Home Lift Off  Catalogue the infra-ordinary  Exhibition
Superbloom by Alana Rios (Installation Image)

2019 - 2021

MFA Showcase

Superbloom, Alana Rios, 2020. Hand-cut archival inkjet prints. © Alana Rios

Celebrating the San José State University MFA Graduates 2019-2021

This site serves as a showcase and archive for the combined Fall 2019 - Spring 2021 graduating MFAs from San José State University.

As with so many things in our lives, this trajectory was disrupted in Spring of 2020; the production of the exhibition and catalogue put on hold while the world grappled with the global pandemic.

In Fall of 2020, graduates elected to combine their efforts in a joint exhibition and catalogue featuring work from a selection of artists from the graduating classes of Fall 2019 through Spring 2021 who were able to participate. This website reflects the combined curatorial, administrative, creative, and scholastic efforts during a period where hard stops in the timeline softened; the culmination is a blending of shared resources and efforts.

2019 - 2021 Participating Graduates



Overview

As a component of their degree, MFA Candidates at San Jose State University mount two exhibits housed within one of six University Galleries; one exhibition in their second year of study and a culminating Thesis Exhibition at the end of their third year. In addition to the Solo Thesis Exhibitions installed on campus, MFA Candidates have the option of participating in a group exhibition hosted off-site & pairing with an MA Candidate in Art History and Visual Culture to create an entry in the annual, Lift-off Catalogue. Past exhibitions have been installed at Root Division (SF), Incline Gallery (SF), Pro Arts (Oakland), and the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art. Recent Curatorial advisors for the exhibition include Chris Gurnder & Cléa Massiani (Co-Directors of Bass & Rainer, SF), Kevin Chen (Independent Curator), and in this iteration, Marcella Faustini (co-Director of CLOACA Projects, SF).

Art students at San José State join a legacy of thinkers, activists, and innovators dedicated to the public good. They test ideas through experimentation in the university’s robust fabrication studios, which support the technical components of artistic production in ceramics, digital media, metals, glass, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Individual studios create space for deep thinking and artistic creation; adjacent communal work areas engender peer-to-peer dialogue and foster innovation and intellectual rigor.

Students combine their in-class experiences, faculty mentorship, independent research, and individual studio practices to produce these exhibitions. The transformations that occur through interdisciplinary dialogue and pedagogical stewardship are nowhere more evident than in these markers of educational maturation.

The culminating group exhibit and accompanying catalog, produced at the end of students’ final year of study, reveal the synergies that emerge from the diversity of learning practices. The artworks speak to critical issues far beyond the University grounds; that inevitably direct graduates' thinking, making, and far beyond their time at San Jose State University.

Rhonda Holberton
Assistant Professor, Digital Media Arts
Art Graduate Program Coordinator
San Jose State University | College of Humanities and the Arts

Credits