Artists in the Master of Fine Arts program will present their thesis projects at the Art, Architecture & Design Museum, May 17–June 9. The show’s theme, “Incandescent,” references Michel Serres and an emphasis on the interconnectedness of humans and nature, and their shared unfolding history.Participating artists are Panteha Abareshi, Diego Melgoza Oceguera, Dannah Mari Hidalgo, Hope Okere, Lyra Purugganan, Mariana Rodela and Lela Shahrzad Welch.
“Over the course of their studies at UCSB, the Department of Art’s 2024 Master of Fine Arts thesis class have developed bodies of work that reify and undermine contemporary discourses around place and displacement,” said Alex Lukas, the graduate program advisor. “Created on our bucolic landscape during a time of global tumult, the lens of ‘Incandescent’ explores both the large and the small, focusing on global diasporic histories alongside interrogations of our own campus traditions.”