{"id":816936,"date":"2026-08-17T20:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/816936\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T20:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:56:16","slug":"risd-mfa-students-paint-through-the-heartbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/816936\/","title":{"rendered":"RISD MFA Students Paint Through the Heartbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Each painting is like an island awash with yearning, sending out a lighthouse signal into a fractured world. <\/p>\n


\n \"Julie
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"RISD
\n Detail of Talha Shams, \u201c \u0628\u0646\u062f\u06be\u0646 (Bandhan)\u201d (2026), ink, acrylic, bamboo and rope on canvas (all photos Julie Schneider\/Hyperallergic)<\/p>\n

Clingy, thick-hot summer air followed me into Uffner & Liu gallery on a recent Friday afternoon. But as soon as I reached the top of the gallery\u2019s stairs, I found myself pulled into a more temperate realm. Standing on the top step, peering through a steel grid covering Isabel Horgan\u2019s egg-tempera painting \u201cMirage\u201d (all works 2026) like the mesh of a fence, my eyes traced a light-dappled path into a verdant forest clearing. A lone figure clad in a spotless white gown appears to be digging, searching for something unseen. This enigmatic, fairytale-esque scene could have been plucked from any number of historical eras, were it not for the gas pipes poking up in the foreground. So begins Marooned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The exhibition brings together 17 artworks by the 11 artists who comprise the Rhode Island School of Design\u2019s 2026 Master of Fine Arts in Painting program cohort: Lloyd-Princeton Cang\u00e9, Callie Coccia, Siran Liu, Kati Lowe, Lucy Luckovich, Banshee Maria, Shiyeon Monk, Pavol Roskovensky, Talha Shams, and Ricky Vasan, as well as the aforementioned Horgan. Though this group represents a breadth of interests and aesthetic sensibilities, from airy, tactile abstractions to glossy, unsettling realism, curator Ajay Kurian unearthed enough throughlines in the selected works to knot together a visually and emotionally resonant net.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0Isabel Horgan, \u201cMirage\u201d (2026), egg tempera on panel, steel frame\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Left: detail of Lloyd-Princeton Cang\u00e9, \u201cInto the Hinterland\u201d (2026), oil and ink on canvas and linen, ink on paper, hardboard, wood, aluminum foil tape, airbrush on wall; right: Ricky Vasan, \u201cTeach me How to Write a Love Song\u201d (2026), oil on canvas<\/p>\n

Ringing the skylit room and extending onto the wood floor, the pieces share subtle points of connection and seem to converse with one another, their echoing colors, shapes, and ideas pinging around the room. The flock of hot-pink forms in Liu\u2019s atmospheric abstract work \u201cHorizon Patience,\u201d for instance, echoes the curves of a lone hanger dangling in the aching, intimate domestic scene in a neighboring oil painting by Vasan, titled \u201cTeach Me How to Write a Love Song.\u201d In it, a woman in white, having a quiet moment, is reflected in a patch of bathroom mirror. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, with its bamboo stakes and red ropes that extend beyond the canvas, the ember red of Shams\u2019s \u201c \u0628\u0646\u062f\u06be\u0646 (Bandhan)\u201d glows back across the room, layering into the smoky reds and titular maroons of Liu\u2019s canvas. These gloaming hues also float through Lowe\u2019s radiant ocular skyscape, \u201cCloud Interrupted,\u201d and edge the fallen furniture in her grief-stricken diptych, \u201cWhen the Chair Fell Silent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Talha Shams, \u201c \u0628\u0646\u062f\u06be\u0646 (Bandhan)\u201d (2026), ink, acrylic, bamboo and rope on canvas\"\"Detail of Lloyd-Princeton Cang\u00e9, \u201cInto the Hinterland\u201d (2026), oil and ink on canvas and linen, ink on paper, hardboard, wood, aluminum foil tape, airbrush on wall<\/p>\n

Next to \u201c \u0628\u0646\u062f\u06be\u0646 (Bandhan),\u201d another pair of paintings shares a mixed-media sensibility, with imagery and objects that also spill onto the gallery\u2019s white walls. A thorny tangle of steel branches, a small crocheted square of mossy mohair, a poem, and a frame encasing a grid of dandelion seeds that bring to mind wispy hairs or wishes compose Horgan\u2019s poetic, layered material exploration, \u201cwooosssssssssp (softly).\u201d <\/p>\n

To its left, Cang\u00e9\u2019s \u201cInto the Hinterland\u201d spans two paintings on stretched canvas and linen. It consists of a silhouetted portrait and a cluster of patterned leaves, as well as a scythe sculpture and a forest scene airbrushed on the wall, depicting a blood-red human figure fighting off a trio of what appear to be wild dogs or wolves. Below, an airbrushed clump of uprooted flowers seems to tumble toward the floor, serving as a poignant symbol of blooming in the face of upheaval. Excerpted from the artist\u2019s MFA thesis, The Maroon Cycle: Overture<\/a>, this piece digs into the history of enslaved Africans, known as Maroons<\/a>, who escaped into remote environs \u2014 and it anchors the exhibition in both title and concept.<\/p>\n

One of the pleasures of visiting grad shows is the sense of discovery \u2014 of encountering up-and-coming artists, noticing what matters to a given cohort, and seeing how they\u2019re each responding to the moment through their chosen medium. These painters make art despite the relentless chaos, rupture, and heartbreak swarming headlines and daily life, or because of it. In Marooned, each painting is like an island awash with a sense of yearning and desire and seeking, sending out a lighthouse signal into a fractured world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Installation view of Marooned\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Details of works by Kati Lowe<\/p>\n

\"\"Installation view with Kati Lowe\u2019s artwork, including \u201cWhen the Chair Fell Silent\u201d (2026), acrylic on panel and paper (left) and \u201cCloud, Interrupted\u201d (2026), acrylic on panel, velvet paper (right)\"\"Siran Liu, detail of \u201cHorizon Patience\u201d (2026), oil, acrylic, colored pastel on canvas\"\"\u00a0Isabel Horgan, \u201cwooosssssssssp (softly)\u201d (2026), Altoids, rabbit skin glue, chalk, pigment, and tissue paper on panel; pastel and pen on index card, gum; steel and crocheted mohair; dandelion wish on styrofoam with steel frame\"\"Installation view of Marooned<\/p>\n

Marooned<\/a> continues at Uffner & Liu (170 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan) through August 28. The exhibition was curated by Ajay Kurian.<\/p>\n