The 2025 VCUarts MFA Thesis Exhibition premieres cutting-edge works from twenty-six emerging artists and designers, representing the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts departments of Craft/Material Studies, Graphic Design, Kinetic Imaging, Painting + Printmaking, Photography + Film, and Sculpture + Extended Media. Presented for the first time at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, the thesis exhibition is the culmination of two years of intensive research and practice, showcasing the creativity, dynamism, exploration, and invention that make VCUarts one of the nation’s leading schools of art and design.

Participants include: Alex K. Bacon, Rasim Bayramov, Catherine Chen, Debra Dowden-Crockett, Amy Duval, Molly Garrett, Tariye George-Phillips, Häsler Gómez, brooklin grantz, David Guarnizo, Madeleine Herisson-Leplae, Aleckxi Hristou-Dorhofer, Aya Khalife, Sina Khani, Yvonne LeBien, Lars Mattingly, A. Neuscheler, Rebecca Oh, Tyna Ontko, Diego Pablo Málaga, Hannah Rotwein, Anne Sarachan, Suzy Slykin, Quinn Standley, Weitong “ShanMu” Sun, and Wren Tiffany.

This year’s exhibition is co-curated by Misa Jeffereis, associate curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Egbert Vongmalaithong, assistant curator at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU; and Chase Westfall, head of gallery at VCUarts Qatar. It will take place throughout the ICA, as well as at VCU’s on-campus gallery, the Anderson, where the show has been held since 1973.

*All works shown in image are from previous MFA Thesis Exhibitions.