New Perspectives: The 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition at UAlbany

By Sophia Arredondo | April 30, 2025

Pictured from left to right: Kim Tateo, Ally DeRusso and Christian Henry Wechgelaer.

Photo Credit: Sophia Arredondo / The ASP 

After two years of hard work in preparation for their theses, 10 graduating Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidates from the University at Albany will unveil their artwork in the 2025 Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition. Opening to the public on Wednesday, April 30, the show highlights the culmination of each student’s artistic journey.

The MFA is a terminal degree in studio art– the highest degree awarded in the field. To earn the 60-credit degree, students must write a statement, produce an oral defense, complete an oral exam, and finally, have their work presented in a public exhibition. 

The MFA Exhibition has been a campus tradition since 1983. Through the collaboration of the Department of Art and Art History and the University Art Museum, students are given the opportunity to showcase meaningful work in a professional museum setting.

“We’re really lucky that our students have that opportunity to work with a pro-museum team: director, chief curator, associate curator, designer, preparator, registrar,” said Danny Goodwin, Professor and Chair for the Department of Art and Art History. “It's the whole staff that mounts every exhibition that comes through here, but this is sort of our students first opportunity to work at that level.”

Putting an exhibit together is a detailed and collaborative process. Students bring their work from the studio to the gallery space, guided by museum professionals who help shape the presentation for a larger viewing public audience. 

While the preparation follows a shared academic timeline, the final works vary widely in form, material and message. Each piece reflects the artist’s voice, experiences and values. 

“We work semester by semester. Getting started, we're experimenting a lot in our studios, meeting with our graduate faculty," said graduate candidate Christian Henry Wechgelaer. “It's to cultivate our art practice for a longer term, but also as a capstone to this exhibition too. The whole time we're thinking about this exhibition and preparing for it, and preparing for our careers as a whole as well.”

Everything cultivates in the final semester, when preparation intensifies. Students submit proposals, meet with museum staff and refine the installation process through collaboration and feedback.

Once the installation is complete, the candidate’s work all comes together. With the space now ready, the spotlight shifts to the student’s work, offering a direct lens into their creative world.

Wechgelaer’s thesis work reflects digital spaces– their effects and the effects of digital images on our physical lived reality. His work takes reference from various internet aesthetics and communities as well as childhood memories shaped by the web. His work is created on delicate papers and mounted on industrial hardware, representing the physicality of his work, embracing the physical and growing digital world.

“Through my drawing process, things are layered, they're erased and aren't always as clear as you might expect them to be, so it's a little bit of a puzzle,” said Wechgelaer. “I think that the idea of exploring the dichotomy of the digital and the physical is really important right now, especially thinking about things like AI and how so much of our lived experiences are online.”

Ally DeRusso, another featured candidate, uses images and forms of documentation to express her work. With an interest in vernacular photography– everyday images not originally intended as fine art— DeRusso uses printmaking, photography and textiles to embellish her own images and create quilt-like objects to represent moments in time. 

“I'm interested in fragmenting the photograph through printmaking processes,” said DeRusso. “So, the photograph becomes more distorted and it's more related to the plasticity of memory.”

Graduate candidate Kim Tateo embraces bold scale and introspection. Her large-scale painting reflects her subconscious with a focus on process and intuitive creation.

“Large scale paintings are really about the process themselves and sort of connecting to my subconscious,” said Tateo. “Having my subconscious relate and pour itself out, and in paintings has been something that I've been exploring a lot with this work and also, trying to embrace the mystery of things. So I mean for my work to have a mysterious quiet composition.” 

Each candidate demonstrates a strong connection to their work, and every piece reflects countless hours of exploration, revision and growth. 

“This exhibition is truly, I think, probably the favorite exhibition on campus,” said Corinna Schaming, Director and Chief Curator of the University Art Museum. “It's really a finger on the pulse of what people are thinking about in the moment, it's fresh, it's a range of mediums. You see everything from videos to sound to painting to mixed media.
I mean, it's all here. You come, and you're surprised and I think really just rewarded visually or morally. It's just palpable.” 

Support for the exhibition comes from multiple departments and donors, including the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, The University at Albany Foundation, the College of Arts and Sciences, the University at Albany Alumni Association, and the Ann C. Mataraso Endowment Fund in honor of Professor Emeritus Mark Greenwold. 

This support is essential, enabling students to present professional-level work and affirming the university’s commitment to artistic innovation and expression. 

“This world is longing to connect in so many different ways,” said Tateo. “...art can actually transcend words and make it easier for people to find ways to connect.”

The MFA Thesis Exhibition opens Wednesday, April 30 and runs through Sunday, May 18 at the University Art Museum. The show is free, open to the public– UAlbany students included– and offers an immersive and thought-provoking experience, giving insight into the next generation of artists.