MFA Graduates Exhibition

Every Summer, The Hite Institute of Art and Design highlights our graduating MFA Candidates in our annual MFA Graduates Exhibition at the Cressman Center for Visual Arts. The exhibition is an opportunity to share the accomplishments of our most recent MFA Graduates with the community and offer the public a chance to see work from their Thesis Exhibitions together in one place. This Summer, the exhibition includes work from: Hannah DeWitt, Katelyn Gabbard, Trish Korte, and Shachaf Polakow. 

The MFA Graduates Exhibition is on view June 3 - August 4, 2023. A reception will be held on Saturday June 3 from 2-5 pm.  This event is free and open to the public! To make an appointment to view the show after the opening please email:  jessica.oberdick@louisville.edu

See more on our recent grads and their Thesis work below!

The Hite Institute of Art + Design is excited to announce our Spring line-up of MFA Thesis Exhibitions. The Hite’s MFA graduate program culminates with an MFA thesis exhibition from each student, and is an opportunity for students to present their final body of work to the public. This spring, our four MFA candidates will each present their work in a solo exhibition at the MFA Gallery. See below for additional dates and details. Each reception is free and open to the public. We hope you will join us!

Hannah DeWitt: Someone, Stop Her | March 3-11, 2023

Someone, Stop Her! The Musical (The Gallery Show) is an emotional rollercoaster of live performance, visual art, and interactive gallery experiences. Watch MFA candidate and performance artist Hannah DeWitt as she works through her traumatic narrative in real-time, using ukulele, guitar, stand-up comedy, sock puppets, burlesque dance, and more. This one-night-only vaudeville performance is a camping of the artist’s own post-traumatic stress, creating a uniquely uncomfortable experience sure to make you laugh, cry, and potentially leave you feeling aroused. This is the train wreck you will not want to look away from: see her now before she’s committed! Content warning: includes partial nudity and discussion of sexual assault, suicide, mental health, and grief. Yikes!

Katelyn Gabbard: Sprits in My Studio | March 17-25, 2023 | Reception: Saturday March 18; 5-8 PM

Spirits in My Studio inventories elements of human relationships/connections through the collection and transformation of remnants left behind. The veneration of the remnant through the solitary ritual of the artist combined with a presentation format that incorporates an immersive three-dimensional field in which the audience may traverse the work as an ongoing mutable compositional strategy, Gabbard acknowledges and celebrates the entropy of the exchange in human relationships and elevates process to both content and medium. Gabbard creates moments of active entanglements with real physical relationships to the artist, the making, and now the audience. As such, she invites the viewer to bear witness to this act of entropy as art in its own right.

Trish Korte: Second Nature: Impression of Place | March 31-April 8, 2023 | Reception Friday April 7, 5-8 pm

For my art practice, I grow and forage my art materials for eco printing where I reveal leaf shapes and hidden imagery through heat and pressure. I take specific cues from materials, objects, and environments that surround me. Tree systems and compelling textures of fungus are interpreted through ceramic and fiber. With an ongoing collaboration of natural materials and eco printing processes, my art speaks symbolically and metaphorically through imagery and artifacts. 

Shachaf Polakow: The landscape does not care it is a landscape: A Pessimist-Utopian journey in Kentucky| April 14-22, 2023 | Reception: Friday April 14, 5-8 pm

In this time of climate crisis, Shachaf Polakow traveled through Central and Eastern Kentucky to learn about the region's history and how it transformed the landscape. From these journeys he created an immersive exhibition using photography, sound, and video that reflects on the legacy of American Settler Colonialism in the region. He invites the viewers to grieve what has been lost, and at the same time to celebrate those that survived, learning from their resilience. The exhibition invites viewers to explore various intimate landscapes and moments, hoping that we can envision a better future for all.

All MFA Thesis Exhibitions take place at the MFA Gallery: 1616 Rowan St Louisville, KY 40203