Recent RISD Alums Show Work at Featherstone Center for the Arts on Martha’s Vineyard

In an ongoing effort to prepare students to thrive once they’ve graduated, RISD is promoting the creative vision of its recent grads via RISD Emerging, an exhibition at Featherstone Center for the Arts on Martha’s Vineyard. Conceived and curated by RISD President Crystal Williams and Director of Campus Exhibitions Mark Moscone PR, the show elevates the work of emerging artists for a broader audience, underscoring the participants’ exceptional craft, intellectual rigor, and artistic vision. 

“Featuring work by RISD graduates from the past four years, this exhibition highlights an incredible diversity of perspectives as well as the transformative artistry of our alumni,” says Williams. “Opportunities like this help young creatives develop their singular visions and gifts, which illuminate the human project. At RISD, we have been tending to this principle of encouraging and amplifying unique creative vision for nearly years.”

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“Many of the artists invited to exhibit were included in on-campus exhibitions like New Contemporaries and the Senior Invitationals,” says Moscone. “We then added other artists whose work complements our initial selections. The show highlights a broad range of disciplines, but there is a shared focus on materiality and technique.”

Most of the exhibiting artists were able to attend the festive opening on July , traveling from as far away as Toronto, Baltimore, and Florida. Hudson Valley, NY-based Furniture Design alum Lisa Sacco MFA FD ferried to the island with her husband and her dog. 

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“The show was phenomenal,” says Sacco, whose work incorporates everything from steel and cast iron to marble, urethane, and blown glass. “Everybody was gobsmacked by the gallery’s incredible natural light and how the work on view presented a harmonious whole in terms of color, texture, material energy, and scale. It’s critical for artists just starting out to get this kind of experience engaging with a gallery and pricing their work. Every tiny little step leads to another tiny little step.”

Painting alum Katherine Hofmann PT showed large-scale mixed-media pieces inspired by the flora and fauna of her native South Florida. “It was only fitting that the first bird I saw when we landed on Martha’s Vineyard was my beloved osprey,” she says. “I hope my work provides a glimpse of the wonder inspired by moments of connection between ourselves and the natural world.” 

Fellow painter Dominick Cocozza PT showed a series of works featuring oil, glass beads, and wax on canvas that speak to his transracial identity and shed light on adoptee narratives, Indigenous ancestry, and themes of reclamation. Photography alum Elliott Golden MFA PH presented models from his thesis project made from multiple exposures on the same piece of film, which he describes as “records of objects that never existed.” And Sculpture grad Florian Okwu SC showed a collection of animistic works in wood “exploring the relationship between sculptural objects, the spaces they occupy, and the human body.”

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Rounding out the list of participating artists are Samuel Aguirre MFA FD, Asmaa Amadou MFA TX, Cassidy Sage Argo MFA PT, Ireoluwatoni Asojo PR, Annemarie Cabrera PT, Dora Chen MFA CR, Jennifer Choi MFA FD, Priyanka Kumar MFA PR, Boluwatife Oyediran MFA PT, JaLeel Marques Porcha PH, Paree Rohera PT, Sam Sherman MFA FD, Tony Torres MFA PR, Ricky Vasan MFA PT, and Amadi Williams PT.

“Most of all, in this exhibition, you will find the mind, the hand, and the heart,” says Williams, “all three so needed now. It has been our honor and deep pleasure to work with these emerging artists and designers.”

Top image: visitors were greeted by a large-scale painting by Katherine Hofmann and colorful, modular furniture by Jennifer Choi.

Simone Solondz / photos by Ray Ewing
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