Written by Laura Compton, Manetti Shrem Museum, and Maria Sestito, College of Letters and Science

Every spring, UC Davis arts and humanities graduate students across the College of Letters and Science give their peers and the public a glimpse into what they’ve explored during their time at UC Davis.

The multidisciplinary Arts & Humanities 2024 Graduate Exhibition will feature the work of graduate students across eight disciplines, including anthropology, art history, art studio, comparative literature, creative writing, design, and English as well as Spanish and Portuguese. Final projects will be on view June 6–24 at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. A free, public opening reception will take place June 6 from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the museum, with art history students presenting their research on May 31. In all, 25 Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts and doctoral students are participating. 

“The graduate student exhibition is a wonderful showcase for the kind of artistic talent we foster in our college,” said Dean Estella Atekwana. “Letters and Science is the home of the arts at UC Davis and, from our founding to today, we have demonstrated true multidisciplinary and international leadership in the creative fields that our students are taking with them into their very bright futures.”

This year’s participants utilize sculpture, poetry, painting, drawing, video, textiles, digital fabrication, installations, multimedia and augmented reality to explore emotional states, gender and cultural identities, sustainability and authenticity.

“UC Davis arts and humanities students excel as experimental makers and thinkers,” said Rachel Teagle, the museum’s founding director. “During this year of celebrating the Eggheads and the arts at UC Davis, we’re especially proud to highlight their innovative work, along with the unique collaboration among the museum, the Office of the Chancellor and Provost, and the College of Letters and Science Dean’s Office that supports it.”

A sampling of what the public will see and experience:

Trevor A. Bashaw (English) is a poet whose work explores the entanglement of language, environment and spirit. He will give a live performance on June 6 that explores the process of poetic composition and encounter in public space.

April Camlin (art studio) creates large-scale tapestries and stand-alone installations that combine hand-weaving and sculptural elements to help express grief and pain and also conjure resilience.

Ileanna Sophia Cheladyn (anthropology) is a Canadian dance artist and a sociocultural anthropology Ph.D. candidate whose work is critical of prescriptive formulations of “the body” and hegemonic approaches to kinesthetic experience. ADRIFT-DRAFT, an improvised dance installation created with Eva Anderson (B.A., Neurobiology, Physiology, & Behavior, and Dramatic Arts), will be performed at the June 6 opening.

Sara de Blas Hernández (Spanish) will present a collaborative quilt to increase awareness about the Spanish-speaking community through visualizing the multiple and diverse realities of what speaking Spanish means to people with a connection to the language.

Damien Mitchell (design) merges craft and design within the practice of shoemaking, addressing issues of sustainability and circularity through the democratization of design. His work prioritizes the advancement of manufacturing accessibility to foster sustainable local economies by employing both traditional handcrafting and digital fabrication.

Nitheen Ramalingam (art studio) is a figurative painter whose recent body of work meditates on the 2021 commemoration of the Kilvenmani martyrs, juxtaposing the joyful unity of the peasantry with a gloomy undertone hinting at the movement’s decline.

Tyson Roberts (art studio) ruminates on the complexity of painting by disassembling and reimagining historical approaches, combining immediate gesture with studied planning. His work weaves together painting and collage to create multi-dimensional layered canvases.

Laurel-Rose Xenoresteia (English) works primarily in creative nonfiction. Gestation or, Time and Necessity, a condensed version of her thesis, is a looping, image- and narrative-driven depiction of Xenoresteia’s thoughts, feelings and flesh as she has transitioned from “male” to “female.” She will perform the piece throughout the June 6 opening.

Seongmin Yoo (art studio) is a sculptor and installation artist interested in addressing power imbalances through multidimensional expression. Her life-size sculptural work unveils humanity’s endeavor to control nature, unsettling ecosystems and causing chaos.

Satomi Zukeran (design) explores artistic expression with advanced technology, and showcases her experimentation with AI through a web application that visually translates human emotions expressed in music, challenging artificial intelligence’s potential in the realm of art.