MA | MFA Graduate Exhibition

2025 MA | MFA Graduate Exhibition
What’s around the edges?

When meeting with these graduate students to select work for this exhibition, I realized
how often my eye and mind were being pulled to their artworks’ many edges: frayed
fibers and sculpted rims; the way glaze breaks over an incised line; the moment when
one material becomes another; what peeks out from behind a door or shield. In the
context of a group exhibition, edges are what reach out from one artwork, and artist, to
another. They generate the connective tissue of an exhibition – binding an assortment
of wildly varied artworks into a cohesive whole.
Edges are also typically the most vulnerable part of an artwork, both physically and
theoretically. Edges get dinged, chipped, and torn. They require the most cushioning
and attention when artworks are being packed, moved, and installed. The conceptual
edges of an artwork are also often the most vulnerable spots for both artist and viewer.
They are the spaces that push us to think beyond the known. A painting’s or photo’s
edge defines the image, while simultaneously implying a larger, unseen environment.
Some artworks propose alternate worlds to this one, asking us to speculate about life
beyond the confines of this realm. Other works question social boundaries or edges,
challenging dominant cultural constructs and expectations.
It is in the vulnerability of these edges that this group of graduating artists asks us to
imagine and look for new possibilities. Their edges, whether physical or visual, express
what is at the core of their work. Those edges expose the care and labor these artists
have invested in their artwork and the Graduate Program. They also embody the artists’
innermost concerns and emotions at this time. In these edges, each artist offers up what
is most important to them – opening up a space to connect with us and each other.

Holly Jerger
CSUN Art Galleries Director

Exhibition Artists:
Rees Cawley
Yu-Pei Chien (Pie Chien)
Maria Ermoshin
Chary Goodwin
Janisse Gracia

Bec Kane
Ariella Leiter
Matt Markum
David Mesquita
Maryam Rohani Vakili
Kat Tagorda
Harmony Azul Vasquez

This exhibition and catalog are made possible through generous support from the Dr. Galen and Jaleh
Etemad Family Fund. Additional support provided by the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and
Communication; Instructionally Related Activities Committee; and the Arts Council for CSUN.

Image: Janisse Gracia, XVII, 2024, Ceramic, 22’’ x 18’’ x 18’’