MFA Art Practice presents the 2024 thesis exhibition in collaboration with The Invisible Dog Art Center of Brooklyn. This exhibition encompasses work by eight artists who will complete the MFA Art Practice program in July 2024.
The Invisible Dog Art Center is open Thursday through Saturday, 1:00 – 7:00pm; Sunday, 1:00 – 5:00pm; and Monday through Wednesday by appointment only.
Reception Friday June 28 6pm - 9pm
Participating Artists:
Melanie Brewster
Dana Donaty
Elena Kalkova
Maria Markham
Grace McCoy
Josh Stein
Melissa Wheeler
Antonia Wright
Melanie Brewster
Melanie Elyse Brewster (b. Miami, Florida) lives and works in New York City, where she is finishing her MFA at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). Brewster’s interdisciplinary art and scholarship focuses on queer futurities—informed by surreal, campy aesthetics that center craft, costume, and performance to destabilize identity. She uses fiber, collage, and assemblage to create works that address wild, mythological manifestations of gender and sexuality. She previously earned her PhD from the University of Florida in 2011 and is a licensed psychologist and professor at Columbia University in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology. Brewster has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and a book, Atheists in America, on experiences of marginality in the United States. Her research has been featured in media outlets such as CNN, NPR, Vice News, and the CBC, whilst her art has been exhibited nationally.
Dana Donaty
Dana Donaty (b. Columbus, Ohio), American-Colombian raised in New Jersey, received a BFA from Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia, PA. After twelve years of living in London, England, Dana relocated to South Florida, where she lives and works. She is currently finishing her MFA at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. Donaty’s interdisciplinary practice focuses on women's historical and contemporary societal experiences, exploring how these shape their identities and ultimately questioning the possibility of gender equality. With vibrant maximalist playground-like aesthetics and parodic humor, Donaty mirrors life's absurdities and exposes culture's dark side. She has exhibited in group shows nationally. Selected solo exhibitions include The Coral Springs Museum of Art in Coral Springs, FL; the Cornell Museum of Art in Delray, FL; South Florida Ford, Fordistas Gallery in Miami, FL; and the Paul Fisher Gallery in Palm Beach, FL. Donaty’s projects include fifteen public art commissions. Her work is in private and public collections, including The Coral Springs Museum. Residencies: Arts Warehouse in Delray, FL; Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami, FL; Frozen Music in Jaipur, India; Kriti Gallery in Varanasi, India; and South Florida Ford in Miami, FL.
Elena Kalkova
Elena Kalkova (b. 1991 Tver, Russia), currently living and working in Newburgh, NY, is a conceptual artist and researcher of Post-Soviet Art History. She explores unequal power relations, systems of oppression, sociopolitical divisions, state propaganda and complex relationships with home and family, especially when the home is a dictatorship. Kalkova’s Liberal Arts research lies primarily in the field of feminist and queer art and art of resistance and translation. She holds a BA from Tver State University, MA in Global Arts and Cultures from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and is currently working as a lecturer at RISD and completing her MFA at the School of Visual Arts (SVA).
Maria Markham
Maria Markham (b. Dublin, Ireland) lives and works in New Haven, CT. She is currently completing an MFA at the School for Visual Arts in New York City. Markham’s work focuses on ecologies and the climate crisis, the failures of capitalism and the socio-cultural anxieties and upheavals that mark contemporary life. She works primarily in mutli-media, installation, and video montage. Her artwork has been featured nationally and internationally in exhibits at Pollinator Gallery, PA, Accent Sisters, NJ, the School of Visual Arts and The Alternative Art School, along with venues in Latvia, Estonia, Ireland and England. She is a member of the Nua Collaborative. Markham’s practice is amplified by over 30 years of work in the nonprofit sector with diverse groups and communities. She holds a B.S. degree from Trinity College Dublin and a Masters from Brandeis University.
Grace McCoy
Grace McCoy (b. 1994 Tahlequah, Oklahoma) currently lives and works in El Paso, TX. They earned their BFA in studio art from Northeastern State University after retiring from their career as a ballet dancer and is currently completing their MFA at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). Their work investigates the dynamics of butch and femme lesbians, challenging heteronormative norms by exploring queer identity and partnership through the lens of queer failure, informed by queer gender theory and the complexities of intersectionality within queer communities. They have been influenced by queer religious trauma, and power dynamics and abuse within religious institutions. They have been represented by Skid Row Gallery in Seattle, WA and has participated in many group shows across the country, as well as a solo show at FemmeX in Columbia, SC. As an educator, they integrate dance and visual arts, teaching at performing arts schools and universities across the country.
Josh Stein
Josh Stein (b. 1973, Hammonton, New Jersey), currently residing in Napa, California, is a lifelong multi-mode creative artist, musician, writer, professor with multiple advanced degrees from the University of California and the University of Liverpool, adult beverage maker, and current MFA candidate at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His artwork has been nationally and internationally published numerous times and exhibited in a wide range of locations around the world, including the Pop and Contemporary Art Museum in Tallinn, Estonia; the CICA Museum in Seoul, Korea; Adas Israel in Washington DC; Burning Man in Blackrock, Nevada; and Gallery 1064 in Seattle, amongst many others. His 2D work in metallic and fluorescent acrylics and 3D projects in industrial plastics bring his influences of Pop art, Tattoo flash and lining techniques, and Abstract Surrealism and Expressionism to the extreme edge where graphic design and calligraphy meet the Platonic theory of forms.
Melissa Branin Wheeler
Melissa Branin Wheeler (b. Spanish Fork, Utah) is currently finishing her MFA in Art Practice at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. Her multi-disciplinary art undulates between mediums, prioritizing the integration of craftsmanship and concept. Her current body of work explores the hidden mechanics of the mind and spirit in relation to the physical body, and the complexity of translating an inner world into three-dimensional space in a way that encourages human connection. She is a professor of ceramics at Southern Virginia University, where she received her BA in Liberal Arts in 2005. She also teaches classes in book arts and guitar. Her artwork has been shown in both solo and group exhibitions nationally. Wheeler is a life-long musician and singer/songwriter, having recorded solo albums and played in various bands. She lives and works in Buena Vista, Virginia with her husband, four young sons, and her yorkipoo named Dolly.
Antonia Wright
Antonia Wright (b. Miami, Florida) is a Cuban-American artist who received her MFA in Poetry from The New School in New York City (2005) as well as at the International Center of Photography for photo and video (2008). Through a multimedia practice of video, performance, photography, sound, light, and sculpture, Wright responds to extremes of emotion, control, and violence in relation to systems of power. The body is a principal element in her work. She has exhibited in the U.S. and abroad and has been awarded artist’s residencies both nationally and internationally. Solo exhibitions include Lowe Art Museum, Spinello Projects, Locust Projects, (Miami, FL), Luis de Jesus Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), The National Gallery of Art (Nassau, Bahamas), The Faena Hotel (Miami Beach), and SPRING/BREAK (NY, NY). Group exhibitions shows at The Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), The Faena Arts Center (Buenos Aires, Argentina), The Pérez Art Museum Miami (Miami), The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries (SF, CA), Aeroplastics (Brussels, Belgium), OR Gallery (Vancouver, Canada), GOOD TO KNOW.FYI, Galerie Ernst Hilger (Vienna), The Frist Art Museum (Nashville, TN), Contemporary Art Center (New Orleans, Louisiana), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Arizona), The Havana Biennial 2019, and Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (2017) among others. Wright recently won the 2023 Corral & Cathers Artist Award, 2023 School of Visual Arts (SVA) Alumni Scholarship Award, No Vacancy 2022 Juror’s Choice Award, The Ellies Creator Award (2022, 2020), the South Florida Cultural Consortium Award (2019-2020), CINTAS Foundation finalist awarded to artists with Cuban heritage (2019, 2021). Residencies include The Pittsburgh Glass Center, PA, (2022); Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY (2015); Leipzig International Art Program, Germany, and Oolite Arts, Miami, FL. In April 2012, she became and founded the first artist-in-residence at the Lotus House Shelter for women and children in Overtown, Miami. Her work is in the collection of The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Pérez Art Museum Miami, El Espacio 23, The Bass, The Girls’ Club, and NSU Art Museum. She is represented by Spinello Projects in Miami, FL, and affiliated with Luis De Jesus Gallery Los Angeles, CA. Wright’s work has been presented in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, Hyperallergic, i-D, New York Magazine, Gotham, Daily News, Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, and The Art Newspaper.
About the School of Visual Arts MFA Art Practice Program
MFA Art Practice is a low-residency, interdisciplinary graduate program that has combined online and in-person learning for over 10 years. A carefully selected, small group of candidates comes together at the New York City campus for three successive, intensive summer residency periods. In the intervening fall and spring semesters, students engage in required, rich-media online coursework from all over the world. Participants combine personal narrative with critical theory to be active citizen artists.
MFA Art Practice aims to facilitate a global conversation about the arts. Ultimately, the program endeavors to foster an atmosphere of risk-taking and experimentation, and to create a community of artists and culture producers who look beyond a consensus driven approach to how we define what’s important in contemporary art.
School of Visual Arts has been a leader in the education of artists, designers and creative professionals for seven decades. With a faculty of distinguished working professionals, a dynamic curriculum and an emphasis on critical thinking, SVA is a catalyst for innovation and social responsibility. Comprising 7,000 students at its Manhattan campus and more than 41,000 alumni from 128 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. For information about the College’s 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, visit sva.edu.