Find your program at the UW-Madison Art Department

Expand your perspective and connect with your classmates, your community, and the world around you!
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMGRADUATE PROGRAM

Find your program at the UW-Madison Art Department

Expand your perspective and connect with your classmates, your community, and the world around you!
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMGRADUATE PROGRAM

The University of Wisconsin-Madison occupies ancestral Ho-Chunk land, called Teejop (day-JOPE) since time immemorial. In an 1832 treaty, the Ho-Chunk were forced to cede this territory. Decades of ethnic cleansing followed when both the federal and state government repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, sought to forcibly remove the Ho-Chunk from Wisconsin.

This history of colonization informs our shared future of collaboration and innovation. We respect the inherent sovereignty of the Ho-Chunk Nation, along with the eleven other First Nations of Wisconsin.

UW Art in the News

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Announcing the 2023 Arts + Literature Laboratory Prize winners Teresa Audet and Xinchen Li

For Immediate Release – March 6, 2023

The Arts + Literature Laboratory and UW–Madison Art Department are pleased to announce the 2023 Arts + Literature Laboratory Prize winners University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate Students Teresa Audet and Xinchen Li!

The annual ALL Prize exhibition is awarded to one or two graduating MFA candidates from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, selected by curators on the ALL Visual Arts Team. The prizewinner’s MFA thesis exhibition will be shown at ALL, and receive a $1,000 stipend to assist with exhibition expenses and installation provided by the Art Department.

A local Madison community-driven contemporary non-profit arts organization, the ALL provides the visual, literary, music and performing arts that presents over 200 events per year, mostly free or low-cost, and year-round arts education for all ages, working to make the arts more accessible and sustainable in our community.

Exhibition flyer by Teresa Audet.

My work seeks to define the shape of indescribable phenomena. What color is trauma or depression? What does anxiety sound like? What shape does hopefulness take in physical form? Utilizing robotics and sound design in conjunction with handcrafted wood and rattan, my thesis exhibition will explore the somatic experiences of mental illness. Through audience interaction and play, I bring a lightheartedness to these heavy topics. By focusing on our both joyous and painful humanity, I aim to remove the shroud of shame from these collective experiences.

I use wood, rattan, handmade paper, and mixed media to create sculptures that utilize the language of furniture, basketry, and the human body. The repetitive craft processes I use are calming to my mind and result in visual repetition; lines and grids are my wandering woven thoughts. I am interested in the nature of utility, the object as vessel for unexpected and emotional interaction, and using humor and absurdity to point to collective social concerns. Kinetics and robotics have recently become a part of my practice as a way to create work that interacts with the viewer in unexpected ways.

For my thesis exhibition, small creatures on vacuum-like robots will wander around the gallery carrying flags with self-care messages, such as “drink more water” and “feelings aren’t facts”. A ghostly figure created from wood and rattan is outfitted with a motion sensor and a motor; its coat of rattling shingles tremors with anxiety when a visitor gets too close. On the wall, wooden and woven vessels pulsate in specific rhythms, simulating breathing exercises for panic attacks.

This work is informed by my own experience with depression, anxiety, ADHD, and PTSD, and many years of CBT, DBT, and EMDR therapies. I choose to work from scientific data alongside my own, and a narrative of resilience rather than suffering. I aim to make work that the audience can see themselves in as much as they see me.

—Teresa Audet [MFA ’23]

Exhibition flyer by Xinchen Li.

My current research continuously focuses on creating an immersive environment. Throughout my research practice, creating a place of memory is a constantly recurring theme.

I am returning to object making and to create a room in memory/a “time-space” for myself. I chose the furniture from the house I grew up in that has metaphorical and symbolic meanings to me. Recreating the furniture with the 3D printing pen in life-size serves as a flashback to my memories. Besides, because of the fragile material, it also reflects the fictional nature of memory and tactility. I explicitly chose a clock, a bed, a cabinet, a wardrobe, and a sewing machine. And some pieces will be hanging in the air; when lights go through, the shadow of the pattern and portrait that made up the furniture will output another piece on the floor/wall. The remaking process reclaimed my ownership of the family history and memories. At the same time, the design of these old furniture pieces reflects the artisan’s unique aesthetic and craft level in the seventies and eighties China. It becomes a mapping of my generation’s cultural background and belonging. I also recorded the sound of the sewing machine and my grandma’s oral stories to play in the show, helping create the immersive environment.

—Xinchen Li [MFA ’23]

Audet and Li’s 2023 MFA thesis exhibitions will be shown at ALL from March 17 – April 17, 2023, with a reception on Friday, March 24th from 6 to 9pm.

Events

Spring 2023 Visiting Artist & Art Faculty Colloquium

Come visit the University of Wisconsin-Madison Art Department!

Tours are now available by appointment, view our upcoming Art Department events for prospective students at Visit Bucky: apps.admissions.wisc.edu/visitbucky/

Carefully read the event information and COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Campus Visitor Agreement before your visit.

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
GRADUATE PROGRAM
Ceramics faculty Gerit Grimm reviews a project with a student at the Art Lofts Ceramics lab.
Visitors dance at Matt Mauk and Heather Sutherland's MFA Show Reception at Art Lofts, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A student places movable type in a bed for a letterpress project during the Book Arts class taught by Jim Escalante at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Elise Berry cleans plaster-cast remnants from a glass sculpture she is finishing in the UW Glass Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Katelyn Alain, a graduate student pursuing a master of fine arts degree in painting, works on a self portrait in her studio space in the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
First Year Grad Show Reception, Art Lofts Gallery, Department of Art University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students watch a wheel throwing demonstration by a visiting artist in a Ceramics class at the Art Lofts.
Graduate art student Sarah Deppe works on a piece in her studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student works on a project in the Metals class at the George Mosse Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Student Michelle Bridwell prepares artwork to be displayed during a student art sale.
A student talks about their artwork at Gallery 7 at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art faculty Lynda Barry holds up assignment instructions for a student exercise in her Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Lynda Barry leads a "drawing jam" with children during a Saturday Science outreach event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate art student Will K. Santino poses with his work in his studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Grad student Rebecca Kautz celebrates installing her MA Show Protagonyst at the Art Lofts Gallery.
Art faculty Lynda Barry poses with a student in her Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
At left, Eric Adjetey Anang (standing at left), Ghanaian woodcarver, master-coffin builder and Windgate Artist in Residence in the Art Department, listens to undergraduate Jamie Dawson, a first-year student in the ninth cohort of the First Wave program, perform a spoken-word piece as part of an opening exhibit of Adjetey Anang's work at the Arts Loft at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During the event, Adjetey Anang led a gun-breaking ceremony and invited guests to participate in a symbolic breaking of the barrel of his gun-shaped coffin. The gun-breaking action was in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and against gun violence locally, nationally and internationally.
Maixia Xiong poses with her artwork at the BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
A student works on an acrylic painting in the Advanced Drawing class.
Glass artist Yuki Wakamiya works with an assortment of tools and blown air to shape a piece of molten glass during a demonstration at the Glass Lab open house at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students work together with an assortment of tools and blown air to shape a piece of molten glass and form Madison'’s largest glass ornament during a UW Glass Lab event in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The public event featured students performing a number of interesting glass experiments and working together to create a giant Christmas ornament that was auctioned off for charity.
Graduate art student Noel Ash poses with her paintings in her studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students use a torch to heat a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate student Justin Eccles passes out customized trucker hats at the Art Department new graduate orientation event at the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
John Hitchcock reviews prints with a student in the serigraphy class in the George Mosse Humanities building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Lynda Barry's Art 448 Making Comics 1 students pose with their final project comics on the last day of class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A visitor views the University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student work on display at the Swap Meet trade show with the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Students enjoy a tea party using handcrafted tea sets created in ceramics class at the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student examines the writing on a painting at the First Year Grad Show, Witnesses, on display at the Art Lofts Gallery.
From back to front of canoe, Wayne Valliere, a Native American artist-in-residence with the Department of Art and member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and Tim Frandy, an outreach specialist at the UW Collaborative Center for Health Equity, take a traditional Ojibwe birchbark canoe for an inaugural paddle in Lake Mendota near the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The canoe is known in Ojibwe language as wiigwaasi-jiimaan, and was handmade by Valliere as part of his residency.
A student touches up their drawing on a lithography print at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students work together to inflate a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art faculty Fred Stonehouse poses with a student in his Drawing class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An undergraduate student works on a sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students work in the printmaking labs in Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during assistant professor Emily Arthur's (in red apron) Relief Printing course.
Visitors explore the Biennial Neon and Light Exhibit held inside the Stock Pavillion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Many of the sculptures and artwork were created using glass and varying light sources. In addition to UW-Madison artists, as well as independent artists from around the country, participating artists hail from schools including the Alfred University School of Art and Design, Pratt MWP, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point, UW-River Falls and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Lynda Barry reviews the work of one of her students, lecturer Allison Welch, at left, in the Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An art education student practices hands-on learning teaching a youth art class. Art education students experience a four semester sequence of classes introducing students to the teaching profession, including child development, learning theories, inclusive schooling strategies, curriculum and instruction, history of American education, and rigorous Art Education methods courses, plus 200 hours of practicum and 18 weeks of student teaching.
A student snaps pictures of Ben Skiba's technique throwing a tall pot in the Ceramics Lab at the Art Lofts.
Katie Hudnall, Windgate Artist-in-Residence, sketches ideas for a woodworking project at her studio in the Humanities Building, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fresh Hot Press Students pull a shirt printed with a design on the mobile serigraphy press at the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student constructs a sculpture project.
Students work in the printmaking labs in Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during assistant professor Emily Arthur's Serigraphy course.
Students critique each others' projects in the Digital Media class taught by Stephen Hilyard the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student pulls a print off a lithography stone in Lithography class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What Can Art Do Show Reception Gallery 7, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students work together to inflate a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate student Justin Eccles passes out customized trucker hats at the Art Department new graduate orientation event at the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An undergraduate student works on a sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student constructs a sculpture project.
Lynda Barry's Art 448 Making Comics 1 students pose with their final project comics on the last day of class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Grad student Rebecca Kautz celebrates installing her MA Show Protagonyst at the Art Lofts Gallery.
John Hitchcock reviews prints with a student in the serigraphy class in the George Mosse Humanities building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate art student Sarah Deppe works on a piece in her studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student works on a project in the Metals class at the George Mosse Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student pulls a print off a lithography stone in Lithography class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student touches up their drawing on a lithography print at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
From back to front of canoe, Wayne Valliere, a Native American artist-in-residence with the Department of Art and member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and Tim Frandy, an outreach specialist at the UW Collaborative Center for Health Equity, take a traditional Ojibwe birchbark canoe for an inaugural paddle in Lake Mendota near the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The canoe is known in Ojibwe language as wiigwaasi-jiimaan, and was handmade by Valliere as part of his residency.
Students work in the printmaking labs in Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during assistant professor Emily Arthur's (in red apron) Relief Printing course.
Art faculty Lynda Barry poses with a student in her Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fresh Hot Press Students pull a shirt printed with a design on the mobile serigraphy press at the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students work together with an assortment of tools and blown air to shape a piece of molten glass and form Madison'’s largest glass ornament during a UW Glass Lab event in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The public event featured students performing a number of interesting glass experiments and working together to create a giant Christmas ornament that was auctioned off for charity.
A visitor views the University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student work on display at the Swap Meet trade show with the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Katelyn Alain, a graduate student pursuing a master of fine arts degree in painting, works on a self portrait in her studio space in the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Visitors explore the Biennial Neon and Light Exhibit held inside the Stock Pavillion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Many of the sculptures and artwork were created using glass and varying light sources. In addition to UW-Madison artists, as well as independent artists from around the country, participating artists hail from schools including the Alfred University School of Art and Design, Pratt MWP, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point, UW-River Falls and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Glass artist Yuki Wakamiya works with an assortment of tools and blown air to shape a piece of molten glass during a demonstration at the Glass Lab open house at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student examines the writing on a painting at the First Year Grad Show, Witnesses, on display at the Art Lofts Gallery.
A student snaps pictures of Ben Skiba's technique throwing a tall pot in the Ceramics Lab at the Art Lofts.
Maixia Xiong poses with her artwork at the BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
An art education student practices hands-on learning teaching a youth art class. Art education students experience a four semester sequence of classes introducing students to the teaching profession, including child development, learning theories, inclusive schooling strategies, curriculum and instruction, history of American education, and rigorous Art Education methods courses, plus 200 hours of practicum and 18 weeks of student teaching.
First Year Grad Show Reception, Art Lofts Gallery, Department of Art University of Wisconsin-Madison
Art faculty Lynda Barry holds up assignment instructions for a student exercise in her Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate art student Will K. Santino poses with his work in his studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students critique each others' projects in the Digital Media class taught by Stephen Hilyard the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students use a torch to heat a glass piece at the UW Glass Lab in the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Graduate art student Noel Ash poses with her paintings in her studio space in the Art Lofts building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students watch a wheel throwing demonstration by a visiting artist in a Ceramics class at the Art Lofts.
Ceramics faculty Gerit Grimm reviews a project with a student at the Art Lofts Ceramics lab.
At left, Eric Adjetey Anang (standing at left), Ghanaian woodcarver, master-coffin builder and Windgate Artist in Residence in the Art Department, listens to undergraduate Jamie Dawson, a first-year student in the ninth cohort of the First Wave program, perform a spoken-word piece as part of an opening exhibit of Adjetey Anang's work at the Arts Loft at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During the event, Adjetey Anang led a gun-breaking ceremony and invited guests to participate in a symbolic breaking of the barrel of his gun-shaped coffin. The gun-breaking action was in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and against gun violence locally, nationally and internationally.
Lynda Barry leads a "drawing jam" with children during a Saturday Science outreach event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Student Michelle Bridwell prepares artwork to be displayed during a student art sale.
What Can Art Do Show Reception Gallery 7, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students enjoy a tea party using handcrafted tea sets created in ceramics class at the Art Lofts Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Katie Hudnall, Windgate Artist-in-Residence, sketches ideas for a woodworking project at her studio in the Humanities Building, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
BFA Show Reception, Gallery 7 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students work in the printmaking labs in Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during assistant professor Emily Arthur's Serigraphy course.
A student talks about their artwork at Gallery 7 at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Art faculty Fred Stonehouse poses with a student in his Drawing class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A student works on an acrylic painting in the Advanced Drawing class.
Lynda Barry reviews the work of one of her students, lecturer Allison Welch, at left, in the Making Comics class at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Elise Berry cleans plaster-cast remnants from a glass sculpture she is finishing in the UW Glass Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Visitors dance at Matt Mauk and Heather Sutherland's MFA Show Reception at Art Lofts, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A student places movable type in a bed for a letterpress project during the Book Arts class taught by Jim Escalante at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Arts at UW

Did you know?

The UW-Madison Art Department is:

  • #1 in Printmaking
  • Ranked among the top 15 Fine Arts MFA programs
  • Founded the 1st collegiate Glass program in the U.S.
  • 1 of only 5 universities in the nation with a Neon program

Ranking Source: U.S. News & World Report

The University of Wisconsin-Madison ART DEPARTMENT is committed to teaching art in the context of a major research university and a vibrant intellectual community. Offering the following degrees: B.S., B.F.A., M.A., & M.F.A. in Studio Art, B.S. in Art Education, Certificate in Art Studio, and Certificate in Graphic Design.

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