The UNLV Department of Art MFA cohort shares their recent work exploring a wide range of formal and conceptual concerns at the UNR Student South Galleries through Oct. 16. In MEDIUM RARE, the artists address gender and the body, queer community, autobiography, motherhood, the language of abstraction, and the surveillance of our everyday lives. 

The through line of this diverse group exhibition presenting the work of 10 graduate students and two alumni (2023) is a dedication to the potential of materials: cast metal and ceramics, drawings on wood, cardboard sculptures, acrylic and Huichol yarn paintings, photography and video. Each artist is invested in an exploration of their respective mediums through research, the development of craft, and the discovery of content embedded in form. 

Exhibiting artists: Bailey Anderson, Clarice Tara Cuda, Cida de Aragon, ¡Katie B Funk!, (Nish)an Ganimian, Dan45 Hernandez, Karla Lagunas, Kayla Lockwood, Keeva Lough, Kellilyn Monar, Ty Suksangasophon, and Romina Villarreal. 

The exhibition is one of two in an exchange exhibition program between the UNLV and the UNR MFA Art Programs. The UNR graduate students will present their work at the Donna Beam Gallery at UNLV in January 2024. The cohorts will be visiting the UNR and UNLV campuses, respectively, during their exhibitions. The goals of the exchange exhibitions are to share research and expand the students’ regional artist communities. 

UNLV’s three-year Master of Fine Arts program is studio-based and research-focused with an emphasis on creative practice, interdisciplinarity, community engagement, and professional development. Throughout the program students conduct practice and text-based research, presenting their work in studio visits, exhibitions, MFA Open Studios, and group critique with faculty, peers, visiting artists, curators, scholars, and community members. 

At the culmination of the program, MFA Candidates present a public solo thesis exhibition project at the Donna Beam Gallery and an artist talk at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art their final semester. The Midway Exhibition is an Advancement to Candidacy degree requirement, which graduate students present their second year in the program as a public, solo project in the Grant Hall Gallery.