In the Wake: 2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition

The Department of Art & Art History presents the 2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition titled In the Wake, on view May 14 - June 7 at the Stanford Art Gallery. Join us for the opening reception on Thursday, May 16, 5-7pm. This group exhibition is curated by Enrique Chagoya and features the thesis artwork of five graduating art practice MFA students: Joanna Keane Lopez, Wendy Liu, Jessica Monette, Yunfei Ren, and Pablo Tut.

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The title of the exhibition was given by the artists, and it could not be any more appropriate. It is based on the title of the book by author Christina Sharpe In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, sharing a pointed critique of cultural structures. It is a reflection on existence.

"Wake work" has been defined by the author as the work of claiming a space for being in a world that seeks to deny it. In this context, art, among many things, is an eDort to re-imagine the meaning of being, eventually free against all odds. Art by itself may not produce necessary social change but it creates thought-provoking dialogues between artists and audiences that eventually help to bring social progress, and hopefully a healthier world.

As we all experience in the present-day social context, there is plenty of censorship coming from many places in an age of polarized politics. Events during the COVID pandemic and the changes produced in the world by the spread are still being felt, not only healthwise, but also with re-emerging social conflicts and the need to reckon with the painful history of a caste system in this country and many others. All this is exacerbated by climate disasters and by the added effects of conspiracy theories and emerging uses of AI in war (truth being the first victim). Violence’s biggest effect is the delay of resolution of conflict, with the consequent human catastrophes, and the emergence of authoritarian systems. We are certainly living in fragile times for freedom of information, freedom of thinking and freedom of expression. Even academic freedom cannot be taken for granted. But often the best of humanity emerges in the worst of times, with unexpected alliances working for peace and envisioning a better future, where the resolution of conflict would bring peace and social progress.

The arts contribute to such positive change during times of anxiety, bringing a space of imagination, reflection, and humanism. Free expression, even if it is fragile, is present in the work of many artists with clear-eyed perspectives. At the Stanford Art Gallery we are proudly able to present a new and exciting MFA thesis exhibition by five talented creative critical thinkers: Wendy Ye Liu, Joanna Keane Lopez, Jessica Monette, Yunfei Ren, and Pablo Tut.

These five artists share concerns shaped by their own formative experiences growing up in different contexts of place, identity, culture, climate change, exclusion, environment and colonial-industrial pollution. Each one shares their rich family stories and histories woven in the transubstantiation of such experiences into their art. Each one expresses their own heart-felt critiques through different media, ranging from video installations, print media, painting, and sculptural installation with open interpretations and non-linear narratives.

- Enrique Chagoya

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VISITOR INFORMATION: Stanford Art Gallery is located at 419 Lasuen Mall, off Palm Drive. The gallery is open weekdays* from 11am to 5pm. Visitor parking is free after 4pm on weekdays, except by the Oval. Alternatively, take the Caltrain to Palo Alto Transit Center and ride the free Stanford Marguerite Shuttle. This exhibition is open to Stanford affiliates and the general public. Admission is free.

* This exhibition will be open for limited hours on commencement day: Sunday, June 16.

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