On April 11, receptions were held for the sculpture and the visual narrative MFA thesis exhibitions in the Stone Gallery and the graphic design and the print media & photography exhibitions in the 808 Gallery.

Fine Arts

Dozens of Dazzling Projects on View in Annual School of Visual Arts MFA Thesis Exhibitions

Graphic design, sculpture, print media and photography, and visual narrative theses on display through April 19; MFA painting theses April 29 to May 18

After two years of intensive work, a new cohort of graduates from the College of Fine Arts five Master of Visual Arts programs have put the finishing touches on their thesis projects, and members of the BU community can now see and appreciate their virtuosic work. 

This year’s MFA Thesis Exhibitions are on view in three separate shows and include nearly 50 projects by students in the School of Visual Arts five graduate programs—Graphic Design, Painting, Print Media & Photography, Sculpture, and Visual Narrative. Together, they offer a comprehensive look at the breadth and depth of talent to be found in this year’s MFA cohort (undergraduate theses shows will be held next month).

Graphic Design and Print Media & Photography thesis projects are at the 808 Gallery, while works by Sculpture and Visual Narrative students are across the street at the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery in the CFA building, both through April 19. Painting MFA thesis projects will be at the Stone Gallery from April 29 through May 18.

Graphic Design

The theme of this year’s Graphic Design Thesis Exhibition, “Scroll(s),” is meant to evoke both the parchment scrolls of antiquity and the ubiquitous act of scrolling on a digital device.

“The time spent in the MFA program can be understood as an ever-evolving scroll—one that unspools through a continuous stream of prompts and responses,” write Kristen Coogan and Christopher Sleboda, both CFA associate professors of graphic design. “Like the motion of a scroll, learning in this space is fluid, recursive, and full of momentum.”

In the exhibition, 20 student thesis projects are displayed longitudinally on long scrolls of paper fastened individually to tables that crosshatch and intersect with one another. The projects range from a chic and bubbly collection of cocktail-inspired prints by Micaela Sato (CFA’25) to Letter to Myself, by Maidah Salman (CFA’25), a collage of arresting black-and-white photography layered beneath bright-red Arabic typography.

Caitlin Lu’s project, Unlimited Links, speaks to the idea of continuous evolution. Lu (CFA’25) is inspired by concepts introduced by French social philosopher Bruno Latour and his actor-network theory, which posits that humans and objects are constantly interacting with one another in a web of ever-evolving dynamism. 

“For this project, I captured images of seemingly random objects and edited them in 17 different ways so that you can see how they’re interconnected,” she says. The objects—a grape stem, a clementine peel, a cardboard coffee sleeve—are shown in different stages of an editing process that distorts the image until it no longer resembles its original form.

The 2025 Graphic Design MFA Thesis Exhibition is on view at the 808 Gallery (808 Comm Ave) through April 19. The gallery is free and open to the public from 11 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

Print Media & Photography 

On the other side of the 808 Gallery, this year’s Print Media & Photography Thesis Exhibition boasts an eclectic mix of disciplines, from linotypes to installation pieces, photography to screen printing. How to Build a Paper Airplane, by Tung Lin Tsai (CFA’25), pairs photography taken in his native Taiwan with a wall-mounted print installation comprising dozens of typewritten letters stamped with the same red paper airplane. Also in the show is an installation by Shannon Johnson (CFA’25) that resembles one quarter of a living room—complete with overdyed rug and a wallpapered wall covered with framed photos taken by the artist.

Jerry Rodriguez Sosa (CFA’25) grew up in Brownsville, Tex., which sits directly on the US-Mexico border, and he says he was inspired by a concept he refers to as “the Borderlands” for his thesis project.

Images of landscape, livestock, crucifixes, and folk art surface through a melange of printmaking techniques, such as letterpress, monotype, and acetone transfer. Rodriguez Sosa’s artmaking practice is mutable, instinct-driven, and involves sketching, manipulating images, and the inclusion of diverse and often conflicting symbols.

The literal borderlands he depicts are interspersed with imagery that recalls a more personal, spiritual borderland.

“For me, the Borderlands manifest in my queer identity, in the tension between past and present, in my Mexican-American cultural upbringing,” he says. “I incorporate repeated motifs inspired by tiling concepts, literal borders in art, and expressive mark-making using a variety of materials, creating compositions that mirror the instability and fluidity of my identity.”

Rodriguez Sosa has interned at the legendary Hatch Show Print, a 146-year-old letterpress in Nashville, Tenn. During his internship, he was tasked with creating concert posters for clients in and outside Music City, learning the ropes of block printing along the way.

“I’m excited about expanding my practice both conceptually and physically,” he says. “There is so much potential, as well as history, in print as a tool for activism, community, and self-expression. This is part of what will continue to drive my work and give me purpose moving forward.”

The 2025 Print Media & Photography MFA Thesis Exhibition is on view at 808 Gallery (808 Comm Ave) through April 19. The gallery is free and open to the public from 11 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

Sculpture 

Across Comm Ave, in the Stone Gallery, the Sculpture MFA Thesis Exhibition students have put together a show that makes ingenious use of their space. Maithili Rajput (CFA’25) incorporated her own body into her thesis, which involved her sitting on a rotating platform for 24 hours. She plays the resulting video feed on two monitors in the gallery. Meanwhile, the thesis by Joseph Metrano (CFA’25) includes items from full-scale installation art to a 10-foot sculpture to yards of candy buttons affixed to the wall.

“There were no assigned topics by professors; I had to create my own,” Helen Sun (CFA’25) says of the sculpture program. “After continuous attempts for a year, I found that I resonated with ceramics, and my works took shape.”

The freeform creativity provided by clay appealed to Sun. The ability to manipulate a mound into a shape, to have her thought process made evident through the various impressions, twists, and turns of the medium, influenced what is now her signature technique.

A series of Sun’s ceramic sculptures evokes biotic forms: glazed in a peach-pink wash and adorned with slashes of red and blue, the tiny figures are displayed encased in acrylic squares and shelved in a long, straight line. The clinical precision of the display, coupled with the nakedly organic look of the pieces, suggests something suspended in bell jars on a laboratory bench.

There’s a lot of autobiography in her work, she acknowledges. “As I grow older, I often recall my past experiences. This makes me feel that every year I am a completely new person, and the former self is beyond change,” she says. “This is very similar to making my ceramic sculptures…once it enters the kiln, everything is fixed.”

The 2025 Sculpture MFA Thesis Exhibition is on view at the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery (855 Comm Ave) through April 19. The gallery is free and open to the public from 11 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

Visual Narrative 

The Stone Gallery is also home to this year’s Visual Narrative Thesis Exhibition. The program’s students are tasked with creating their own publication, and the show includes excerpts in the form of character design sheets, like sketches and notes made by Sam Roberts (CFA’25) for her Regency-era romance Sew It Shall Be, and page spreads, like excerpts from Flowers in the Rainy Night, a black-and-white detective story set in Taiwan, by George Zachary (CFA’25). 

Gabriel Joy Reid (CFA’25) has incorporated their experience as a varsity soccer player in the project OFFSIDES, which takes a softer and more romantic approach to the sport than is usually portrayed in the media. 

“In OFFSIDES everything has a soft brush with blended backgrounds, and the edges of panels sometimes wisp away like clouds,” Reid explains. “I want the book to almost feel dreamlike, like what it might be when we think back to the happy and memorable moments of our own childhoods.”

It’s a YA love story, with queer main characters who navigate challenges both on and off the field. When Alex meets Kamira, a rival player who is also a trans girl, sparks fly from goal to goal as they reconcile competitiveness with a magnetic attraction to one another. 

Reid was troubled by the ongoing struggle for acceptance that trans people experience in sports, and following the 2024 election, made the difficult decision to continue telling this story now.

“I expect that I will get some pushback on this comic,” Reid says, “but I also think back to my younger self, a closeted trans person who made amazing friends through playing sports. I’m making this book for the queer and trans kids today who play and love sports. This story is a source of joy for our tiny but mighty queer and trans community.”

The 2025 Visual Narrative MFA Thesis Exhibition is on view at the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery (855 Comm Ave) through April 19. The gallery is free and open to the public from 11 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

Painting

Landscapes of “home” are a common theme in this year’s Painting MFA Thesis Exhibition, Rina Goldfield and E. E. Ikeler, CFA associate professors in painting, write in their statement accompanying the show. The execution takes many forms. Hidden, refracted images of postindustrial Ohio by Sam Bittaker (CFA’25). Snapshot depictions of life under Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia by Lemuel Saputra (CFA’25). A lurid, surreal dive bar by Andrea Manning (CFA’25). 

And then there’s the sense-memory depictions of the Dominican Republic created by Nasiri Guzman (CFA’25). Inspired by the frequent electricity blackouts of his childhood, the paintings are drenched in chiaroscuro, a squinting dimness that evokes a Caravaggio painting. Pops of color, judiciously applied, illuminate a sleeping toddler and a laughing group of friends. The viewer is meant to realize that in spite of Guzman’s ominous palette, the subjects are wholesome and thriving.

“My experience during the blackouts was actually pretty awesome,” Guzman recalls. “I got to spend a ton of time with my family and friends. I had some great chats with my mom about what I want to do in the future and my goals. We’d just hang out, play cards, or share family stories.”

Guzman was able to nail his shadow-drenched technique by staring at the reflection made by his TV screen, which he says helped influence the quality of light and form needed to create the illuminated glow that characterizes his project. The technique also helped him perfect the gestural quality of his subjects: “I [learned to] pretty much nail their look with just a few quick brush strokes,” he says. “It led to some fun compositions, where the more you look, the more you discover.”

The 2025 Painting MFA Thesis Exhibition will be on view at the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery (855 Comm Ave) from April 29 through May 18. The gallery is free and open to the public from 11 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.