Chelsea, New York
Group Exhibition
Thesis Exhibition 2026
SVA Chelsea GalleryMosab Abushama, Idris Ademole, Brett Boshco, Lisa Chen, Elianna Fried, James Hastur, Clayton Keeling, Katie Lawrence, Gwen Norton, Savannah Spirit, Luke Wu, Robert Yan MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media presents an exhibition of photography, installations, and video projects by fourteen students, organized by faculty members Randy West and Erin Davis. Nat Trotman, Curator, Performance and Media, Guggenheim New York, states, "The fourteen students in the 2026 class of the MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media program deploy a variety of mediums and techniques but are unified in their dedication to looking closely at the real world—veering away from fictional scenarios toward research and documentary practices. Many projects focus on archives and bureaucracy: multiple artists use paperwork as either a conceptual gambit or a literal component of their works, complementing others who appropriate images and stories from family, scientific, or political histories. This broad emphasis on systems of knowledge intersects with a recurring interest in institutions and technologies that govern how we navigate our physical and societal environments. Whether through physical mark-making, humor, or dreamlike scenarios, a number of artists disrupt and critique these conventions in deeply personal ways. This sense of intimacy extends into several projects that tell true stories of people who persist in simply living their lives amidst a range of difficult situations. While rarely offering explicit references to current events, the artists gathered in this exhibition and screening are clearly thinking hard about a future marked by rising authoritarianism, the dismissal of difference, and the wholesale erasure of history. Their remarkable thesis projects offer a variety of paths by which we might traverse this rocky terrain, in a resounding testament to the power of art—and of photography and video especially—to confront, and transform, the world we live in."