Delaware Art Shows- 2025 University of Delaware Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition at The Delaware Contemporary

Anna Freeman

Words can diminish meaning. No single word can fully capture how miraculous and fateful our childhood memories are. The silence in my ceramic studio, where I create my sculptures, speaks volumes. Soft, pastel colors whisper of innocence, kindness, and the openness to the world that many of us lack today. I take my viewer by the hand and guide them into the realm of their inner child through images of folklore, folk art, and childhood memories, hoping they will awaken the world with kind, childlike eyes and strive to change it for the better. However, do not be misled by the apparent simplicity and naivety on display. Kindness is not a weakness.

Taylor Gordon

Taylor’s evolution in oil painting captures true and authentic emotions,which allows viewers to interpret and relate. Her work is inspired by Black contemporary art and is focused on utilizing colors through various expressions to tell a story. These portraits are derived from her surroundings and personal inspiration, telling a story that can be felt, whether it brings joy, pain, laughter or sadness. As Taylor initiates conversation she hopes it leads to hope and/or comfort.

The work is focused on topics and/or subjects that relate to lifestyles and experiences within the Black community, while incorporating key factors that represent black people with different values and ethics. She grew inspiration from the many issues faced in society within the black community, which is what ignited that passion. In response, wanting to explore and bring topics to light surrounding beauty standards, racism, black on black crime, education, sexism, etc. Resulting in delivering messages that are impacting society based on stereotypical perspectives, while embracing blackness, openness and vulnerability.

Reflecting our strength, elegance, wealth, restraint and power through each piece, she encourages and provides more than one narrative. Generating conversations that can be more than just associating black people with death, mourning, darkness and crime. As it is essential to the history of the United States. Creating realistically evoking emotions and thought-provoking discussions.

Fuku Ito is a multidisciplinary artist from Japan, currently pursuing her Master’s of Fine Arts degree at the University of Delaware (UD) in Newark, DE. Ito received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with a concentration in ceramics from the Institute of American Indian Arts (AIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her works, primarily ceramics, are used to explore the cultural and traditional expectations surrounding Japanese women. Her art twists the stereotypical Japanese women’s expectations to bring attention to the adamant custom of oppression through lack of voice and bodily autonomy. Using clay as a portrayal of females, she recreates notions of Japanese women’s lived experiences as victims of “tradition” without of blurring them out.

Shoshi Rosenstein

Capturing the abstracted world within a photograph allows me to recontextualize and present nature in unexpected ways. Exploring the ways in which different photographs interact, my work attempts to recontextualize the way viewers look at photography. I aim to manipulate the photographs I take in ways that cause others to slow down and interact with the artwork. My work utilizes black and white images created using analog processes along with techniques which incorporate visual and physical layers such as collages, books, and weavings to reframe the traditional photographic viewing experience. The use of double exposure techniques increases the level of abstraction in my imagery while also allowing experimentation and a loss of control from the artist. My use of individually crafted handmade objects creates a more personalized experience for the viewer, allowing them to closely look at and interact with the photographs. Through the experience of handling or viewing a uniquely made object, the viewer is able to interact with artwork in a nontraditional way.

Candy Fordjour Frimpong

I am drawn to the power of miniatures, as vessels of memory, longing, and transformation, small objects contain vast histories and emotions. My work explores these ideas through personal and collective stories.

Inspired by Susan Stewart’s “On Longing,” I am interested in how miniatures convey and preserve desire and narrative through the lens of Akuaba, an Akan fertility symbol also linked to ancestry and cultural continuity.
I use clay, plastic, chocolate and found objects, I combine traditional and contemporary techniques such as modeling, casting, and printing to recontextualize inherited symbols into modern narratives. Through my explorations, I aim to spark conversations around the complexities of identity and narratives embedded in material culture.

Yoosef Mohamadi

My art is rooted in personal and collective memories, shaped by my identity as a Kurd and the experience of discrimination, assimilation, and cultural erasure. Growing up where histories are fractured and voices are silenced, I create as an act of resistance-to reclaim what has been suppressed and give form to the unseen weight of memory.

Personal and collective experiences anchor my work, revealing the struggle between preservation and erasure. The forces of assimilation attempt to redefine existence, while discrimination reinforces the barriers between heritage and imposed identity. My art challenges these forces, questioning how histories are rewritten and identities are fractured.