The 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibition features work by UMD Department of Art MFA students graduating at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year, and highlights cutting-edge graduate research that utilizes a myriad of new approaches in art-making. This year the exhibition features work by four MFA candidates: Mercedes, Elaine Qiu, Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, and Hosna Shahramipoor.  

Euphoric Mourning is the collective title for this year's MFA thesis presentation. Through sculpture, video, sound, painting, photography, and installation, the thesis exhibition explores vulnerability of the othered body. The artists as a group reflect on embodiment, fragmentation, movement, and the contemporary experience.

The 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibition is organized by the University of Maryland Art Gallery, in association with the Department of Art. Major support is provided by the Dorothy and Nicholas Orem Exhibition Fund. Generous support is provided by the Maryland State Arts Council. Additional support is provided by the Clarvit Endowed Faculty Research Fund, the Jim Henson Fund for Puppetry, and the Pepsi Enhancement Fund. This exhibition is in association with University of Maryland's Arts for All initiative. 

About the artists:

Mercedes

Through the use of materials such as steel, melted weapons, sound, and motors, the installation I Hold You Close reflects on queerness and queer love. Rather than framing vulnerability as a weakness, these works invite the viewer to consider vulnerability as a weapon.

Elaine Qiu

Combining printmaking and painting, and hovering between abstraction and figuration, the installation Every Place We’ve Been documents the disorienting experiences of the last years, examines history as an embodied memory and draws attention to the boundaries between the personal and the public.

Charlotte Richardson-Deppe

As a queer feminist artist working between soft sculpture and performance, Richardson-Deppe’s works meditate on interdependence and community, mingling bodies and bodily sculptures.

Hosna Shahramipoor

Everything in the universe is made up of waves. Embracing the Wave is a journey of self-discovery, in which our own inner waves can resonate with and influence the world around us, dissipate, magnify, and transform.

An exhibition preview will be held on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, from 5-7 pm.

On view: May 4-26, 2022*

Location: University of Maryland Art Gallery

Admission: Free

*Note: Viewings by appointment only May 22-26, 2023