UC Davis Art Studio MFA and BA Programs

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UC Davis Art Studio MFA and BA Programs We challenge students to cultivate curiosity and embrace the unknown through art.

The Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program is designed to deliver a broad range of hands-on studio practices to the art major. Areas of focus include painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, ceramics, printmaking, and time-based media. Students are encouraged to explore a broad range of disciplines and are expected to take advantage of beginning classes which provide a critical introduction to the research possibilities within the major. In addition to studio classes, students may participate in a distinguished visiting artist lecture series, professional practice seminars, student exhibitions, competitions and internships.

Quiltmaker Anna Von Mertens, who creates research-based work weaving together science, history, and materiality, will gi...
10/01/2026

Quiltmaker Anna Von Mertens, who creates research-based work weaving together science, history, and materiality, will give a talk tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 2 as part of The Maria Manetti Shrem Institute for Sustainable Design, Fashion & Textiles. The talk centers on the life of Henrietta Leavitt, a pioneering astronomer who worked at the Harvard College Observatory studying glass plate photographs of the night sky. The hand-stitched quilts and pencil drawings Von Mertens made based on Leavitt's work appreciate the attentive path to discovery, celebrating labor and insight. Von Merten’s talk is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in Cruess Hall 1003. Free and open to all.
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We are immensely pleased to welcome 𝗝𝗼𝘀𝗵 𝗙𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 to our faculty as a Maria Manetti Shrem Endowed Chair in Art Studio. “I’...
09/28/2026

We are immensely pleased to welcome 𝗝𝗼𝘀𝗵 𝗙𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 to our faculty as a Maria Manetti Shrem Endowed Chair in Art Studio.

“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to come back and continue working with the inspiring students and faculty at UC Davis, while also having the support to take big risks creatively,” Faught said.

Professor of Art Faught draws on broader social and political histories as well as his own experiences. He is particularly interested in resilience, q***r joy and the complexities and contradictions of constructing an identity while being “pulled in multiple directions at one time.”

“Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Maria Manetti Shrem, UC Davis is emerging as a hub for textile arts and sustainable design,” said Estella Atekwana, dean of the College of Letters and Science. “The addition of Josh Faught, an exceptionally accomplished multimedia fiber artist, builds upon our legacy of excellence in the arts and reflects our commitment to providing transformative opportunities for students drawn to this dynamic and evolving field.”

🧑‍🎨 Artist portrait of Josh Faught.

📷 Josh guides studio art major Zitlallyc Bazan Herrera in the interdisciplinary course ART 113 "Vagabond Weaving" while Josh was a visiting professor in 2025 in The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies at UC Davis. (TJ Ushing/UC Davis)

📸 Detail: 𝑆𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑦, 2017, a site-specific textile for St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle. Hand-woven, hand-dyed cotton, h**p, and gold lamé; scrapbooking stickers; the entire 1999 season of the soap opera "Passions" (DVD); issue six of Pot Pourri, a sexual questionnaire for the 'new age;' giant clothespins, nail polish, and pins.

📷 Josh speaks in Wright Hall's Main Theatre, 2025, wearing a white knit sweater adorned with polished stones and amber. (TJ Ushing/UC Davis)

📸 1️⃣+2️⃣ 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑘𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒, 2019; Hand dyed, hand woven h**p, cotton, and gold lamé; abstraction appropriated from a crowd photographed at Bette Midler’s 'Divine Miss M' tour; 'How to Hide Anything' on stretched linen.

The Gorman Museum of Native American Art at UC Davis presents "Gifts from the Heart: New Acquisitions at the Gorman" whi...
09/22/2026

The Gorman Museum of Native American Art at UC Davis presents "Gifts from the Heart: New Acquisitions at the Gorman" which opens on Sept. 23. Showcasing new gifts from private collections across the country, the exhibition features a selection of artworks by more than 40 artists in a range of media including sculpture, painting, prints, mixed media, ceramics, basketry and carving. Runs through March 14, 2027.

Renowned performance artist Cassils has been appointed to the Maria Manetti Shrem Endowed Chair in the Maria Manetti Shr...
07/15/2026

Renowned performance artist Cassils has been appointed to the Maria Manetti Shrem Endowed Chair in the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program at UC Davis. Cassils is a Canadian transgender artist who makes their own body the material and protagonist of powerful performances that examine the histories of LGBTQIA+ violence, representation and struggle while illuminating narratives of resilience and empowerment. Cassils' appointment began July 1. For detailed announcement: arts.ucdavis.edu/art-studio

NEW 🗓️ DATE:Save the date for the winter quarter Open Studios! On Thursday, Mar. 12, from 4:30–6:30 p.m., our graduate s...
02/15/2026

NEW 🗓️ DATE:

Save the date for the winter quarter Open Studios! On Thursday, Mar. 12, from 4:30–6:30 p.m., our graduate students will open their studios to the public.
Featured students include Nick Block, Tara Daly, Levi Keatts, Davion Macks, Sean Olmstead, Marjorie Williams, Sierra Faust, Gemma Pasilla, Erica Rawson, Julio Rodriguez and Lulu Smith.

Studios are located in TB9 and the Grad Art Building.

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Save the date for the winter quarter Open Studios! On Thursday, Feb. 19, from 4:30-6:30 p.m., our graduate students wil...
02/15/2026

Save the date for the winter quarter Open Studios! On Thursday, Feb. 19, from 4:30-6:30 p.m., our graduate students will open their studios to the public.

Featured students include Nick Block, Tara Daly, Levi Keatts, Davion Macks, Sean Olmstead, Marjorie Williams, Sierra Faust, Gemma Pasilla, Erica Rawson, Julio Rodriguez and Lulu Smith.

Studios are located in TB9 and the Grad Art Building.

.theartist .loop .gem davisarts

Robin Hill, Professor of Art in the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program, makes work that focuses on the intersection ...
01/28/2026

Robin Hill, Professor of Art in the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program, makes work that focuses on the intersection between drawing, photography, and sculpture. Her recent work takes on a collaborative
sensibility, where objects and materials which have been rejected by others have served as starting points for acts of transformation. Robin strives to give shape to nuance and to relocate familiar things in an unfamiliar order. While handmade might best describe her early
work, hand-altered is a more apt description for the work she is doing today.

For Robin, a good studio day looks like this: “Turn the radio on. Drink coffee. Walk the dog. While swimming laps I conjur solutions to problems and set goals for the day. Drive to studio. Dive into one or more projects that are underway. Lose track of time. Succeed in being
only partial sidelined by janitorial, archivist, educator,
administrator, public relations tasks. Go home.”

The best advice she has ever received and one she shares with her MFA students now? “Keep going. Make the work you want to see.”

Photos courtesy of Marjorie Williams .loop

Fidencio Fifield-Perez (Assistant Professor of Art) is an artist whose current art examines borders, edges, and the peop...
01/14/2026

Fidencio Fifield-Perez (Assistant Professor of Art) is an artist whose current art examines borders, edges, and the people who must traverse them. Fifield-Perez’s interdisciplinary practice centers the materiality of paper ephemera, everyday self- documents discarded
after having fulfilled their purpose. “Working across painting, calligraphy, weaving and collage, Fifield-Perez transforms materials associated with bureaucracy into intimate records of belonging.” (William Hernandez Luege in his accompanying essay for not never over
nothing exhibited at ).

Fifield-Perez is the newest faculty member of the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program. What’s a typical studio day for an artist who is also a professor? “There isn’t a typical routine as every day of the work week looks different depending on teaching schedule, meeting with graduate and undergraduate students in their studios or other faculty/staff. Some days I’m squeezing a bit of painting in between meetings and studio managing duties, emails, etc. But I’ve worked it
out where works that don’t require long and undisturbed hours of work@can happen in my campus studio, while larger and experimental works will occur in my off-site studio. What I’m trying to say is that I
prioritize my studio work and try and fit it into a typical day regardless of location.”

Even though juggling his own art practice and teaching takes planning, working with UC Davis students is very rewarding. “Students at UC Davis are incredibly hardworking, make thoughtful and vulnerable work,
and are engaged with various parts of the University at large, making for dynamic and rigorous work.”

Photos courtesy of Marjorie Williams .loop
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Justine Di Fiore is featured in a new group show in SF Art Week opening this Friday. On the occasion of CULT Aimee Fribe...
01/14/2026

Justine Di Fiore is featured in a new group show in SF Art Week opening this Friday. On the occasion of CULT Aimee Friberg’s 12th anniversary, and San Francisco Art Week, The Veil Between brings together a constellation of artists whose practices move through the space between the material and the immaterial—between body and spirit, memory and myth, earth and cosmos.

January 16 - March 14, 2026
Opening reception: Friday, January 16th, 6 - 8 PM
1401 16th Street, San Francisco



Image: Justine Di Fiore, Crushing Loud Shimmering Devotion, 2025, oil on canvas, 55x48 inches. Photo: .wakai

Darrin Martin is Chair of the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program at UC Davis. His work engages the synesthetic quali...
01/07/2026

Darrin Martin is Chair of the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program at UC Davis. His work engages the synesthetic qualities of perception through video, performance, sculpture, and print-based installations.
Influenced by his own experiences with hearing differences, his projects consider notions of accessibility through the use of tactility, sonic analogies, and audio descriptions. His works have
screened at numerous institutions and festivals, such as the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and European Media Art Festival (Germany), and his artworks and installations have exhibited at venues including Moscow
State Vadim Sidur Museum (Russia), McIntosh Gallery (Canada), Krannert Art Museum (IL) and, most recently, at the Weatherspoon Art Museum (NC) and Saint Joseph’s Art Society (CA).

We hope you can join us on Saturday, Jan. 10, when Darrin and writer and curator Tanya Zimbardo will have a conversation about Stacked Artifacts from 2-4 pm at Telematic Media Arts. There will be a closing reception on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2 – 5 pm.

Telematic Media Arts
323 10th St. @ Folsom (SoMa), San Francisco


ucdavisartstudio

Images: Courtesy of the artist.
Today I Will Work on My Book… For Sure!, crossed synchronized corner
projections of 26-minute 4K to HD video loop with sound, 2025.

The Unfolding, carved hollow core closet door, two monitors, 49-minute
HD video loop with sound, lumber, cork sheets, lauan strips, 2025.

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Maria Manetti Shrem Art Hall
Davis, CA
95616

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