Isabella Sanchez, Contributing Photographer

The First-Year MFA Exhibition, titled “Feedback Loop,” is currently on display at the School of Art. The exhibition showcases a diversity of media — photography, painting, sculpture and graphic design — as well as the different backgrounds and experiences of the artists.

The School of Art student exhibitions this fall, which include the “Feedback Loop,” are unique because they have been curated, instead of student-led, for the first time. Madison Donnelly ART ’23, interim gallery and exhibitions manager, was responsible for curating and organizing the exhibition. Donnelly said that she aimed to create a journey for the visitors as they go through the gallery.

“The front room is kind of this ethereal heavenly space. The basement to me feels like hell — really chaotic and a lot of the work is a lot darker,” said Donnelly.

The theme of the exhibition — “Feedback Loop” — does not necessarily reflect the themes of the pieces found in the gallery. According to Donnelly, students chose the theme as it relates to their experience as students. The pieces were submitted long before students selected the exhibition’s name. 

Nevertheless, through Donnelly’s curation, the visitor finds that the pieces are tangentially related stories and themes.

“The Theater” and “The Theater, The Party, The Lovers” by Faith Couch ART ’26 can be found on the first floor of the exhibition. The picture and accompanying video feature a couple sitting in a movie theater in a collage of different images taken in the movie theater. The video follows the couple through different events and places: the theater, a party and a private moment alone.

As the video shifts scenes, the collage of moments from the theater remains still.

“Creating each of these cinematic collages are representative of an elongation of a moment,” Couch wrote in an email to the News.

Continuing on the first floor of the gallery is “Pig,” a sculpture by Amy Wang ART ’26. The sculpture is of a gutted pig hanging from a meat hook, seemingly ready to be sold. About 100 porcelain slip casts of Sumo oranges can be found inside the pig.

According to Wang, this unconventional work came to life as they were considering themes of consumption and marginalized bodies. To Wang, this sculpture also operates as a sort of self-portrait.

Specifically, Wang said that the orange casts and use of glycerin, which gives a sweat-like sheen to the pig, combined with the way the pig is hung, felt self-reflective.

“They just came together to make this work that is probably the closest and most reflective of just myself,” Wang said. 

Descending to the mezzanine level, viewers will encounter  “La Marea” by Kiki Serna ’26. The multimedia installation consists of a two-minute video projection with Spanish and English audio, weavings and graphite drawings on vellum. The video cycles through different clips of water, with subtitles occasionally being displayed as well — though they do not always match the audio.

In an interview with the News, Serna discussed migration and fluidity as important themes in her work — especially in the context of bodies of water. 

“Bodies of water connect each other and connect us to one another, even if we’re not in the same space,” Serna said.

As the viewer approaches the installation, their shadow interrupts the projection, momentarily participating and becoming a part of the art.

This interaction was carefully thought out by Serna.

Serna said she wants the viewer to be “submerged by the sound of the waves, the sound of the wind, the spoken word, the way the water glitters in the space.”

Finally, entering the basement, which Donnelly described as “hellish,” the art becomes conceptually darker.

Taken by Christian Badach, an untitled photograph captures a burning house. The blurry features and the orange glow outlining the house lend the photo a mysterious, yet melancholic quality.

Badach wrote in an email to the News that he was able to take the photo by reaching out to local fire departments, who are sometimes hired to burn down old, unsalvageable buildings. 

“With my images I hope that they can either grant clarity to certain complex feelings or dig something up in the viewer that they may have not known was there,” wrote Badach.

The School of Art is located at 1156 Chapel St.