2026 Senior Exhibition Artists 2026 Senior Exhibition Artists: Rihana Kavanagh

About Rihana Kavanagh

Rihana Kavanagh is a Haitian American artist graduating from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with a bachelor’s degree in Animation and Game Arts. During her time in higher education, she developed skills in 3D animation, sculpting, and modeling while refining her preexisting 2D skillset. She uses her love of bright neon colors, brash line work, anatomical fundamentals, and eccentric designs to create dynamic pieces and stories that explore themes of identity and nonconformity.

Throughout her college career, she worked as a Resident Assistant and served as secretary, vice president, and eventual president of the UMass Dartmouth Animation Club.

Statement

I’ve been drawing all my life, but I remember things really kicking into gear when my dad gave my sister and me a copy of Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. My early love for Sonic the Hedgehog and making Sonic OCs quickly grew into a love for character design, comics, storytelling, and all things animated. Throughout elementary and middle school, I made silly, character-driven comics and shared them with my friends and teachers.

High school was when I started getting serious about experimenting with anatomy, artistic identity, and digital art in general. Naturally, there was only one direction for me to go when I realized creating was something I wanted to do for as long as I can remember. Although I pursued this career path out of enjoyment, I eventually realized there was also a sense of responsibility. Because of the way society and visual media are structured, I recognize that there are parts of my identity, and the identities of my friends, that I don’t often see represented in mainstream media. While this is not the fault of any one person, having the ability to create makes me want to help fill those gaps while also making my family proud of having raised an artist.

Pursuing this field professionally will help me work toward my goal of creating and sharing engaging stories with complex, intertwining narratives, and compelling themes that feature all kinds of characters. It would also make my younger self beyond happy.

I see myself working in 2D animation, storyboarding, and illustration, while also being drawn to 3D modeling. In my capstone, I wanted to showcase my character design skills and my ability to express a narrative in a short amount of time. I also aimed to strengthen both my 2D animation and 3D animation/modeling skills. This animation features 10 original character designs, eight of which are in a band together as they beat down on a punching bag with a notorious CEO’s face plastered on it.

Website: rkavanagh.carrd.co

Rihana Kavanagh

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