玉米视频

On view in the 玉米视频 Art Museum from April 19 to May 18, 玉米视频 University's 2025 Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition TRANSIT presents the culminating works of six graduating artists in the Studio Art MFA program: Phaedra Askarinam, Pooja Campbell, Patricia Edwine Poku, Connor Gagne, Andr茅s Izquierdo, and Julia Cheng Zhang. This diverse cohort employs mediums ranging from painting and ceramics to installation and performance, unified by the theme of "transit"鈥攊nterpreted as acts of passage, transformation, and self-discovery.

Curated with a visionary approach that bridges physical journeys with the emotional landscapes of modern existence, TRANSIT invites you to experience art as both a voyage and a destination.

"The cohort arrived at TRANSIT as their title because it speaks to a shared theme through their practices. One dictionary defines transit as 'an act, process, or instance of passing through or over.' And to varying degrees, their work examines the transitions of life, like grief and parenthood, that we all experience to varying degrees,鈥� said Professorial Lecturer Molly Springfield.

Pooja Campbell
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In her paintings, Pooja Campbell stages quiet family dramas, serene domestic scenes of her children at rest or play, layered with patterns reminiscent of her Indian heritage. Through elements of collage and a rich, post-Impressionist palette, Campbell explores the complexities of immigration, motherhood, and family dynamics, juxtaposing her own upbringing with her children's first-generation 玉米视频 experiences.

Pooja Campbell, Once Upon a Time, Oil on linen, 33.5 in x 26.25 in, 2025. Credit: Connor Gagne

Connor Gagne
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With Best and Worst, Connor Gagne explores the tension between artifice and intimacy through a meticulously constructed miniature dining room. Made from humble materials like construction paper, foam board, and lightbulbs, the piece captures a domestic interior in uncanny detail. Yet Gagne鈥檚 work resists nostalgia. Instead, it probes the emotional architecture of memory and home鈥攈ow spaces can be both comforting and unsettling, ordinary and strange. The title itself suggests the duality embedded in personal histories and family rituals. By miniaturizing and aestheticizing the domestic, Gagne invites viewers to consider how physical space mirrors internal states. His work draws from traditions of 玉米视频a, but with a conceptual edge that underscores the surreal in the familiar.

Connor Gagne, Best And Worst, Construction paper, foam board, popsicle sticks, thimbles, wood, copper plates, aluminum wire, thumbtacks, lightbulbs, paper towels, leather dye, acrylic paint and mylar, 40 in x 36 in x 20 in, 2025. Credit: Connor Gagne

Phaedra Askarinam
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Iranian 玉米视频 artist Phaedra Askarinam blurs the boundary between ritual and installation in her participatory works. Her tea ceremonies invite viewers to contribute used teabags to her pieces, turning passive spectators into co-creators. In Healing with a Cup of Tea, Askarinam incorporates tile patterns from the former Iranian Embassy in Washington, DC, evoking loss, diplomacy, and connection. Her work draws on the communal language of hospitality to bridge cultural divides and echoes the relational aesthetics of artists like Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Phaedra Askarinam, Detail of Shanbeh (Saturday), Acrylic, paper, tea bags, and tea on canvas, 17 x 13 in, 2024. Credit: Liz Ashe

Patricia Edwine Poku
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Ghanaian artist Patricia Edwine Poku merges ancestral symbols with contemporary forms. Her work incorporates Adinkra symbols鈥攇raphic emblems of values and proverbs鈥攊nto richly textured sculptures and paintings. In The Sand Talisman, a spiral of jute twine represents the Adinkrahene symbol for leadership and authority. In Mmim Boba, she transforms ceremonial fabrics into sculptural forms. Drawing on spiritual and cosmic themes, Poku invokes artists like Jay DeFeo and Robert Rauschenberg while rooting her practice firmly in West African visual traditions.

Patricia Edwine Poku, The Sand Talisman, Acrylic, jute twine, and ocean sand on canvas, 83 in x 69 in, 2024. Credit: Patricia Edwine Poku

Julia Cheng Zhang
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A former scientific illustrator for NASA, Julia Cheng Zhang brings a uniquely analytical lens to her ceramic works. Born in China, Zhang left a career in science to pursue art鈥攁 shift that became central to her work. In her M枚bius Strip Variation series, she draws on mathematical and natural concepts of symmetry, entropy, and order. Her glossy black ceramics explore infinite forms, marrying scientific inquiry with spiritual resonance and offering a meditative investigation into beauty, transformation, and self-discovery.

Julia Cheng Zhang, Mo虉bius Strip Variation I, Ceramic, 14 in x 8 in x 7 in, 2025. Credit: Julia Cheng Zhang

Andr茅s Izquierdo
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In works like Hippos and Coke I, Colombian artist Andr茅s Izquierdo draws on surreal historical allegory to confront the legacies of violence. Referencing the so-called 鈥渃ocaine hippos鈥� imported by drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s, Izquierdo鈥檚 gestural paintings serve as searing critiques of the environmental and cultural aftermath of narco-violence. The abstracted hippos鈥攂loated, grotesque, almost mythic鈥攕tand as symbols of excess, corruption, and resistance.

Andr茅s Izquierdo, Hippos and Coke I, Oil on Masonite, 4 ft x 8 ft, 2025. Credit: Andr茅s Izquierdo

For More Information

For more information, visit the Transit exhibition page.听