00 pm

Carroll Gallery hours: M – F, 9am – 4pm
Gallery closed on official Tulane holidays.

Alumni News: Michel Varisco (MFA 1994)

“Turning: prayer wheels for the Mississippi River” Artist Rendering

The unveiling dedication of artist Michel Varisco's public art installation, “Turning (prayer wheels for the Mississippi River)” will take place on site, the Lafitte Greenway entrance at Bayou St. John and Jefferson Davis Parkway, on Saturday November 18th, 2:30 - 4:30pm.

Commissioned by the Arts Council of New Orleans, the City of New Orleans, and featured in the Prospect.4 Biennial, “Turning” elegantly blends social and environmental activism with interactive sculpture, where the history of the land itself is an integral component of the piece.

“Turning” consists of three, 9 foot, stainless steel, interactive “prayer wheels”, individually cut with iconography of the Mississippi River from three distinct periods of the riverʼs history, (the wild era, colonial plantation era, and petrochemical era), based on the mapping in Kate Orffʼs seminal book, “Petrochemical America”. Each cylinder is rooted in a hand-made mosaic base that depicts the land building patterns created from deposits of the riverʼs sediment over 7000 years, informed by the Fisk maps of 1944. At night, the prayer wheels will emit pulses of dim blue light via solar power, and visitors may spin each wheel to intensify the emanations. The path that weaves through the installation echoes the riverʼs serpentine curvature, while the indigenous gardens surrounding the site were planted by Varisco and a team of devoted community volunteers.

MFA Artist Talks

Please join the Newcomb Art Department for a series of Artist Talks by current MFA candidates.

Alumni News: Jan Gilbert at NOMA

 JAN GILBERT TO DISCUSS HER CAREER AND INFLUENCE OF MENTOR JIM STEG AT ARTIST PERSPECTIVE LECTURE

Friday Nights at NOMA, August 11, 6 p.m.

Artist Jan Gilbert (MFA 1982), among many former students of longtime Tulane professor and innovative printmaker Jim Steg, will be featured in an Artist Perspective lecture. Deeply influenced by her native New Orleans, Gilbert employs tools and processes of collaboration to create a host of widely varied projects with wildly diverse partnerships, including her documentary filmmaker husband, Kevin McCaffrey; poet/writers Andrei Codrescu and Yusef Komunyakaa; experimental theater directors Richard Schechner, Julie Hebert, and Kathy Randels; and Swiss cultural psychiatrist/anthropologist Jacques Arpin. 

[via NOMA News]

Staple Goods show in New York features Tulane/Newcomb artists

Members of Staple Goods artist collective, based in New Orleans, are showing new work at The Clemente Center, 107 Suffolk Street in the Lower East Side, New York City.  

Two Blocks From Elysian Fields: Recent Work From New Orleans features Aaron Collier, Abdi Farah, Abe Geasland, Anne C. Nelson, Bill DePauw, Jack Niven, Katrina Andry, Norah Lovell and Thomasine Bartlett. The show is on view from June 1-30, 2017. 

The top photo shows current MFA student Abdi Farah's work on the left (Twice Conquered, 2017, tackle twill, fringe, fabric, and Latex paint, 87 x 104") and Assistant Professor Aaron Collier's two pieces on the right (Deep Calls to Deep, 2015, Flashe on canvas, 72 x 72" and Walkin' After Midnight, 2015, Flashe on canvas, 72 x 72").  Pictured in the orange shirt is Norah Lovell, a member at Staple Goods and Program Manager of the Honors Program at Tulane University.

The bottom photos shows Senior Professor of Practice William DePauw's piece in the foreground (Tip of the Tongue, 2016, fired clay and painted panel) and Professor of Practice Anne C. Nelson's piece to the far left (Anxiety of ancestry, 2017, Latex on wall, oil on canvas, oil on panel, 120 x 80").

Pippin Frisbie-Calder awarded $5000 grant to bring 'Cancelled Edition' to ArtPrize Nine

On June 5th with just five minutes and five slides alumna Pippin Frisbie-Calder (MFA 2017) won a $5000 grant to install 'Cancelled Edition' at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The Pitch Night competition was held at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.

Frisbie-Calder will use the grant proceeds to re-create 'Cancelled Edition,' an interactive installation first shown at the Carroll Gallery as part of her MFA Thesis exhibition in April. For the installation Frisbie-Calder will create a collection of 400 woodcut prints of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, a bird thought to be extinct. As collectors purchase prints of the birds, the exhibition simulates the process of extinction.

Read more about it at ArtPrize.

Kaori Maeyama at Staple Goods

In the Neighborhood, oil on panel, 18″x24″

The Passenger, a solo show of urban landscape paintings by alumna Kaori Maeyama (MFA 2017) will be on view at Staple Goods, 1340 St. Roch Avenue, from June 10 – July 2, 2017. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, June 10, from 6-9pm.

Maeyama's work is also on view at TEN Gallery, 4432 Magazine Street, June 3- June 25. This group exhibition, titled Rassemblés, features current and recent Tulane and LSU graduate students: Andrea Berg, Justin Bryant, Eli Casino, Carolina Casusol, Christopher Gray, Masy Hebert, and Kaori Maeyama.

Art, meet science

by Alicia Duplessis Jasmin

In Phytoplankton: A Studio in the Woods (pictured), Pippin Frisbie-Calder, a graduate student in printmaking in the Newcomb Art Department at Tulane, accomplishes the goal of intertwining the worlds of science and art. Completed through a combined process of pen-and-ink, screenprinting and watercolor, Frisbie-Calder succeeds at uncovering the realm in which microscopic marine plants from the wetlands of Louisiana dwell.

Phytoplankton is a spherical presentation, allowing viewers to observe what a scientist would see under the circular lens of a microscope.

Frisbie-Calder said the process to obtain the microorganisms was quite challenging. Samples were collected from nearby lakes, bayous and ponds and taken to a lab for a magnified view.

[continue reading the article on Tulane New Wave]
 

Jeffrey Stenbom receives Silver Academic award at Emerge 2016

Army veteran and Tulane alumnus Jeffrey Stenbom (MFA, Glass, 2015) received the Silver Academic award at Bullseye's ninth biennial exhibition, Emerge 2016.

Stenbom's sculpture of monumental kiln-cast glass dog tags titled, To Those Who Have, was first shown in his MFA exhibition at Tulane University's Carroll Gallery.

Christopher Gray (MFA candidate, 2017) was also named a finalist in the competition.

[photo courtesy of Pamela Price Klebaum]

Two Tulane Artists in Bullseye Glass Biennial

Christopher Gray (MFA candidate 2017) and Jeffrey Stenbom (MFA 2015) have been named finalists in Bullseye Glass' ninth biennial exhibition Emerge/Evolve 2016. The award ceremony for this international juried competition will take place on June 25 at the exhibition's opening reception at Bullseye Projects in Portland, Oregon. Shown: Christopher Gray, Meander White (L);  Jeffrey Stenbom, To Those Who Have (R).