An Online Celebration, launching May 18, 2020

URL: http://amt.parsons.edu/finearts/2020mfathesis/

Parsons School of Design at The New School is pleased to launch the 2020 MFA Fine Arts Thesis website, as a lead up to the Thesis Exhibition, Logics of Non-Exchange, to be curated by Stamatina Gregory.

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the 2020 MFA Thesis exhibition will take place in New York just as soon as we are able to return to campus safely. This online platform presents the work of our 20 graduating students working across media, methods and materials. We invite you to view the work of these outstanding emerging artists. They include: Collyn Ahrens Aubrey, Kaeten Bonli, Paloma Rosenzweig Castillo, Rhea Jingrou Cheng, Lydia Crouse, Caroline Garcia, John Holland, Josephine, Luna Jiang, Sidi He, Java Jones, Tania Khouri, Josephine Lee, Rae Lavande Pellerin, Laurel Richardson, Michael Rose, Jie Shao, Kaili Smith, Coraline (Jingyan) Weng, and Snow Xuecan Ye.

These twenty artists provide a critical view on the shape of our world. They explore our highly mediated vision, and the ways in which we negotiate, consume, and traffic in images. They make tangible the brutality of digital economies on cityscapes and bodies, and throw our traumas and erotics into sharp relief. They explore gift economies, radical generosity, and the politics of individual and collective care. As a cohort, they remain at a distance—but their work remains as intimate as it is urgent.

Artists ↓

Stamatina Gregory is a curator and an art historian, whose work focuses primarily on the interrelationship of contemporary art and politics. She has organized exhibitions for institutions including The Cooper Union, FLAG Art Foundation, Austrian Cultural Forum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. She has taught art history, critical theory, and writing at The New School, the School of Visual Arts, Sotheby’s Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University. She is Chief Curator and Director of Programs at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art.

PARSONS MFA FINE ARTS

The Parsons MFA Fine Arts program is a dynamic two-year, cross-disciplinary program committed to expanding the formal, intellectual and conceptual dimensions of emerging artists’ work. Studio-based research and scholarship extends the boundaries of contemporary cultural expression, developed through a global understanding of the arts. Parsons Fine Arts is committed to diversity among students and faculty that provides a potent learning community. Housed within both Parsons School of Design and The New School University, we are uniquely positioned within a progressive educational environment. Our international student body has access to a wide spectrum of activities, ranging from rigorous formal and aesthetic investigations to cross-disciplinary collaborations with design, performing arts and humanities students, to public forums that address pressing social and political concerns. Our Visiting Artist Lecture Series and our Critic and Curator Series features renowned, multidisciplinary artists, curators and critics. Recent visitors included:  Mark Dion, Xu Bing, Zachary Fabri, Nicole Eisenman, Sheila Pepe, Yamini Nayar, Maria Theresa Alvez, Alfredo Jaar, Jamian Wu Tsang, Carlos Motta, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Heather Hart, Derrick Adams, Mernet Larsen, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Cullen Washington Jr, Jackson Polys, E.V. Day, Mika Tajima, Meleko Mokgosi, David Reed, Carolyn Lazard, Jon Rubin, Javier Tellez, Tschabalala Self, and Steffani Jemison.

ABOUT PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN

Founded in 1896, Parsons has served as a pioneer in the field of Art and Design for more than a century. Based in New York and internationally active, the school offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the full spectrum of design disciplines. Critical thinking, research and collaboration are at the heart of a Parsons education. An integral part of The New School, Parsons builds on the university’s legacy of progressive ideals, scholarship and pedagogy. Parsons graduates are leaders in their respective fields, with a shared commitment to creatively and critically addressing the complexities of life in the 21st century.

In 2019 and 2020, the QS World University Rankings, a London-based higher education organization, named Parsons the #1 College for Art and Design in the United States, and #3 internationally.

For more information please visit finearts.parsons.edu or contact interim Program Director, Anthony Aziz. e: aziza@newschool.edu