Featured Exhibition Image

2022 MFA SUMMER THESIS: Where I'm Coming From

Jul 23 – Aug 14, 2022

The 2022 MFA Summer Thesis exhibition – Where I’m Coming From features ten artists whose approaches to artistic practice embody a myriad of themes and theories within artistic and political discourse.

The synergic cohort formed by Charity Be, Heather Binder, Tammie Dupuis, Alvin Guo, Ted Hinman, Roneld Lores, Christina Marcantonio, Tammy Maxson, Joe Quinn, and Eileen de Rosas presents work that prompts us to reflect on the relations between body and technology, geologies and ecologies, economic and political systems, land sovereignty, and the materiality of everyday life.

The works in Where I’m Coming From exemplify the experimentation and interchange that take place in educational settings, where new narratives go against art historical traditions. Be depicts body responses to technologies of surveillance such as biometric analysis through fingerprint scanning. Binder develops new materialities by blending different types of clay. De Rosas juxtaposes printed silk photographs of images made as part of a considered walking practice around the Northeast. Dupuis focuses on Indigenous geographies and family roots to produce quilted landscapes and complex visual references. Guo interprets scientific data on color perception in serial paintings. Hinman draws imagined cities connecting minerals and outer space to religious narrative. Lores animates natural processes of decay and erosion through sculpture, projection, and computer programs. Marcantonio utilizes textiles and time-based experimentations with sound, video, and performative components to catalog domestic spaces. Maxson collects soil in unaltered and altered states to create living sculptures. Quinn makes paintings that comment on the social and political effects of a post-Trump America.

The title of this show, Where I’m Coming From, was inspired by Stevie Wonder’s album, released by Motown Records in 1971. Released a few years after liberatory legislative Acts were passed in the United States – Acts which granted rights and freedoms to women, people of color, and indigenous communities – the album reflects a historical period of social change. This exhibition is testimony of another moment in time when social dynamics are shifting and many are grappling with the complex ideas that shape our society, from identity, to religion, to the domestic, to our relationship with the earth. Let’s hear and see what the artists have to say.

MICHAELA BLANC has been the Curatorial Research Fellow at the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) since 2019. She holds an MA in Museum Studies/Museum Education from Tufts University, where she researched Critical Race Art History, interpretation and exhibition strategies, and reception of bilingual audiences in art museums. She holds a BA in Art History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


Exhibition Images


Exhibition Archive

2024 MFA SUMMER Thesis | MassArt x SoWa | Sandrea Lovelock Williams Title Wall

2024 MFA SUMMER THESIS

Jul 20 – Aug 9, 2024

Matrescence at massArt x SoWa // Installation view featuring work from Amy Chan, Jasmien Chen, Tanya Nixon-Silberg and Catherine LeComte Lecce // Image courtesy curator Catherine LeComte Lecce

Matrescence

Jun 1 – Jul 14, 2024

2024 MFA Thesis

Apr 27 – May 26, 2024

border(less) // 2024 Alumni Curatorial Project at MassArt x SoWa // Photo by curator Yana Nosenko

border(less)

Mar 9 – Apr 21, 2024

Tender Farms at MassArt x SoWa // Spring 2024

Tender Farms

Jan 13 – Mar 3, 2024

2023 Design Biennial

Oct 21 – Nov 19, 2023

MassArt x SoWa // 2023 MFA Summer Thesis Exhibition

2023 MFA SUMMER THESIS

Jul 22 – Aug 13, 2023

MassArt x SoWa | In This Body of Mine 2023 | Stephanie

In this body of mine

Jun 10 – Jul 16, 2023

MassArt x SoWa | 2023 MFA Spring Thesis Part II | Installation view | Photo by Rebecca Morrison | Work from Hadis Karami + Kierra LoRayne

2023 MFA THESIS | PART II

May 20 – Jun 4, 2023

2023 MFA Thesis Exhibition (Part I) | MassArt x SoWa

2023 MFA THESIS | PART I

Apr 29 – May 14, 2023

Speculative Futurisms | MassArt x SoWa | Dennis Svoronos

Speculative Futurisms

Mar 11 – Apr 23, 2023

The Hour of Lead | MassArt x SoWa

The Hour of Lead

Jan 14 – Mar 5, 2023

2022 Design Biennial | MassArt x SoWa | Installation View | Meyer + Smillie

2022 Design Biennial

Nov 19 – Jan 8, 2023

The New Drawing Room | MassArt x SoWa | Karmimadeebora McMillan

The New Drawing Room

Aug 20 – Sep 25, 2022

Material Agency | MassArt SoWa | Stephanie Cardon

MATERIAL AGENCY

May 28 – Jul 17, 2022

2022 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION

Apr 23 – May 22, 2022

SOURCE at MassArt x SoWa 2022

SOURCE

Mar 12 – Apr 17, 2022

Triple Oscillation // MassArt x SoWa

Triple Oscillation

Jan 15 – Mar 6, 2022

The Nature of Your Departure

Dec 3 – Jan 9, 2022

Yeah, I'm Doing Great | MassArt x SoWa | Installation Shot

Yeah, I'm Doing Great

Oct 30 – Nov 28, 2021

Zaire Love | MassArt x SoWa Protest and Power

Protest and Power

Sep 24 – Oct 24, 2021

2021 MFA Spring Thesis

May 3 – Jun 6, 2021