Moones Zeydabadi, “Curtain’s Tale”, 2025
The Delaware Contemporary is currently showing The 2025 University of Delaware Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition. It’s an excellent chance to see what recent students have been creating.
The artists included: Abigail Dudley, Anna Freeman, Arend Neyhouse, Candy Fordjour Frimpong, Emmanuel Aboagye, Fuku Ito, Mikhail Shulga, Moones Zeydabadi, Priya Dave, Shoshi Rosenstein, Taylor Gordon, and Yoosef Mohamadi
This exhibition will be on view until 5/25/25.
Below are a selection of works from the artists and their statements about their work.
Moones Zeydabadi I make drawings and paintings depicting human and nonhuman figures in scenes of intimate encounter with each other and their environments. These narratives draw from deeply personal experiences which embody a more universal experience of being. I weave together fragments of recollection, imagined environments, and symbolic gestures to visually represent the complexity of identity and the way it shifts and fractures into new territories as one journeys through life. My practice explores the liminal territory in which identity, memory and legacy seep through our collective subconsciousness. Through my interest in casting light on overlooked or forgotten stories, I infuse them with living qualities and complex non-linear narrative paths, I model a new, broader, and alternative space of belonging.
Foreground sculptures (and interior detail) by Priya Dave
Priya Dave As an Indian, my art spectrum seeks to disrupt the cycle of disempowerment by integrating self-studied neuroscience research to explore the microbiology of the mind affected by culturally restrictive and arbitrary rules. The societal norms often resulted in mental health challenges, including depression and self-doubt, which left many struggling to trust their judgment or make decisions. Through my work, I strive to create immersive environments that map the brain’s physiological structure, fostering public engagement and raising awareness about mental health through a scientific and artistic lens. My artistic practice encompasses various mediums, including painting, drawing, printmaking, immersive and video installations, and multi-sensorial experiences. Drawing from my Indian heritage, l often incorporate culturally and historically significant materials like kumkum, fabrics, and spices. These elements are deeply rooted in tradition and carry themes of memory, and identity. By transforming these materials into multisensory artworks, I reimagine their traditional meanings and bring them into contemporary conversations. Through this fusion of culture and neuroscience, I create spaces that stimulate multiple senses, including sight, touch, sound, smell, and proprioception, encouraging deeper introspection. My work seeks to bridge the gap between personal experience and universal understanding, addressing the amalgamation of mental health, identity, and sensory perception. It is a reflection of my commitment to exploring how art can transcend cultural boundaries and inspire meaningful connections while fostering mental well- being and self-awareness.
Abigail Dudley My paintings celebrate the singularity of perception and the way it entangles how one perceives the world. I am captivated by the slow build-up of forms and the subtle shifts in color that allow me to infuse a soft atmosphere of memory and temporal transitions into my paintings. My work is connected by my search for meaningful encounters with my surroundings through the act of painting, and a search to find surprising moments in life and painting. My work focuses on the visual slippage between personal narrative and creating a space between harmony and contradictions of visual elements. Through this process, I tie together a space through intimate moments of perception. I aim to cultivate the idea of what it means to linger within a place and how that response can translate into a painting to act as a form of resistance to fast-looking in a culture that values a fast pace of life.
Mikhail Shulga My introspective nature is rooted in my identity as a Russian. Long winters and limited sunlight compel us to seek solace indoors, fostering a culture of deep spiritualism and reflection. Over generations, resilience has emerged from the hardships, shifting political regimes, and wars that define our history, further shaping this introspective tradition. In my installations, I repurpose discarded electronics – objects imbued with nostalgia and unrealized promise. Once luxurious and cutting-edge, these items now lie abandoned on sidewalks. Many come from the ’90s and ’00s, my childhood years, when such technology symbolized hope for a better future. But that promise feels unfulfilled. While our lives have become more convenient, we are left grappling with existential questions: How does technology impact our sense of self and the meaning of human existence? Does the rapid advancement of technology amplify or diminish alienation, freedom, and authenticity? How do virtual spaces, social media, and digital communication shape our perceptions of reality, relationships, and identity? Perhaps the answers lie not in outside but in our own reflections. – “We don’t know what to do with other worlds. We don’t need other worlds. We need a mirror.” Tarkovsky, A. (Director). (1972), Solaris [Film].
Emmanuel Aboagye My work uses the language of painting to explore ideas of visibility and invisibility as it relates to issues of identity, memory and belonging in a post-colonial context. I explore the complexities of identity, be it class, race and nationality. I give agency to memory not as a tool to investigate the past but a medium for evaluation in the present. I investigate the nuances and specificity of the idea of belonging. Having been trained as a painter, I employ modern sensibilities in engaging the materials I work with, utilizing them as a lens to examine notions of liberation. I work with materials like, acrylic paint, oil paint, brush, linen, canvas, sequence, wrappers, frost sheet, junk mail flyers, patterned plastic bags and electric iron. I consider the histories and attitude of the materials I work with. They are not merely tools but collaborators in an emancipatory process. I lean on improvisation as a radical approach for self-liberation in my practice. This allows for spontaneity, fluidity, and the unexpected, reflecting my commitment to embracing uncertainty and possibility.
Arend Neyhouse My work weaves historical notions of art into the tapestry of our contemporary world. Specifically, while dealing with elements of myth and fable, I tell stories in the space of suburban America. As a consumer of fiction, and spending the majority of my life in suburbia, I explore the synthesis of these elements. My work exists at the crossroads of fable and familiar. With my figurative paintings, I continue to explore realist arts position in the contemporary art world. I think that through the exploration of the mundane parts of our daily lives lies a time capsule for posterity – a captivating exploration of quietude transformed into an everlasting narrative. My images exist in the in between. Moments before or after a great change. I am not trying to tell the whole story, but merely a single page, or even a single line; leaving whole worlds both before and after each image. A testament to the sense of sonder as the world churns around us. Creating epic scenes through my technical approach and unwavering craftsmanship; humanity is laid bare. Through my art, I aspire to create not just paintings, but windows into the soul of our shared existence.
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.
Motorized sculpture by Yoosef Mohamadi, one of several works in the exhibition
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.
