The 2023 BFA Thesis Exhibition opens April 28 in the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery and runs through June 2. Artist talks take place at 5 p.m. on April 28, followed by the opening reception at 7 p.m. The exhibition includes work by graduating BFA students Micah Haji-Sheikh, Breanna Hansen, Catherine Jaggi, Dylan Jones, Parker L., Lee Letourneau, Sandra Lopez, Sasha Mosquera, Naes Pierott, Solo, and Rachel Tsu.

About the Artists

• Micah Haji-Sheikh is a queer nonbinary artist whose large-scale sculpture explores the impact of the global oil industry on the human experience.
• Breanna Hansen’s thesis work includes photographs focusing on self-reflection and forgotten moments in relation to living in Las Vegas. She deconstructs and reconstructs photographs to create new narratives.
• Catherine Jaggi uses her painting and sculpting to define her “self.” She uses humor as she questions her own existence.
• Dylan Jones is a painter that utilizes intense colors to relay feelings of discomfort, loneliness, and abandonment. His paintings feature interior scenes that show evidence of human life with the absence of figures, often breaking naturalistic perspectives.
• Parker L. uses photography to confront mortality, and question religious constructs. She works with nature and the human body to reveal cyclical narratives of life.
• Lee Letourneau focuses on exploring sensation as a transgender man. He utilizes gendered color association to his advantage, consoling his inner child, while conveying his trans experience in a tangible form. 
• Sandra Lopez uses vibrant colors and distorted imagery. She makes work that relates to her experience with sleep disorders and insomnia to understand her subconscious mind. 
• Sasha Mosquera's work celebrates the passing of loved ones. Her work revisits the unwanted feelings associated with loss to process the ideas of life, death, and the everlasting.
• Naes Pierott is a Black woman artist whose work engages the Black community. Her quilts use fabric and photography to tell the stories of the Black American experience.
• Solo uses painting to spotlight femininity, and acknowledge the stories of women who face adversity, including herself. Her colors and childlike imagery contrast with the stories of womanhood and the poignant memories she depicts in her paintings.
• Rachel Tsu creates abstract works with digitally manipulated photography.  She connects the audience to their own psychological realm with reflected compositions—manifesting deeply complex, internal spaces with altered imagery.

About the UNLV College of Fine Arts

The UNLV College of Fine Arts, one of the nation's largest CFA, boldly launches visionaries who transform the global community through collaboration, scholarship, and innovation. Established in 1992, the UNLV CFA encompasses the departments of art, dance, film, theatre, the School of Music, School of Architecture, Entertainment Engineering & Design, and is home to the Performing Arts Center, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, and Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art. 

We illuminate the power of the arts amidst breathtaking advancements in science and technology. In doing so, we are creating a global destination at the forefront of transforming arts and design. To accomplish this we encourage agency, inventiveness, problem-solving, and big-idea thinking in our students, faculty, and staff. We make education relevant through evolving curriculum and effective learning outcomes.