Wednesday, February 25 @ 5:00 – 6:15pm
Chazen Auditorium
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Our graduate students earning their Masters degrees will present their interdisciplinary work to the public. Explore their body of art, three-years in the making through the development of a rigorous studio art practice under the supervision of a faculty guidance committee, learning to cultivate professional practices that facilitate a sustainable career in the arts.
Photographer Mark Almanza’s work and research revolves around the question he is constantly confronted with, “What does it mean to be a first-generation Mexican American?” His identity has always been at the forefront of his practice—whether welcoming it or not—residing in an in-between state of belonging, not feeling “Mexican” or “American” enough. This void of connection combined with the historical lack of Latine representation in the countless forms of media we consume, forces Almanza to feel like an “observer” rather than an active participant in the culture. Through the use of photography, specifically self-portraiture, close introspection of memories, and referential analysis of media culture like films, TV, and music as tools, he takes back control of the narrative. Almanza is currently pursuing his MFA in Studio Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. markalmanza.photo
An interdisciplinary artist working in installation, sculpture, photo, and video, Swan Ferraro explores these mediums in conjunction with poetry and somatic rituals as a way to collectively dream of desirable futures. Videos of intuitive rituals are artfully recorded to archive queer dreams, examining creative improvisation as a form of divination in the trans body by physically and spiritually envisioning new realities, imagination, and improvisation, becoming political tools for empowerment. Their recent solo exhibition, Transmutation, involved the combination of nature and dance in a collective healing ritual. Dedicated to trans people, survivors, and sex workers, along with much of Ferraro’s work, their work aims to make healing practices more accessible, turning queer spaces into creative sanctuaries, meant to question what healing is and how it is felt. Ferraro has presented their work at the PSi Performance Studies International Conference, SECAC College Arts Conference, and multiple improvisation festivals. They have also presented their work at gallery panels, artist talks, film screenings, as well as sexual assault recovery programs. Their forthcoming paper is appearing in the 2025 issue of the peer-reviewed academic journal GPS: Global Performance Studies. They are pursuing their MFA at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. swanferraro.com
Joshuah Holbrook is a ceramic artist whose work is comprised of abstracting compressed, folded forms to capture an embodied perception and how bodily engagement shapes experience. Working with ceramic, industrial, and fiber materials, Holbrook’s intrigue is in precarity, the constant search of form through a visceral feeling of dissatisfaction and awkwardness. Working intuitively is a vital part of Holbrook’s process through engaging in pre-reflective experience or working without thinking through, using a half-knowledge where perception and action are intertwined. Where there is a battle between the will and the body, self-image and raw impulse, a confrontation of duality through multiple gestures that takes time, Holbrook creates a riddle inconducive to solving one.
Holbrook earned a BFA from Georgia State University with a concentration in ceramics and is currently a ceramics MFA Candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Daniella Thach is a Cambodian-American artist whose works collapse a violent past and volatile present to envision possible futures. They trace this history and the diasporic impact on their family to form a new, amalgamous identity. In combining new and obsolete technologies, Thach melds timelines across past and familial memory to imagine life and identity after genocide, assimilation, and the loss of heritage.
Often spawned in darkened installations, Thach’s interdisciplinary work coalesces neon, video, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and ephemera to conjure spiritual visages. The iconography of Cambodia becomes an anchor within a visual language that Thach can speak fluently, making up for the mother tongue they did not inherit. They long to understand the karaoke sung by their grandmother or to follow the steps of a dance no longer performed. Thach mirrors these traditions passed down from parent to child through craft techniques often passed from master to apprentice, echoing the ways in which we preserve culture.
While unearthing unspoken family memories of life during genocide, Thach hopes to shed light on the forgotten history as 2025 marks the 50th year since the Khmer Rouge systemically persecuted and killed 1.5 to 2 million Cambodian people. Bringing forth this history is especially pertinent as we witness the current genocide within Palestine.
Thach has exhibited works across America such as the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, The Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, Illinois. They were an emerging artist in residence at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington and Chautauqua School of Visual Arts, Chautauqua, New York. Their artwork has been featured in publications including New Glass Review, Sixty Inches From Center, and The Oxford Blue. daniellathach.com