This post was updated Nov. 11 at 9:06 p.m.
UCLA graduate student artists are giving audiences a look into their minds this fall.
The M.F.A. 2026 Preview Exhibition, hosted at the New Wight Gallery in the Broad Art Center, opened its doors Oct. 30 to display the works of the class of 2026 graduate students in fine arts. The exhibition – which features the works of 16 students and is open for public viewing until Nov. 13 – showcases a wide range of art forms including ceramics, photography and sculpture. Graduate student in fine arts Lucas Wrench described taking part in the exhibition as a rare opportunity for their cohort to come together.
“I’m really happy with how everyone was able to work together, and I think we’re all proud of how the show turned out,” Wrench said. “We don’t really have very many opportunities where we all come together, … and we all get to see each other’s work in the same room.”
Exhibitor Andrés de Varona, whose background is primarily in photography, said one of his motivations for pursuing an MFA was to explore more interdisciplinary forms of art. He added that, in the program, he learned how to let the things he built stand on their own rather than capturing them in photographs.
De Varona’s work in the exhibition is titled “A Crooked Life.” The three-dimensional installation stretches across the floor and up the wall in the corner it is situated in. De Varona said the piece draws from his life’s experiences, and it works to transform them into an experience both for himself and for audience members. He added that the piece was driven by the idea to make a ball out of plaster and continuously evolved from there.
“I would really love for people to be able to feel their bodies when they look at my work,” de Varona said. “I would like for them to be able to feel their insights and feel grounded in their body or have some sort of reaction that is physical to the artwork.”
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Graduate student in fine arts Keegan Holden described his pieces in the show, “Untitled (Grays)” and “Untitled (Grays II),” as a “new direction” that intends to blur the line between photography and painting and thus challenge the ways that people perceive photography.
Holden added that because the two works – which are very dark in tone – share many of the same qualities as paintings, many audience members didn’t immediately realize they were photographs. They added that they enjoyed seeing the reactions and engagement of people both within and outside the art community.
“They (the audience) did have this kind of experience as if they were looking at a painting and projecting onto my photograph the way that they might project onto a painting,” Holden said. “That’s exactly what I want, is to separate the context of the work being made from its making and have it be situated in this more artistic, emotional space for the audience.”
Titled “Smiling Fish,” the focal point of Wrench’s piece was a whittled fish mounted on a wall at the gallery. The piece combined Wrench’s interest in political cartoons – as seen through the copper etchings of defaced politicians around the work – with their observations on how fish communicate.
Prior to pursuing their MFA at UCLA, Wrench worked in public programming in museums and then started their own art space in Tulsa, Oklahoma, called “OK #1.” The space focused on being a place for ideas that didn’t have a home in Tulsa and often served as an intersection between art and local politics.
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For each artist, the exhibition served as a starting point to their thesis shows in the spring, allowing the public to have a glimpse into the concepts and mediums that drive their work, Holden said. De Varona said he was excited to explore using the bigger space provided for the thesis show to display new work and combine sculpture installation and photography. Holden said the exhibition served to solidify their ideas and added that their current work is “a turn away from legibility and clarity towards obscurity and opacity.”
Taking part in this exhibition was a rewarding experience, de Varona said, as it allowed him to feel a sense of community with his cohort and explore new styles of creative expression.
“Being part of this exhibition feels like I’m opening a door or scratching the surface of something new,” de Varona said. “It’s like I’m part of a collective group of people that are passionate about making artwork and want to continue making artwork throughout their lifetime.”
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