Fall 2023

Karina Buzzi, an MFA candidate in Photography, Video & Imaging, is holding an exhibition until Sept. 20 at the Center for Creative Photography Gallery 1. Details

Ricardo Chavez, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Art History and Education program, researched the Black Panther Party in the Stanford University’s Special Collections, thanks to support from the College of Fine Arts Medici Circle donors.  Chavez spent time researching records, photographs and periodicals on the history of the Black Panther Party in the Huey P. Newton Foundation Inc. Collection. His research supports his question in the teaching of art and activism in California during the counterculture and civil unrest of the 1960s and 1970s.

Student artists Lyrissa T, Linda Garcia Escobar and Gem Elena Abarca held a reception Aug. 31 for their exhibition “Roots of Resilience” at the Lionel Rombach Gallery. The exhibition, which ran Aug. 17-Sept. 8., delved into the artists’ personal histories and investigated the roots connected to their identities. As members of The Sienna Collective, the artists offered their perspectives and a safe space for all to engage in conversation. Video and Photos

Grad students Jacqueline Arias and Nathan Cordova are showing their work in “Land, Body & Archive” from Aug. 28 to Sept. 22 at the University of New Mexico’s John Sommers Gallery. The reception is Sept. 8 at 5 p.m. The exhibition is part of the Southwest Photo Collaborative, which includes MFA students from the The University of Arizona, ASU and UNM. Go to https://tinyurl.com/jx2283jb for more details.

Spring 2023

Check out these cool final student projects from Assistant Professor Nicole Antebi‘s spring 2023 Animation 1 ART 306B class. The reel, edited by Diana Marie, includes projects from a revised sequence or expansion of a previous animation project from the semester. Video

Antebi’s spring 2023 Motion ART 462D students did a great job on their final “Rotoscope Reel” project, utilizing a live-action dance sequence as a reference for their frame-by-frame animation. Video

Fatema Abizar, a fourth-year BFA student Fatema Abizar, held a reception for her exhibition, “The Shape of Their Hands,” March 2 at the Lionel Rombach Gallery. Abizar worked across mediums of gouache, acrylic, printmaking and natural dyes to capture the space between artist and mother. Photos

Jacqueline Arias held a reception for her exhibit, “Mola: Truth Maps,” on March 5 at the Hilltop Gallery in Nogales, Arizona. The grad student’s show considered the meaning of molas — artisanal quilt designs made by indigenous Guna women in Panama. Photos

Ben Davis, a grad student, received a $1,000 scholarship from PaperWorks-The Sonoran Collective of Paper and Book Artists and presented his work on May 11 at St. Francis in the Foothills. “Through the use of photography, book arts and collage, I have been making my own histories of mundane materials that I view as cultural relics,” Ben says (https://tinyurl.com/SOADavis23). “By exploring different narratives and routes in objects and media I hope to inspire the viewer to think critically about the histories of what surrounds us.” PaperWorks awards scholarships to students focused on paper arts, photography, printing, painting and bookbinding from Pima Community College and the University of Arizona. Photos

Mariel Miranda was named the 2023 “Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant” for the School of Art by the College of Fine Arts. Details

Calista Olander was named the School of Art’s Outstanding Senior for spring 2023. The Art History major used her ballet training to help her excel at the School of Art and land a spot in Columbia University’s Art History and Archaeology master’s program. She minored in Japanese and mathematics, learned two other languages, helped curate multiple student exhibitions, interned at MOCA Tucson … and studied the history of Korean and Italian cinema and carried a 4.0 grade-point average. Story

Deborah Ruiz was named a First Place Finalist and Bio5 Innovation Award winner at the Student Showcase 2023 by the UA Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC). Earlier this month at an AIGA Arizona event, the grad student and Sienna Collective member presented her research on how utilizing design, typography and letterpress printing can help preserve people’s memories as they age. … Ruiz also was a featured speaker in a design education event — “Design, Letterpress Printing & Memory” on April 8 at ASU Polytechnic campus. She talked about how utilizing design, typography and letterpress printing can be a help in preserving memory as we age.

Nupur Sachdeva, an Art & Visual Culture Education Ph.D. student, presented her exhibition, “(co)creating herstory: educurated artivism,” from March 28 to April 7 at the Lionel Rombach Gallery. The show, with an opening reception on March 30, honored groups such as the University of Arizona’s Women & Gender Resource Center — and the power of the arts to make their work visible. The project was made possible by donors to the College of Fine Arts Fund for Excellence and Common Grand Alliance Herstory funds. Photos

Tia Stephens‘ documentary “Every Last Drop” screened May 2 at the Loft Cinema. Stephens, a senior, is graduating with honors in Studio Art (Photography, Video and Imaging) and is a double major in International Relations. “I want this film to serve as a way to reconnect people with water,” she said. Story

Gabrielle Walter, a Master of Fine Arts candidate in Illustration and Design, surprised famed basketball analyst – and NBA legend – Bill Walton, with a newly painted chair he uses when broadcasting games from McKale Memorial Center. Walter incorporated Walton’s love for the Sonoran Desert and the Grateful Dead band in the artwork. “I wanted to make sure the design was a culmination of all the things near and dear to his heart,” said Walter, a fellow Deadhead, who chatted with Walton via Zoom on Jan. 7, when Arizona Athletics presented the yellow chair to Walton before the men’s basketball game against Washington State. Story and video

Awardees

• Delaney Fisher, M.A. Prize, Classical Archaeology, “The Shelby Collection: Provenance & Stylistic Analysis of Limestone Cypriot Heads”
• Sedona Heidinger, Ph.D. Prize, Art History, “Dimbula/Dimbola: Julia Margaret Cameron in Ceylon”
• Denham Carlisle, Undergraduate Prize, Art History, “European Attitudes to New World Gold in the 16th Century and Beyond”

The School of Art honored students Grace Marie Gousman (Art History, Undergraduate Prize), Madeline Schierl (Art and Visual Education, M.A. Prize) and Jenna Green (AVCE, Ph.D. Prize) during the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program 2022-23 Awards Ceremony. More details

Exhibitions

• Scratching the Surface: Students from galen dara smith’s “Scratching the Surface” summer sketchbook class (ART 404) presented an exhibition, “Scratching the Surface,” from May 22 to June 30 at the Lionel Rombach Gallery, with a reception on June 2. The students took working field trips to various campus and off-campus places to practice, and used the Lionel Rombach Gallery as an open classroom and visual incubator to display their work. In the class were Munwar Aldawish, Olive Bingham, Bunny Uy Cue, Phoebe Dubisch, Amber Mehta, Ana Monobe, Teaya Sherman-Harris, Jeanne Stewart, Sabrina Vincent and Monte White.

• MFA Thesis Exhibition: Carrying on a tradition that began in 1970, six School of Art graduate students are presenting their work in the 2023 Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition in collaboration with the University of Arizona Museum of Art. The exhibition, with three installations in UAMA and three in the school’s Joseph Gross Gallery, ran from April 15 to May 13. An opening reception was held April 20 at the school’s atrium. The MFA Exhibition featured installations by Alain Co, Mariel Miranda and Gabrielle Walter in the Joseph Gross Gallery and Emily Kray, Jesus Sanchez-Alvarez and Jandey Shackelford in the UAMA Gallery.

• IDA Capstone Thesis: BFA students in Illustration, Design and Animation presented their capstone thesis show May 11 in the School of Art lobby. IDA Assistant Professor of Practice Simon Hinchliffe and Cy Barlow with the College of Fine Arts documented their work on this website page. The student artists: Grace Rhyne, Alexia Romandia, Isabel Austin, Isabel Luevano, Hailey Jo Smith, John Konrad, Ellenor Spencer, Madison Ritscher, Madison Evans, Michael Miscio, Isabella DeFine, Kiana Chan, Nettie Gastelum, Shiloh Cosby, Alan Castillo, Echo Rigg, Laura Rincon, Kate Louis, Keelie jones, Chyla Gonsowski and Hailey Pate. Photos from reception

• Lucky Me: Infuse, a group of graduate student artists, writers and researchers, presented their exhibition ‘Lucky Me!” in the Lionel Rombach Gallery. They held their reception May 10 in the Lionel Rombach Gallery. Infuse is co-organized by Astrid Liu, Emily Kray and Jackie Arias. Other exhibition collaborators included Leah Mensch and Cameron Carr; Hanan Khatoun, Sydney Streightiff and Jenna Green; Yvette Saenz and Moisés Delgado; and Isaac Morano and Sarah Fenter. Photos

• While It Lasts: The May 5 “While It Lasts” exhibition reception featured works from Photography, Video and Imaging capstone undergraduate students under Regents Professor Sama Alshaibi at the Steinfeld Warehouse’s Subspace. The artists were Sara Apostolik, Lizzie Bell, Jackie Cabrera, Kimberly Calles, Mckenzie Campas, Caitlyn Jarrett, Marcello Martinoli, Tanya Robles, Fernanda Silva Mendoza, Ariana Valencia and Jessica Wolff. Photos

• Art Research in the Unruly World: Students in the “Art Research in the Unruly World: Questions, Forms & Methods” (SCCT 510) Ph.D. class presented their work on May 2 at the Palo Verde Gallery in the Grad Lab. The class, through the SCCT Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, was co-taught by Profs. Ellen McMahon and Hai Ren (East Asian Studies). The students and their work: Yoon Ahn – The Art of Being; Courtney Bryant – Ode to Agriculture; Keyania Rayshell Campbell – 1 02 in Shreveport; Nathan Cordova – Plastic Bodies; Mathilde ‘De Boer – Apology-Esque; Mei Du & Huiqi Zhang – The New Dictionary of Affect; Haydon Ekstrom – Abduction, Anxiety, Anthropocene; Shiloe Fontes – Using Nature for Using Nature; Drew Grella – Convenience Vessel#; Camden Hardy – Mediated Relations; Majerle Lister – Untitled; Claire Taylor – Excuse Me Miss; Luke Xin – The Bodies of Sensation; Qingqing Yang – Ewenki Human-Reindeer Community; and Yanchen Zhang – Unzipping the Earth.

• Shaping Conduits: Eleven students in the Graduate Interdisciplinary Critique (ART 642) class held their end-of-semester gallery show, “Shaping Conduits,” on April 28 at the Palo Verde Gallery, 1231 N. Fremont Ave. The students were: Jacqueline Arias, Triston Blanton, Nathan Cordova, Ben Davis, Drew Grella, Hanan Khatoun, Anita Maksimiuk, Deborah Ruiz, Dana Smith, Claire Taylor and Mahraveh Vahediyan.

• 380 Pop-Up: Students from Prof. Lawrence Gipe’s ART 380 painting class held their “380 Pop-Up” exhibition April 27 at the school’s Grey Door Gallery. The students: Shannon Blaire, Zevi Bloomfield, Cece Chavez, Nicole Cue, Chyla Gonsowski, Iliana Gonzales, Emma Kageyama, Thurwin Lane, Viridiana Meda, Siarra Medina, Amber Mehta, Javier Mendoza, Erika Moreno, Isabel Orozco-Anguiano, Louis Pellerito, Andres Sanchez and Ava Sheppard. Photos

• Nice to Meet You, Too: Students Karina Buzzi, galen dara, Vanessa Saavedera and Claire Taylor presented their work in the “Nice to Meet You, Too” exhibition in the Lionel Rombach Gallery from April 17-21. Photos

• BFA Exhibition/UAMA Exhibition: Undergraduate students presented the 2023 BFA Exhibition in the Joseph Gross Gallery from March 16-April 3 and a UAUA Exhibition in the Lionel Rombach Gallery from March 13-24. A joint reception was held March 16. Photos

• Tucson Zine Fest: Students from the School of Art’s Riso Club — Hanan Khatoun, Gabi Walter, Deb Ruiz, Galen Dara and Triston Blanton — along with adjunct instructors Katie Watson and Jesse Hinson participated in the 2023 Tucson Zine Fest on April 15 at the Steinfeld Warehouse’s Subspace. Photos

• School of Art students Drew Grella, Diana Marie Morse and Claire Taylor helped with a visual interpretation of students’ debates and stories for the Regents Cup on Feb. 26. “The wall was an absolute hit and everyone involved fell in love with it,” Morse said. The University of Arizona’a team won the overall competition — a two-part storytelling and Oxford-style debate contest intended to celebrate free speech and democratic engagement across the state’s three public universities. Photos

• Prof. Nicole Antebi’s spring 2023 Animation 1 ART306b class produced a 24-frame flip book demonstrating the Squash & Stretch principle of animation in their first project. Video

spring/Fall 2022

Ava Christensen, a December Art History grad, was one of two recipients of the Naomi and Samuel Greenfield Endowed Scholarship through University of Arizona Libraries, where she worked as a student employee. Christensen is now pursuing a master’s in Library & Information Science at The University of Arizona.

Yaqui artist Augustine Fernando Lopez, a Photography/Video/Imaging graduating senior, presented his project “The Silent Distress” (photo, above) in regards to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), and boarding school epidemics, on Dec. 8 the CESL Auditorium. A reception followed in the Arizona State Museum lobby. Watch the presentation

Amanda Lipp, an Art History major, was named the Outstanding Senior for fall 2022 by the entire College of Fine Arts and the School of Art. The undergrad student, who minored in Art and Visual Culture Education, earned accolades for her research into the Mexican talavera jar (photo, above) and the history of all-women art exhibitions. “This is the kind of research practice we expect of our grad students,” Professor Stacie Widdifield said. Read Story

Ryann Squires was named the spring 2002 Outstanding Senior for the School of Art and College of Fine Arts. From her nomination letter, “Ryann is the finest art history undergraduate major the current faculty has had the pleasure of teaching and mentoring in recent memory. Professor Paul Ivey affirms she has the potential to be one of the best of visual scholars of her generation. Ryann has shown an exemplary commitment to social justice issues, especially LGBTQ+, women’s rights, and civil rights, displayed in nearly every research paper she has written and in her extracurricular activities.” More details

Grad students Napur Sachdeva and Meghan Hipple organized the 10th annual “Emerging Conversations,” for the school’s Art & Visual Culture Education program. This year’s event, Nov. 3-5, featured nearly 30 speakers with the theme, “(Un)framing Borders: sharing knowledge across boundaries of art, visual culture and education.” More details and Photos.

Senior Erika Tenorio saw one of her designs chosen by the university’s Indigenous Cats Association to mark Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 10. Tenorio, who hails from three indigenous cultures, read the Land Acknowledgement at the Pima County Board of Supervisors’ Nov. 15 meeting. Tenorio, a double major in Studio Art Illustration and Latin American Studies, is honoring her heritage and grandmother with her art. Read story

MFA student Jacqueline Arias, an artist and filmmaker, saw her short documentary, “Panama Narratives,” featured in the Arizona Underground Film Festival on Sept. 18 at The Screening Room downtown. Read story 

MFA candidate and illustrator Woodlin Latocki had only just begun to dip her toes in the world of animation when she was approached to animate the next Wonder video for the University of Arizona brand campaign. Latocki used rotoscoping – tracing over live-action footage frame-byframe — to make School of Dance alumnus Taylor Bradley’s performance video come to life in animation, earning a Creative Achievement Award.

Grad students Jacqueline Arias and Mariel Miranda were selected by the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry as awardees for the Border Lab Graduate Fellowship program, made possible with funding from the Office of the Provost and University of Arizona HSI Initiatives. This program aims to advance the mission of the Border Lab initiative, an effort to develop the university’s U.S. and Mexico borderland studies and research. “With the support granted by this fellowship I will be able to activate a series of science fiction workshops at Tijuana in the neighborhood where I grew up and lived in since 1993,” said Miranda.

Amber Coleman, a doctoral student studying art and visual culture education, was committed to sharing the kinds of stories that too often don’t get told. Coleman worked on passion projects illustrating the histories of Tucson’s Dunbar school and the Buffalo Soldiers as part of her role as a student developer with the Center for Digital Humanities.

K. Lynn Robinson, a third-year PhD student, was selected from a list of distinguished graduate students as a recipient of the 2022-23 Dr. Maria Teresa Velez Diversity Leadership Scholarship. This award is given annually to a doctoral student at the University of Arizona who has demonstrated a commitment to furthering diversity in education, higher education, and the community at large. Read story

Molly Kalkstein, Ph.D. candidate in art history and the Marti and Ed Slowik Curatorial Intern, curated a gallery in the UAMA exhibition “The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation” which featured the entire exhibition “A Book Like Hundred Flower Garden: Walasse Ting’s 1¢ LIFE.”

BFA students Grace Rhyne and Ellenor Spenser were selected to design a mural as part of a national team competing in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Solar District Cup. The mural is part of an on-going Solar Commons Project with Professor Ellen McMahon and alums Dorsey Kaufmann and Karlito Miller Espinosa. The community research project aims to bring solar energy to underserved populations.

Artist and educator Anupam Singh joined the 2021-22 cohort for the prestigious University Fellows program. Singh is a PhD student studying Art History and Education with a focus on Art and Visual Cultural Education. Prior to Tucson, Singh was teaching English.

The school welcomed first-year student Emily Miu in the fall. Miu received scholarships after attending the @visionsteens program offered by @scottsdalearts. “The scholarship opportunities I gained from this program made me change my major in college and goals for my academic future,” Miu said. More details

Lauren Paun, who graduated in the spring with her BFA in Art & Visual Culture Education (emphasis on Community and Museums) and 3D Art, was a student employee in the School of Art for two years, working with social media accounts. More details

Adri Boudrieau, a triple major in Art History, Classics and Anthropology, was named the College of Humanities Outstanding Senior of spring 2022. More details

Collaborations

• In the 2022 Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition, graduating MFA students presented their work at the Joseph Gross Gallery and University of Arizona Museum of Art from April 16 to May 14, with a reception on April 21. The students:

• Students in instructor Jonathan Marquis’ ART 380B class held their exhibition, “The Place of Painting,” at the Lionel Rombach Gallery from Nov. 9 to Nov. 22. Students were Fatema Abizar, Joseph Barraza, Krysta Ellis, Linda M. Garcia Escobar, Julie Fan, Rachael Huffman, Sophia Laing, Jon Savarese, Ana Paula Monobe, Erika Elizabeth Moreno, Isabel Orozco-Anguiano, Casaundra Rodriguez, Gracie Thomas and Allisen Warner. More details and Photos

• Prof. Marcos Serafim’s Fall ART 349 students producedDE/COMPOSITIONAL LOGIC on Dec. 8 at The Loft Cinema — a free screening of selected works from Artists’ Video 2022. The students were: Lizzie Bell, Kimberly Calles, Mckenzie Campas, Amber Cole, Dietz, Ary Frank, Tucker Grams, Kendall Grant, Stuart Kieren, Stasia Mazza, Yesenia Meraz, Tanya Robles, Quinn Standley and Ariana Valencia. De/compositional Logic included bursts of delirium, ambiguous explorations of feeling and perception, altered physical and mental states, and expositions of the alluring, decomposing pollution of the capitalist spectacle. What follows is the possibility of engagement with the moving image as a critical tool, as an extension of our mind-bodies, and as a subject that impacts culture.

• Prof. Nicole Antebi’s Fall Animation 1 students worked on several projects, including a character turnaround and xxxxxxxx. The students were: Truman Adams, Kayla Bradshaw, Kiana Chan, Isaac Davis, Isabella DeFine, Kaya Glasner, Rene Harter, John Konrad, Malaquias Palacios, Madai Palacios, Alisha Stadler, Jihye Tak, Saedi Wadman and Maya Wong.

• FASO, an exhibition created for Grad Critique, led by Prof. Lawrence Gipe, held its reception on Nov. 18 at the Graduate Gallery. Student artists: Student artists: Austin Caswell, Galen Dara, Drew Grella, Tessa Laslo, Deborah Ruiz, Vanessa Saavedra and Mehraveh Vahediyan.

• Prof. Nicole Antebi’s spring motion arts students were so enthralled by the ants during their class visit to Biosphere 2 that they created a short film, “Who Put These Ants in my Biosphere?”. The animated film is shown from the perspective of an ant colony exploring Biosphere 2 and was screened at The Loft Cinema for the School of Theatre, Film & Television’s Magic Hour. Eight motion arts students were then selected to dive deeper into focused animation work that reflects Biosphere 2 and Arizona Institutes for Resilient Ecosystems and Societies (AIRES) research through a Science in Motion 2022 Summer Residency in Animation. Students included Caroline Berkey, Andrea Flores, Sharon Grumbles, Ashley Gutierrez, Danielle Hunt, Kat McGee, Robin Silverman and Gabe Spencer.

• Featuring 135 works by 65 students, the BFA exhibition March 14 to April 5 was the first in-person show in the renovated Lionel Rombach Gallery and refreshed Joseph Gross Gallery in three years. The show, which takes place annually each spring semester to highlight the work of the school’s BFA studio and AVCE undergraduates, had its reception on March 31. See photos: Series 1 and Series 2 and Series 3 and Series 4 and Series 5.