Art Studio Second-year Graduate Students

Overview

Second-year MFA Students

Detail of print depicting young girl in blue square
Student Profile

Gemma Padilla
MFA, Art Studio

Gemma Padilla is an interdisciplinary artist working in painting, printmaking, collage, and sculpture. Their work explores themes of connection—among people, materials, and time—deeply rooted in family history and personal archives.

Instagram: @gp.gem

gempadilla[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu
Upright sculpture made of wood and mixed media
Student Profile

Lulu Smith
MFA, Art Studio

BFA, Art Studio, California State University, Chico, 2024

Lulu Smith is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and audio/video.  Her practice explores the nuanced concept of “home”, resonating with both emotional and environmental significance. Blending video with materials like reclaimed wool, fire hose, and wood, she aims to blur the boundaries between the organic and the digital, the human and the non-human.

lusmith[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu
Julio Rodriguez in orange vest
Student Profile

Julio Rodriguez
MFA, Art Studio

 BA, Studio Art, San Francisco State University, 2016

Julio Rodriguez is a visual artist born and raised in the Bay Area. His paintings combine traditional materials with the tools and techniques learned through graffiti writing. His work explores generational memory embedded in public space, bodies and gestures.

Website: jcrart.com

julrodriguez[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu
Erica Rawson
Student Profile

Erica Rawson
MFA, Art Studio

BFA, Metropolitan State University of Denver, 2024

Erica Rawson is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, printmaking, performance, and digital media. Her practice examines the tension between preservation and obsolescence through material processes that engage decay, transformation, and digital entropy. She explores how vulnerability and impermanence can be rendered as both form and process.

Website: ericarawson.com

Instagram: @ericarawson_art

erawson[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu
Sierra Faust stading in front of wall covered with black and white drawings
Student Profile

Sierra Faust
MFA, Art Studio

BFA, Sculpture, Kansas City Art Institute, 2018

Sierra Faust is an artist from Kansas City whose work explores the relationship between written and visual language, viewing them as parallel processes, both deeply direct and psychological. Her work employs labor-intensive drawing methods, engaging both the content of the text and the obsessive nature of the process.

Website: www.sierrafaust.com

Instagram: @sierramfaust

smfaust[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu