2023 MFA thesis exhibition catalogue showcases artworks and essays by graduate students

Every spring, graduating MFA students curate a thesis exhibition representing the culmination of their studies and the evolution of their arts practices at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. In turn, art history students in the school’s master’s and doctoral programs pen essays dissecting these artworks for the resulting catalogue — their analysis published alongside images of their colleagues’ works. The catalogue for the 2023 thesis exhibition re:(de)construction — shown in May 2023 at the school’s downtown contemporary art gallery the Athenaeum — spotlights eleven MFA students, ten art history graduate students, and includes a guest essay by Director and Curator of the ICA Chattanooga Rachel Waldrop.

According to Athenaeum Director Katie Geha, this year’s exhibition was “a circular and continuous call and response,” influenced greatly by the fact that the 2023 class began their graduate studies at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Geha contends, “these artists have witnessed and participated in a deep re-examination of the structures that govern society. Through their various material experiments in video, painting, print, photography, metals, clay, and sound, they share a commitment to reconfiguring and reinventing new ways of being in the world.”

Explore the digital catalogue to delve further into the varied and incisive work of graduate students in art and art history at UGA!

To learn more about graduate studies at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, visit our landing page.

re:(de)construction exhibition, installation view. Athenaeum, Athens, Georgia. Image courtesy of Jason Thrasher.

Artists in the exhibition include: AJ Aremu, Mickey Oscar Boyd, Zahria Cook, J Taran Diamond, Shaunia Grant, Chad Hayward, Huey Lee, Jason Rafferty, Rachel Lea Seburn, Ethan Snow, and Lila (Lee) Villalobos.

Art historians in the catalogue include: Olivia Bennes, Melissa DePierro, Alejandra González-Calvo, Alex Hathaway, Jaime Ciera Hartman, Alaine Lambertson, Grace Moorman, Kait Morrison, Chelsey Spencer, and Isabella Tallman-Jones.

If you are seeking state-of-the-art facilities and a vibrant, tight-knit community enhanced by exhibitions and a robust line-up of visiting artists and scholars, look no further. The Lamar Dodd School of Art is now accepting applications to graduate programs in studio art, art history, and art education for the 2026-2027 academic year.

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