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Exhibition

Desire & Duty: 2025 First-Year MFA Exhibition

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Tuesday, February 11, 2025
11am to 5pm PT

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McMurtry Building, Coulter Art Gallery
355 Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305
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We are experiencing an unprecedented assault on academic freedom and many civil liberties that impact us all, extending beyond the walls of academia. Our freedom to be and enjoy who we are within our rich human diversity is being challenged. However, art remains uncensored in this space, embodying the infinite possibilities of creative expression.

Desire & Duty, a title given by the artists, unifies and defines this powerful exhibition of the art practices of the MFA First Year cohort: Alexa Burrell, Vincent Chong, Enam Gbewonyo, Hudson Hatfield, and Bailey Scieszka. They fully immerse themselves in their artwork, which includes visual archives of familial and communal history, Afro-surrealist video work, ceremonies of ancestry, and visually rich expressions of pride for trans family, queer joy, and queer pain, with a vanity as a stage alongside to memories of a formative landscape and celebratory dance. This exhibition features an expansive array of media, including performance, outdoor painting from a live model, works on paper, dance sculpture video installations, video installations as ritual, fabric installation, and more complex narratives than can be described in this statement. It is an explosion of creativity. The exhibition invites you to enter a space of open and playful wonder by experiencing the work of these extraordinary artists. Freedom is what makes us human, and art is one of our most unique means of expressing ourselves with borderless imagination and desire. Art alone may not save the world, but it can be a catalyst for change. We proudly share this unique example of the green tree of life here.

Enrique Chagoya, Curator

On View: February 11–March 14, 2025

Opening Reception: Thursday, February 20, 4–6pm

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 11am–5pm

VISITOR INFORMATIONCoulter Art Gallery is located at 355 Roth Way (McMurtry Building) on Stanford campus. The gallery is open Monday–Friday, 11:00am–5:00pm*. 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. 

*Coulter Art Gallery will be closed on Presidents' Day (Monday, February 17).

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