Congratulations to MFA Alumnus Karlito Miller Espinosa (Illustration + Design 2019) for his acceptance to the 2019/20 Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of Art! Miller Espinosa is a conceptual artist who creates objects and composes installations informed by the direct relationship between capitalism and the structuring role violence plays in its preservation. Through an interdisciplinary practice that employs the artist as researcher and material as witness, Miller Espinosa’s intention is to unmask predatory strategies of enforcement that have otherwise effectively been rendered invisible. His work is particularly concerned with U.S. policy and its effects on minority, migrant, and working-class populations.
The Whitney Independent Study Program (ISP) is a highly competitive program consisting of three interrelated parts: Studio Program, Curatorial Program, and Critical Studies Program. The ISP provides a setting within which students pursuing art practice, curatorial work, art historical scholarship, and critical writing engage in ongoing discussions and debates that examine the historical, social, and intellectual conditions of artistic production. The program encourages the theoretical and critical study of the practices, institutions, and discourses that constitute the field of culture. Each year 15 students are selected to participate in the Studio Program, four in the Curatorial Program, and six in the Critical Studies Program.