Post published:April 3, 2024

Work of MFA Candidates on Display and Celebrated at MSU Broad Art Museum

The 2024 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition, which runs through Sunday, May 26, at Michigan State University’s Broad Art Museum, is hosting a reception on Saturday, April 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. to celebrate the creative and scholarly research of MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design MFA candidates whose work is featured in this year’s exhibition. The reception is free and open to the public but registration is encouraged.

The MFA Exhibition represents the culmination of a three-year program where MFA students explore their creativity and develop a rigorous studio practice informed by their curiosity of the world around them. The exhibition shows the achievements as well as the continuing artistic and scholarly promise of those individuals who will graduate this spring with an MFA degree from MSU.

Photo inside an art gallery with four brightly colored paintings hanging on the wall on the left side of the photo and a bright pink piece of art on the right side of the photo with a person, whose back is to the camera, sitting in a chair looking at the bright pink piece. — Some of the artwork on display as part of the 2024 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition at the MSU Broad Art Museum. *(Photo by Seth Schafer/MSU Broad Art Museum)*

While developing their thesis exhibition projects, the MFA candidates work under the supervision of a faculty guidance committee to refine their artistic goals and develop a deeper understanding of what it means to be a contemporary practicing artist.

This year, there are five MFA candidates whose work and creative research are featured in the MFA Exhibition:

Shirin Abedinirad
Gustavo Uriel Ayala
Emily J. Burkhead
Adeline Newmann
Patrick N. Taylor

The April 6 reception will include a short awards program beginning at 7 p.m. when recipients of the Selma and Stanley Hollander Fellowship for Graduate Study and the John and Susan Berding Family Foundation endowed Master of Fine Arts Prize will be announced.

This year’s guest juror is Teréz Iacovino, Assistant Curator of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She will select the recipient of the 2024 Master of Fine Arts Prize, which she will announce at the April 6 reception.

Serving as this year’s Critic-in-Residence was journalist Hilarie M. Sheets who contributed essays to the exhibition catalog.

The 2024 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition is organized by MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design and the MSU Broad Art Museum, with curatorial oversight provided by Dalina A. Perdomo Álvarez. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Graduate School at MSU and the John and Susan Berding Family Endowment.