The Tartan

In a usual year, the School of Art’s MFA thesis exhibition would be at the Miller Institute of Contemporary Art (Miller ICA) in the Purnell Center for the Arts building. However, with the construction of the new Richard King Mellon Hall of Sciences (where the Miller ICA will be moving in 2027), a new spot for the exhibition had to be found in the meantime.

The Andy Warhol Museum stepped in to house the work of this year’s five graduating artists: Max Tristan Watkins, Chantal Feitosa-Desouza, Frankmarlin Santos, Izsys Archer, and Tingting Chen.

The work of these students comes together to form “Holding Still, Holding On,” an exhibition that doubles as a unique type of archivism. They each, in their own ways, encourage us to hold still and examine some form of archive that has entranced them. 

For Frankmarlin, this takes a greatly personal form, creating sculptures fused with their history and memories. For Cheng and Archer, it is a more media-focused phenomenon, curating personal and societal fragments like scrapbook pages. For Feitosa-Desouza and Watkins, it is something more historically cultural, as they study and reimagine possibilities our institutions 

and artifacts. 

I know that only ephemeral and esoteric descriptions of themes aren’t the way to sell this show to readers, so in a more literal sense, here are some enticing things to look forward to: a video of asbestos, fermented urine in a jar, a “Nutritional Archive,” techno-animism, goat skin, the Carrier Bag Theory, hand-bound books to be hand-held (by you!), and over 100 pounds of dirt.

I hope that something in that list will do the trick and get you to visit The Warhol sometime over the next month. The work on display is thought-provoking and highly personal, and I am hesitant to “spoil” things for you. It is not every day that you get to see what the budding next generation of artists is up to. 

“Holding Still, Holding On” is on view at the Andy Warhol Museum until April 21.