Exhibitions 2025: UMass Dartmouth 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition

Saturday, April 5 - Sunday, April 27

Exhibiting Artists

• Kofoworola Adebiyi
• Anis Beigzadeh
• Jungin Chang
• Anna Ladawan Levine
• Jillian McEvoy
• Rachel Mulcahy
• Marilyn Perry

Locations

1. UMass Dartmouth 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition at The Ignition Space
   44 Troy Street, Unit 2, Fall River, MA 02720
   Reception: Saturday, April 12, 3 - 5 PM, Welcome Remarks 4 PM 
Gallery Hours: Thursdays & Fridays 4 PM to 8 PM, Saturdays & Sundays 12 PM to 5 PM
   
   
2. UMass Dartmouth 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
33 William Street, New Bedford, MA 02740
   AHA! Night Meet & Greet, Thursday, April 10, 6-8 PM at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, Artist Talks 6 PM at the theater
   Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM
   
   
3. UMass Dartmouth 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition at The Art and Design Studios
   Dartmouth Towne Center Plaza, 458 State Rd. North Dartmouth, MA 02747
   Reception: Thursday, April 24, 4:30 to 6:30 PM
   Gallery Hours: Daily 9 AM to 6 PM

Free entrance

The UMass Dartmouth MFA Thesis Exhibition is a much anticipated and celebrated annual event showcasing the artwork of graduating Master of Fine Arts students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. In 2025, the exhibition will take place in three locations from Saturday, April 5 to Sunday, April 27, all open to the public free of charge.

The main exhibition is at The Ignition Space on 44 Troy Street, Unit 2, Fall River, MA 02720 with the satellite locations at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and The Art and Design Studios in Dartmouth. 

The Opening Reception at The Ignition Space in downtown Fall River is planned for Saturday, April 12 from 3 - 5 pm, with Welcome Remarks at 4 pm. Free on-street parking is available over the weekend.

The College of Visual and Performing Arts would like to express its sincere thanks to Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition (FRACC) and Ashley Occhino for hosting us in The Ignition Space. We would also like to thank the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and their amazing staff including L. Compton, Arts and Youth Coordinator for opening their gallery to our students. Thank you also to all our faithful audiences for their ongoing support of our students and exhibition programming.

More information: Viera Levitt, Director, UMass Dartmouth Galleries
Facebook / Instagram @UMassDartmouthGalleries
gallery@umassd.edu

Greetings from Dean Jenkens

I am very pleased to offer my heartfelt congratulations to the seven students— Kofoworola Adebiyi, Anis Beigzadeh, Jungin Chang, Anna Ladawan Levine, Jillian McEvoy, Rachel Mulcahy, and Marilyn Perry—who are graduating this spring from our MFA program. As we always do, we celebrate this milestone with an exhibition of our students’ work, and I am very excited to be able to share this show with all of you. The work in the 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition represents the culmination of two or three years of exploration, experimentation, successes, some failures, and lots of hard work in several different media. What we see in the galleries is the happy result of this journey; what we cannot always see is how far these students have come in their work from the time they first moved into their studios here. This exhibition celebrates their accomplishments, while the degree we are awarding them recognizes the whole of the voyage they are so successfully completing.
 
To Kofo, Anis, Jungin, Anna, Jill, Rachel, and Marilyn: Thank you for this magnificent show. You have each been an important part of the CVPA community, and we will miss you as you move on to your next adventures. As much as this seems like a culmination, it is instead the beginning of what we expect will be long and fruitful careers as artists, no matter in what directions that might take you. I hope, too, that you will always consider yourself part of CVPA, that you will stay in touch, and that you will share your journey forward with us and the students who will follow in your footsteps. Congratulations, good luck, and hooray to all of you.
 
The MFA Class of 2025 is the second of two years of students disrupted by our leaving the Star Store in Fall 2023. That was traumatic for all of us, but for the graduate students in particular who had to work in makeshift spaces and without the facilities they needed and expected to have available to them. As difficult a transition as this was, each and every one of you adapted to your new circumstances, and you persevered, never letting your workspace deter you from making art. In fact, for some of you the limited facilities led to productive experiments with new media and materials.
 
The loss of the Star Store has also complicated our MFA exhibition which this year is divided between three venues in Fall River, New Bedford, and at our studios at ADS. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Viera Levitt, our Gallery Director. She has navigated the complicated logistics involved in curating and installing this show. As always, she has brought us a stunning show.
 
I am grateful, too, for the great assistance of the Assistant Dean Jessica Fernandes Gomes, our Graduate Director Suzanne Schireson, graduate thesis advisors Rebecca Hutchinson, Jess Worby, and all the dedicated members of the graduate thesis committees, technicians Shingo Furukawa, Vincent Martin, and Paula Medeiros, Administrative Assistant Lin Dong as well as Michelle Bowers and her students for graphic design —thank you all. I also acknowledge the dedication of our faculty who have nurtured these students throughout their time at CVPA, and the staff that works so hard to support students and faculty. Finally, thank you to our MFA students’ family and friends—your support, patience, and enthusiasm has been essential to their ability to focus on their studio work and classes.

Congratulations!
 
Lawrence Jenkens
Dean

Gallery Director’s Notes

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to celebrate the UMass Dartmouth MFA Thesis Exhibition, our annual celebration of graduating Master of Fine Arts students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. In 2025, experience their diverse creations across three venues: The main exhibition is at The Ignition Space in Fall River with satellite locations at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and The Art and Design Studios (ADS) in Dartmouth.

Each artist brings a lot of their background and skills to this exhibition.

Kofoworola Adebiyi’s paintings echo her upbringing in Lagos, Nigeria and have a reflective depth also found in her voice as she reads poems that accompany each canvas hung on a darkened wall. 

Interdisciplinary artist from Iran, Anis Beigzadeh uses intricate techniques to combine ceramics and textile in unexpected creative ways, including movement or interactive elements, pattern, and geometry.  

Jungin Chang presents the children’s book as well as illustrations on the walls, featuring colorful whimsical portraits of modern motherhood under societal pressures, particularly the ones she experienced in her native Korea. 

Anna Ladawan Levine’s oil paintings focus on womanhood and women's bodies in distinct spaces capture multiple layers of experience and meaning through their provocative titles.

Jillian McEvoy has a unique ability to transport us in time and space into the mysteries of her peculiar “cabinet of curiosities” environment to discover how far one can experiment not only with clay, but also fossils, found objects or even living beetles. 

Rachel Mulcahy draws inspiration from underappreciated wild and invasive plants through her intricate ceramic tile surfaces, framing them into surprising wall murals.

Influenced by the vast, untamed landscapes of her birthplace of Northern Canada, Marilyn Perry's ceramic and handmade paper installations examine geological time, sense of impermanence, wonder, and meditative reflection.

We extend our sincere gratitude to the Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition (FRACC) and Ashley Occhino for hosting us at The Ignition Space, and to the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and their amazing staff including L. Compton, Arts and Youth Coordinator, for opening their gallery to our students.

We are also profoundly grateful to our dedicated audiences and arts and cultural partners for their unwavering support of our students and exhibition programs.

Thank you,

Viera Levitt