Presented by the Department of Art & Art History, the 11th Annual Undergraduate Juried Exhibition showcases a campus-wide selection of artwork by twenty-two Stanford undergraduate students. 

My Playground, My Dreams...
11th Annual Undergraduate Juried Exhibition
On View: October 9–December 5, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 9, 4–6pm
Co-curated by Gabriel Harrison & Camille Utterback 

Featuring works by: Joanna Baker, Deven Bansal, Kylie Creighton, Iyanu Dare, Bryan Defjan, Sisely DeLisi, Lisa Do, Alexander Gu, Kostadin Hadzhiivanov, Rachel Liu, Diego Maglione, Rahsaan McFarland II, Gregory Medina-Kenyon, Iris Qu, Aileen Rubio, Darren Shiao, Katherine Stewart, Maryam Tsegaye, Jude Wolf, Richard Yin, Chuyi Zhang, and Emily Zhang

This 11th annual juried exhibition of undergraduate student works brings together a range of voices from every corner of campus exploring the deep, layered relationship between gaze and embodiment. Here, the gaze is not passive; it’s questioned, confronted, subverted. The body is not a fixed form, but a site of play, performance, memory, and transformation.

For these young artists, many of them non-art majors, the studio becomes a kind of playground—where identities can be tested, masks worn and removed, new selves invented. At the same time, their dreams—personal, political, poetic—are made material through form, gesture, and image. In this space, to look is not neutral. To be looked at is not simple. The act of making becomes a way of seeing oneself differently and of reshaping how one is seen, or one’s physical absence felt.

Some works speak quietly, with tenderness. Others shout. Some use the body directly; others explore its absence, its distortion, or its refusal. In one work, empty industrial chairs are transformed into a metallic envelope of implied human intimacy; in another, an over scaled aluminum beverage can harbors a set of eyes that might be critiquing the economic structures that produced it or challenging the user who consumes it; in a third, a couple rendered in charcoal denies the viewer their gaze, drawing us into their private world, emphasizing the sincerity and gravity of the apology unfolding between them.

But across all of them runs a shared urgency: to take control of the narrative, to reimagine how the self—embodied, imperfect, dreaming—can exist in the eyes of others and in one's own.

My Playground, My Dreams... invites viewers into this ongoing negotiation of body and gaze, asking: What does it mean to show up in your own image? What does it mean to be both the subject and the maker of your dream?

- Gabriel Harrison, co-curator

On a personal note, I am grateful to my co-curator, Professor Camille Utterback, for her insight and partnership throughout the curatorial process. I also wish to thank Maggie Dethloff, Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at the Cantor Arts Center, for lending her expertise as a member of our jury. Behind the scenes, this exhibition would not have been possible without the invaluable support of Daniel Brickman, our Museum Preparator, whose care and precision brought the works to life in the gallery space. I am equally thankful to Julianne Garcia, our Events and Communications Manager, whose coordination and dedication ensured the exhibition reached our community with clarity and impact.

- Gabriel Harrison

Image: Kostadin K. Hadzhiivanov, My Playground, My Dreams, My Trash, 2025. Spray paint graffiti on ready-mades; marker illustration on sticky notes.

VISITOR INFORMATION: Stanford Art Gallery is located at 419 Lasuen Mall, off Palm Drive. The gallery is open Monday–Friday, 12–5pm, and will be closed the week of November 24–28. Visitor parking is available in designated areas and payment is managed through ParkMobile (free after 4pm, except by the Oval). Alternatively, take the Caltrain to Palo Alto Transit Center and hop on the free Stanford Marguerite Shuttle. This exhibition is open to Stanford affiliates and the general public. Admission is free. 

Connect with the Department of Art & Art History! Subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.