The 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibition for the Department of Art at The Ohio State University invites the public to encounter the richness of our interdisciplinary MFA program in Studio Art. Through coursework in the Department of Art and across other academic departments and centers, mentorship through independent study with art faculty, as well as a graduate students’ thesis committee, each MFA candidate pursues a unique and rigorous art practice for three years. Waiting for the Light to Change features the work of nine MFA graduate students whose art bravely responds to today’s cultural contexts.
Through artistic mediums including interactive kinetic sculpture, painting, drawing, illustration and cartoons, text and poetry, ceramics, video and moving image, found roadside materials, photograms, photography, and the body, each artist addresses historical forces and our world today. With each medium, dynamic methodologies include pressing feet and hands into clay, submerging one’s body in water, driving a car, weaving hair and thread, laser-cutting paper, and the imaging of breath. In tandem with each art practice, many of the works are brought to fruition through dialogue with professors who are practicing artists, the Department of Art’s phenomenal technicians, and facilities, therefore demystifying the notion that art is solely a solitary individualistic endeavor. The artists and artworks teach us how the space of the studio is deeply intertwined with the world—past, present, and future.
Each artist in this exhibition contributes to the vast and ever-changing field of art in conjunction with their own specific fields of research, life experience, and dedicated artistic inquiry. Each of their art practices forge steadfast presence for interconnected spheres of influence including relational aesthetics, geometry, queer theory, mixed-race studies, Eastern philosophy, phenomenology, psychology, pandemics such as Covid-19 and the AIDS crisis, systems of control and resistance, connections between self and place, the interstices of public and private, the mystery of trees, dog walking, notions of the superhero, issues of representation, multilingual identity, and diasporic experiences. Each body of work in Waiting for the Light to Change signals and invites you—to be challenged, to closely observe, listen, and ask questions.
—Gina Osterloh, Associate Professor of Art, Department of Art, The Ohio State University
Participating Artists: Banerjee, Shaheen Beardsley, Maria Conlon, Onni Estabrook, Samuel Lo, Takahiro Okubo, Shruti Shankar, Sam Wrigglesworth, Xuan
Reception: Saturday, February 21 from 5–7 PM at Urban Arts Space
