Graduate Students

Personal Statement: My name is Hongwei Cao. I am a young artist from China. I graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. My work focuses on the symbiotic relationship between human machine and nature. The techniques and materials I am good at working with are materials such as 3D printing, glass firing, and metal.

Personal Statement: Embedded within the fabric of our daily lives and deeply interwoven within our historical narratives, lie moments of profound interaction between cultures and identities that are conventionally perceived as discrete entities. These junctures yield not only art objects and traditions, but more significantly, they give rise to identities and lived experiences. The dynamic tensions emanating from these encounters, along with the complex tapestry of our existence, bear immense historical significance. Regrettably, sustaining dialogues that dissect the influences shaping the reception of these multifaceted identities has proven difficult.

Central to my artistic pursuit are themes of escapism, mythology, and the enigmatic thresholds of memory and identity. My chosen medium, often steel, serves as a conduit to subtly convey these notions. I draw inspiration from the reservoir of personal anecdotes, lived encounters, and the rich tapestry of culturally resonant mythological archetypes. Through my work, I intertwine contemporary interpretations of human connections with the historical fissures that inhabit this realm, both in abstract contemplation and intricate discourse. My ongoing exploration of the concept of "hybridity," particularly within my evolving role as a contemporary artist of mixed-race heritage, continually evolves. The frictions at the crossroads of artistic expression and scholarly analysis mirror the intricate interplay between our present-day tangible realities and the intangible aspects of our existence.

Unveiling the narratives that persist within our collective consciousness offers profound insights into the elusive nature of liminal identities and their intricate placement within the contemporary societal framework. These narratives also lay bare the societal treatment of such identities, serving as mirrors that reflect our cultural ethos. To what extent does the human form, with its intricate construction, intertwine with the formulation and delineation of identity? As a creator, my craft is rooted in the exploration of such inquiries through the language of materials.

In refining my artistic vocabulary, I seek to foster a richer dialogue that probes the intricate threads of cultural intersection and the mosaic of individuality. Through my work, I endeavor to unravel the multifaceted layers of our shared human experience and contribute to a deeper comprehension of the nuanced interplay between identity, memory, and the myriad narratives that shape our world.

Mohabbat Khatibnia-Mansouri (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist from Hillsboro, OR. She received her BFA from Portland State University in spring of 2023, and is beginning her MFA as a Sculpture candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in fall of 2023. Mohabbat’s labor-intensive practice studies safety, public safety, community, and aesthetic, as a vehicle for her community and interventionist work. Her hope is to refine a practice that is geared towards making fine art that has a socially engaged impact. Her desire is to serve others with a radical sort of transparency that cultivates community with those she engages with, as well as those who engage with her work.

Scout Cartagena (they/she) is a glass artist and printmaker, and uses the aesthetics of glass and installation to convey themes of self-identity, memory, heirlooms, and chronic illness.

Cartagena received their BFA in Glass and Art Education from Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, PA. 

Kyriakos Alexander Paraskevopoulos (he/him) is an Athens-based visual artist and sculptor, holding an Integrated Master Degree from the Athens School of Fine Arts. As an undergraduate student at the ASFA, he experimented with a variety of media by taking courses in drawing, painting, and ceramics, specializing in sculpture.

Following his aspiration to express personal and contemporary issues while exploring the limits of art-making, he perceives sculpture as an ever-expanding field. As such, he is constantly approaching it using a plethora of methods and materials, with drawing having an integral role in his process. In his studio practice, he is interested in the phenomenology and materiality of object-making. He renders these notions by focusing on the very processes of research in terms of form and context and creates, installations emphasizing aspects of negative space and composition in dialogue with space. As syntheses of interdependent parts, his pieces can be interpreted as drawings in space: single sculptures, systems, and/or fields. Through this approach, he attempts to balance the intimate with the universal side, evoke feelings of calm and tension, and emphasize the notions of causality and ephemerality.

During his studies, he participated in various workshops in Greece and abroad and completed two internships. He was an intern sculptor at the archaeological site and museum of Keramikos and later a production assistant in the production of the performance Transverse Orientation by the acclaimed choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou. Over the past few years, he gained professional experience as an assistant set designer in television and theatre productions and participated in various group exhibitions; the latest being at the «Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition – 2022» at York Art Gallery in the UK. He is also a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship for Graduate Students.

“The existence of space is not only composed of physical factors, but also constructed by the perception of our body. Its presentation is often between objective truth and personal history.”

Xingyu Huang graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a bachelor's degree in Interior Architecture Adaptive Reuse. She works and lives in Shanghai and Chicago, currently studying fine art sculpture at SAIC.

With a background in space design, Huang Xingyu is sensitive to the relationship between social phenomena and personal emotions. Her works control the spatial structure and atmosphere, and narrate subjective events from a calm and detached perspective, suppressing subtle emotional changes under the plain appearance, forming a strange tension. Xingyu explores personal consciousness, intimacy, and memory expression through media such as sculpture, installation, photography, and moving image.

Suni Sonqo Vizcarra Wood (he/him; Quechua Nation, Peru) is an artist born in Taos, NM, and raised in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Cusco, Peru. Imagination and creativity connected to magical worlds reflected in his art from a very young age are still part of Suni’s artistic process. Suni’s life has taken place immersed in his rich Indigenous culture of Andean pre-Columbian tradition and is part of an active international network of Indigenous Nations dedicated to preserving ancestral roots while embracing the future. Suni studied sculpture at the National Art University Diego Quispe Tito in Cusco, Perú, and the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Santa Fe, NM where he received his BFA with honors in December 2021. He is a member of the Alpha Chi Honorary Society. Suni won Tribal College Journal (TCJ) first-place film awards, first-place digital art selected for the TCJ cover, and several IAIA and AIHEC awards. Suni was featured in Trend Magazine, and participated in art shows at Lightwell Gallery, Oklahoma; Balzer Contemporary Edge Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; Zatara Contemporary Gallery, Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM; International Folk Art Market (IFAM), Santa Fe, NM; Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), Santa Fe, NM; SITE Santa Fe, NM.

Personal Statement: Transformation, regeneration, and healing are interconnected concepts in my work, with messages of environmental and social justice. My expressions encompass film, jewelry, digital art, illustration, and primarily large sculpture. I work with diverse materials such as wood, bronze, and stone. I bridge contemporary and ancient aesthetics with figurative mythological beings, stylized symbolism, and interweaving magical and spiritual realms. My inspiration flows from pre-Columbian Quechua ancestry and Andean cosmovision honoring Indigenous peoples and land, celebrating the beauty and spiritual depth of my culture. My work awakens my generation to achieve a balance between living immersed in this world of modernity and maintaining our cultural roots. By healing the division of colonialism aftermaths and historical traumas, Indigenous peoples can emerge with dignity to build our collective destiny, reuniting our nations. 

Personal Statement: The foundation of my practice is rooted in methods and acts of translation and language. I play with materials to discover hybrid forms and functions, abstract languages, and explore narratives of Iranian-American and queer identities, real and invented. Through frameworks of hybridity my work translates ideas physically through live performance, multimedia documentation, ceramics, sculpture, and dance. When deployed in concert these ideas ask questions and have the possibility to invent new ways of understanding. Tied up in the aesthetics of identities, functional handmade and readymade objects, and the language of dance is a dedication to the notion of failure, and evidence of effort. I am interested in what languages and materials we have at our disposal to make meaning, where the emotional mythologizes utility and identity, and how we can reconsider the literal and cultural functions of objects and bodies.

Born in Taiwan (1998), Liang-Yu Huang (he/him) is currently based in Chicago pursuing his MFA in sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He received his Bachelor of Fine Art from Taipei National University of the Arts (2021), majoring in sculpture.  

Liang-Yu’s practice involves reconfigured actions that highlight exciting instruction of social system in nowadays cityscape. His research is bonded with urban modern-ology, especially the instructive objects in modern cities. The journey to rediscover his living environment has become the core of his work. Through integrative interventions that emphasize in deception and provocation. The works aim to counter the established narrative to reveal the power behind the objects. With sculpture, installation, and 3D modeling, the works reflect the desire for landscape and architecture. They create a dialogue and record to question the meaning of buildings and histories omitted during construction restoration and destruction. 

Personal Statement: Former baby, soon-to-be corpse.

Ethan Chan (he/him) is an artist working in sculpture, installation, and performance art. Using off-kilter materials including Happy Meal toys, bubble gum, and sauce packets, his work examines a love for all things kitsch, cookie-cutter, and plastic; the place these objects hold in American culture, and how their history and usage can affect the ways in which we perceive them, highlighting the absurdity of the objects and concepts that shape our society.

Exploring the lifespan of ideas; including the topic about the impact of high speeds, particularly through commercial consumption on our psyche. The work oscillates between industrialism, vandalism and land art.

AT Huth works with objects and environments that have become obsolete through transformation. In doing so, he encourages reflection on economic, social and environmental impacts, as well as personal issues.

His practice aims to integrate diverse backgrounds in art and technology.

Corey Hagelberg (he/him; born Gary, Indiana, 1983) is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher. He is co-founder and director of the Calumet Artist Residency (CAR), which aims to connect people, art, and nature.

For the last 15 years, his work in woodcut printmaking and social practice has highlighted the relationship between the human and natural world. His work in recent years has increasingly addressed issues of food justice, community growing spaces, and permaculture as it relates to creating regenerative local economies and a livable planet. He lives and works in Gary, Indiana.

Personal Statement: My work centers itself on the interest of safety and its relationship to fear and their function as tools of influence. Through sculpture and sculptural installations, I look to objects and narratives fetishized as tools of influence within the scope of Americana. I continue to investigate this relationship by using altered found objects and installation environments that bind themselves between these positions.

Specifically looking at symbols from fire extinguishers to firearms, I alter their forms and functions through fabrication, programmed electronics, and engineered mechanisms. The works created are influenced directly by the exhibition of fear, military posturing, and reactionism presented throughout American discourse.