Students in the University of Minnesota’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program showcased their work this week on campus, spotlighting their research and creative exploration.

Featuring work by first- and second-year candidates in the three-year interdisciplinary program, this year’s “thresholds” exhibition displays pieces that highlight each artist’s work across a variety of different mediums. The exhibition has been on view in the Regis Center for Art Quarter Gallery since April 1 and will run until April 19.

The 2,000-square-foot gallery was transformed by the artists themselves, who each curated and installed artwork for the exhibition. The show structure allows the 10 participating artists an opportunity for experimentation and pushing boundaries when it comes to their individual work, according to the exhibition statement.

Maeve Jackson, a first-year MFA student and part of the exhibition, said this is an important time to have their work exist in the same space together because it can lead to conversation or even collaboration in the future.

“It’s beautiful,” Jackson said. “There are 10 of us. How did 10 different, very different artists fit together like a puzzle in a gallery and I think we’ve been able to master that in this show.” 

Jackson said she enjoys working with sculpture, photography and video as mediums because of how they take up space and intersect to tell a story.

Swimming and grief are themes Jackson said she returns to often in her work because of how they are interconnected for her personally.

“Pools are a place that a lot of people do spend their time grieving from a loss or from something in life,” Jackson said. “I keep coming back to the pool in these moments of grief and I’m seeing that come through in the softness and the tenderness of my work.”

In the exhibition, Jackson’s piece “Take your marks” is a competitive swimming block, made out of a tiled wooden podium with a drawn depiction of swimming lanes featured behind it.

Jackson, who is originally from Wisconsin, said when she was 18, she knew she wanted to pursue art in higher education over swimming, which she had done competitively through high school. The University appealed to her the most because of the art facilities but also because of the swimming community on campus.

“That parallel was really prominent in my decision to come here,” Jackson said. “I knew that there is a swimming world, there is a really great art community here, and I thought that I could excel in that.”

Jackson said she hopes that her piece in the exhibition will visually surprise her audience but also spark reflection about the pool as a space of meditation.

“I hope it causes my audience to really think about the last time they were in a pool, or the last time that they were swimming, and what that experience was like,” Jackson said. “Maybe it lures someone to a memory or to an actual pool.”

Maria Oostra, another first-year MFA student in the exhibition, said running and philosophy heavily influence her artistic practice.

“It allows me to engage with different parts of my process, including now ultra running and the body-mind dialog between the two,” Oostra said. “I am trying to figure out where I am in that research process, within an artistic program, I’m able to do that my own way.”

Oostra said she primarily works with painting but aims to challenge two-dimensional painting in her work. Her exhibition piece is a mixed media painting incorporating spray paint, wallpapers, fabric and paint scraps, among other found materials.

“My practice is slightly shifting towards a more embodied kind of practice within the objects that are part of my inherited past,” Oostra said. “Concepts that I am working with are what does this past mean to me, what does being Dutch mean to me.”

Following a long academic career in different parts of Europe, Oostra said she got her bachelor’s of philosophy and fine arts at the University and a concussion led her to explore new paths, including an MFA, where she could integrate her research with art.

“It was like one of multiples in my life, and I couldn’t really focus anymore, like what is required in Western philosophy,” Oostra said. “I started thinking, ‘Okay, what else?’ and that’s how I decided to do the MFA here.”

Oostra said she values the opportunity to show her work in the MFA program and appreciates the supportive and collaborative environment of her class cohort. To her, the program feels like a platform for continuous learning.

“I want to spark a continuous curiosity in ways of exploring,” Oostra said. “I want people to look at my work and say, hey, there’s a little glitter glue and every time that you look at it there’s constantly things that you can keep discovering.”

Oostra said the exhibition was an opportunity to challenge herself artistically and created a safe space to connect people with her own experiences.

The Department of Art and the Katherine E. Nash Gallery are located in the Regis Center for Art, which is made up of two buildings connected by a skyway on the West Bank of the University.

The center is 145,000 square feet and provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to experiment with sculpture, foundry, ceramics, printmaking, photography, drawing and painting through a variety of dedicated spaces.

The Katherine E. Nash Gallery houses a 5,000-square-foot research laboratory along with the Quarter Gallery which serves as additional exhibition space for showcases throughout the year.

Kayla Fryer, a second-year MFA student and part of the exhibition, said being from Maryland, she was at first hesitant to move to Minneapolis, but the program and facilities helped her decision.

“I am glad I made this choice because it definitely helped me a lot and produced some really great things out of me as an artist,” Fryer said.

Fryer worked as an arts administrator for seven years leading up to COVID-19, during which she completed her bachelor’s degree and was encouraged by professors to pursue an MFA. 

“I was preparing for my first solo show at the time,” Fryer said. “They saw a lot of my paintings and things I was working on, and they were like you would do great in a master’s program so I took the leap of faith and said, ‘Okay, I’ll try it.’”

Fryer said she went into the program as a painter but has shifted to working with fabric dyeing, installation and filmmaking. Her exhibition piece, “A struggle within—but I look to You,” is a short film that experiments using blue light. 

Fryer’s work has a focus in Christianity, telling personal and historical stories of faith. She hopes her work conveys vulnerability and hope when it comes to personal struggles. 

“I went through a very hard experience where all I could lean on was God and then art,” Fryer said. “When it came to coming to grad school, I was thinking, okay, if I’m making art, I’m going to make it about my faith.” 

Fryer, who helped organize the exhibition, said she is excited to finish her MFA program and begin preparing for her final exhibition.

“I think all the works are so strong, and I think a lot of them speak to one another, so I’m really excited to see how other people react and respond,” Fryer said. “It definitely gives me a sense of collaboration and camaraderie to be able to exhibit together in this way.” 

The exhibition is available to view through April 19. Third-year MFA students are concurrently showcasing their work in “see through love,” a thesis exhibition featuring artwork from seven students.