Call for applications: MFA in Visual Art

The Graduate School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis is currently accepting applications for our MFA in Visual Art Program. The Sam Fox School offers a robust, two-year studio-based program that invites students to explore the conceptual dimensions of a material practice, while considering their roles as artists within broader social and political contexts. Students develop a critical practice through rigorous studio work, dedicated workshops, and graduate seminars taught by esteemed arts writers and curators. In their thesis year, students showcase their work in an exhibition that represents a rich array of themes and topics, executed in a broad range of media.

Expanding the scope of conventional art practice, the MFA in Visual Art Program encourages students to embrace the resources of Washington University, a renowned research institution, and to deepen their inquiry into ideas that drive their studio work. Broadening their intellectual reach across campus, students engage disciplines such as social work, architecture, biology, philosophy-neuroscience-psychology, women and gender studies, performing arts, environmental studies, medical humanities, and art history.

The Sam Fox School’s resources include: the Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library, the Des Lee Gallery, the D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library, Island Press, and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, where the annual MFA Thesis Exhibition is held each spring.

In fall 2019, our graduate art students will move into studio spaces in Weil Hall, a new 82,000-square-foot facility, designed by KieranTimberlake. The spacious studios will support MFA students’ work across media, while installation spaces will allow students to convene for critiques, student-curated exhibitions, and impromptu gatherings.

See the MFA viewbook

Faculty
Our renowned faculty represent a broad spectrum of contemporary practices that range from time-based media and performance, to painting, sculpture, photography, and installation. Their work addresses conceptual territories, exploring topics such as race, globalism, the environment, science, social justice, and material culture.

Recently, faculty have exhibited at venues including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Washington, D.C.), the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights (Santiago, Chile), the National Portrait Gallery, the National Academy of Sciences, and ancillary exhibitions at the Venice Biennale.

Jamie Adams / Heather Bennett / Lisa Bulawsky / Michael Byron / Carmon Colangelo / Heather Corcoran / Zlatko Ćosić / Ron Fondaw / Richard Krueger / Arny Nadler / Tim Portlock / Buzz Spector / Jan Tumlir / Denise Ward-Brown / Cheryl Wassenaar / Monika Weiss

Summer in Berlin and Venice
The Sommerakademie in Berlin explores the political conditions of the city as a historical, national, and contemporary global site. In this seminar-based course, which begins on-campus in the spring semester and extends into the summer for travel abroad, students visit Berlin’s contemporary architectural sites, which provide an opportunity to consider the spatial, temporal, social, and political aspects of context-driven work. The program includes discussions with artists, architects, historians, art dealers, and gallerists and culminates at the Venice Biennale.

View photos from Sommerakademie.

Questions?
Contact Patricia Olynyk, Director: olynyk [​at​] wustl.edu