Graduate Students

All
2021
Alumni

Taylor Benoit

2021
MFA

Studio Arts Building 123

tfbenoit@umass.edu

Richenda Cope

2021
MFA

Clark 202D

rcope@umass.edu

Avery Forbes

2021
MFA

Studio Arts Building 117

aforbes@umass.edu

Avery Forbes

Avery Forbes creates work that explores what we lose when we mediate social interactions through our devices, and aims to make visible and unignorable the pressing social issues that we often prefer to distract ourselves from. Consumer culture has a way of inspiring ennui rather than unrest. Avery's work aims to make the small indignities and injustices more visible, and inspire action

Nima Nikakhlagh

2021
MFA

Clark 202C

nnikakhlagh@umass.edu

Jessica Scott

2021
MFA

Fine Arts Center 454

jessicascott@umass.edu

Jessica Scott's Website

I am a multidisciplinary artist working in performance, sculpture, installation, collage, theater and photography. My work addresses concerns of bodily autonomy, human rights, transnational feminisms, and transformations of the flesh through imaginary, literary and practical means. For the past 15 years I have designed and performed for Broadway shows, in a 1000-gallon aquarium and the Pacific Ocean, internationally, in living rooms and everything in between. I am currently a 2nd year MFA Candidate in Studio Art at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Originally from San Francisco, I received my BA from NYU with a focus on Political Science and Community Organizing. The values communicated to me through a mixed-race, women-led, working class family are present in all my work: written, visual and performed. I am now based in Amherst, MA and New York City.

Chaehee Yoon

2021
MFA

Studio Arts Building 121

cyoon@umass.edu

Amanda Boggs

2020
MFA

Studio Arts Building 128

amandaboggs@umass.edu

Amanda Boggs' Website

Amanda works in the mediums of performance, video and installation. She is trained in embodied practices (modern dance, yoga, physical theater, gymnastics, and varsity athletics), in visual arts (photography, film, and video), Eastern Philosophy, and ten years as an Off-Broadway performer in the harness-based aerial show De La Guarda. Her background in aerial practices have given her a unique, kinesthetic understanding of the world on both horizontal and vertical planes. In her work, she explores concepts of identity and human connection through experimentation with drone technology and embodied practices.

Kathryn Fanelli

2020
MFA

Studio Arts Building 119

kfanelli@umass.edu

Kathryn Fanelli's website

Bibiana Medkova

Clark 201

bmedkova@umass.edu

Bibiana Medkova's Website

Bibiana is a cross-disciplinary artist who uses installation and new media to interrogate ideas of democracy and globalization. Their work has been shown at Benaki Museum, Athens Greece (2015) and the Satellite Art Show, Miami FL (2016 & 2017); their work has been included in projects that have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (2017), MoMA PS1, Queens NY (2015) and Petzel Gallery, New York NY (2017) and has been reviewed in the Hyperallergic, ArtFCity and Feature Shoot. Bibiana is an MFA candidate at University of Massachusetts - Amherst, founder of Pickled Press and co-editor of Fotofobia.

Kenneth Murphy

2020
MFA

Painting

Clark 202A

kjmurphy@umass.edu

Kenneth Murphy's website

Kenneth Murphy is a descendant of pioneering Americans, the Mormons, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, grew up in multi-cultural Northern California and is a painter. His research is focusing on the intersection between Men's and Postcolonial Studies resulting in paintings and performance-based videos that directly address the artist's demography as a blue-eyed white man, critique ideas around transparency and privacy, and incite a simultaneous effect of inclusion and exclusion.

Kenneth Murphy earned his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2011.

Xuan Pham

2020
MFA

Clark 202B

xpham@umass.edu

Leah Burke

2019
MFA

Clark 203

lburke@umass.edu

Kristy Childress

2019
MFA

Studio Arts Building 221

kchildress@umass.edu

Kristy Childress' website

From personal inquiries into memories of place, Kristy Childress investigates the ephemeral nature of “home” and how our human experience parallels with natural and man-made phenomena of the landscape.

Althea Keaton

2019
MFA

Studio Arts Building 125

akeaton@umass.edu

Althea Keaton primarily creates drawings, etchings, and comics. Her work explores a variety of topics including gender, time, space, identity, and emotion. Much of her work is autobiographical to some extent.

Emily Tareila

2019
MFA

emilytareila@gmail.com

Emily Tareila's website

Emily is compelled by the ideal conditions individuals and communities need to make, learn, be curious and engage meaningfully in/with the world. Her work often takes the forms of workshops, gatherings, meals, events and writing, enacting practices in sustainability, well-being and lifelong learning.

Margaret Wilson

2019
MFA

Studio Arts Building 223

mwilson@umass.edu

David Hannon

2017
MFA

dhannon@umass.edu

David Hannon's Website

collage, drawing, sculpture

Ethan Kiermaier

2017
MFA

ekiermaier@umass.edu

Ethan Kiermaier's Website

Ethan Kiermaier makes videos and performances and installations and situations. He is a DJ, a carpenter, a shade tree mechanic, a producer and a karaoke host. His work is magical realism in the round with relational tendencies.

Peter Mack

2017
MFA

pmack@umass.edu

Peter Mack's Vimeo

Painting, collage, animation, video, music

Andrew Napoli

2017
MFA

Andrew Napoli's website

Collage, etc.

Lauren Bennett

2016
MFA

laurenbennet@art.umass.edu

Lauren Bennett's Website

art by Dave Musgrove, graduate student, UMass Amherst Department of Art

Dave Musgrave

2016
MFA

dmusgrave@art.umass.edu

Chelsea Sams

2016
MFA

csams@art.umass.edu

Chelsea Sams' website

Chelsea Sams explores the intersections of institutions, environments, and the beings that inhabit them. Tactics used in this investigation include drawing, installation, and performance.

Kyle Thorne

2016
MFA

kdthorne@art.umass.edu

Kyle Thorne's website

Molly Hoisington

2015
MFA

mhoising@art.umass.edu

Website

Molly Hoisington likes to think too much. She is interested in abstraction and representation, in exploring sensation and the somatic. She thinks a lot about the process of learning, the process of processing. She mostly paints.

Joe Saphire

2015
MFA

jsaphire@art.umass.edu

Joe Saphire's Website

My work explores media culture through tactics of intervention and misuse. The ways in which a baseball game can feel like a distantly familiar dream; how we might find ourselves empathizing with an actor in an ad; reclaiming noise as cultural artifact—I am interested in the psychological underpinnings of the mediated experience. Projects resolve as installations, site-specific displays, and collaborative events, and are designed malleably to fit different kinds of environments.

Negar Ahmadi

MA, Art Education

nahmadi@umass.edu

Rebecca Aiken

MA, Art Education

rlcummin@umass.edu

Sally Curcio

MFA

Studio Arts Building 118

sallycurcio@umass.edu

Hannah Duggan

MFA

Studio Arts Building 119

hduggan@umass.edu

Ryan Jobb

MA, Art Education

rjobb@umass.edu

Vanessa Kerby

MA, Art Education

vkerby@umass.edu

Cima Khademi

MFA

Clark 202b

ckhademi@umass.edu

Abbey Paccia

MFA

Studio Arts Building 119

apaccia@umass.edu

Kayla Reno

kreno@umass.edu

Jonathan Wilhelm

MA, Art Education

jwwilhel@umass.edu

Bryan Larkin

MA, Art Education

bwlarkin@umass.edu

Ryan Lavigne

MA, Art Education

rclavigne@umass.edu

Christine Lohan

MA, Art Education

clohan@umass.edu

Stacy Quinn

MA, Art Education

slquinn@umass.edu

Arleni Sanchez

MA, Art Education

arlenisanche@umass.edu

Paul Teeling

MFA

pteeling@umass.edu

Classically trained as a commercial photographer and instructor for 27 years, Paul Teeling is using his time here to focus on multimedia art, exploring light, space, and the human condition.

Graduate Students

Useful Links

Graduate Students