Community Notes: Fall 2026

Appointments

Marisa Sage ’02 (Digital Art MA) was recently named executive director of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Sage brings more than two decades of leadership experience in museums, galleries, and cultural organizations, most recently serving as director and head curator of the University Art Museum at New Mexico State University.

Awards

Kanika Anand ’25 (Graphic Design MFA) has been recognized with a prestigious Award of Excellence from Communication Arts, one of the design industry’s most respected publications. Known for a narrative-driven approach, Anand creates visually compelling pieces that balance concept and form. For Anand, the recognition underscores both her technical skill and her growing influence as a designer.

Thea Canlas ’06 (Fiber BFA) recently won the Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize, which awards a $30,000 fellowship to a contemporary visual artist living and working in Baltimore. An exhibition of work by Canlas and the other finalists was on display at The Walters Art Museum. The prize is presented by Create Baltimore in partnership with The Walters Art Museum, with support from the Maryland State Arts Council.

Two MICA alumni have been named winners of the 2026 Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. Ciarra K. Walters ’24 (Photography + Media & Society MFA) received Best in Show and a $10,000 prize, while Cindy Cheng ’08 (Post-Baccalaureate Fine Arts), ’11 (Mount Royal School of Art MFA) received second place and a $2,000 prize.

Fellow MICA alumnus Tony Shore ’93 (Painting BFA, Painting Department faculty) was also among the eight finalists selected for the prestigious regional competition, which honors contemporary artists from Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. The finalists’ work was exhibited at Gallery B in Bethesda, Maryland, Sept. 3-27.

Two MICA alumni have received 2026 Baker Artist Awards, which recognize Baltimore-area artists for excellence in craft, artistic exploration, and unique vision. Erin Fostel ’03 (Drawing and Art History BFA) and Kei Ito ’16 (Photographic & Electronic Media MFA) are among this year’s awardees. Fostel is known for representational charcoal drawings depicting intimate interiors and shared public spaces, while Ito uses photography, performance, sculpture, and installation to explore memory, trauma, nuclear violence, and environmental impact.

MICA alumnae swept the top two honors at the 2026 Bethesda Painting Awards. Monica Ikegwu ’20 (Painting BFA) earned the $10,000 grand prize, while Julia Gould ’19 (Painting BFA) received the second-place award. The annual competition recognizes outstanding painters from across the region, making the alumni duo’s success a notable achievement and a testament to MICA’s strength in the visual arts.

Alaina Lurry ’26 (Photography BFA) was named one of the Top 25 photographers in the 2026 Lenscratch Student Prize, a national recognition highlighting emerging photographic artists. Chosen from hundreds of applicants, Lurry was recognized for Colonial Spirits, an ongoing body of work that examines Black womanhood, pageantry, race, and identity through the character “Miss Amerikkka,” challenging Eurocentric beauty standards and reclaiming representations of the Black body.

Amy Sherald ’04 (LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting MFA) has been named to TIME’s 2026 Women of the Year list. This is a banner year for Sherald, who broke records with her sold-out exhibition, Amy Sherald: American Sublime, at the Baltimore Museum of Art. She also received an honorary degree from Johns Hopkins University as one of six honorees. Sherald previously received an honorary degree from MICA in 2021

Tichacoco ’21 (Interdisciplinary Sculpture BFA) has been named one of the inaugural recipients of the Van Lier Fellowship at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center. The fellowship supports emerging Latino artists in New York with studio space, professional development opportunities, and a $20,000 stipend. A Brooklyn-based artist drawing on their Salvadoran background, Tichacoco works across performance, poetry, and sculpture to explore memory, displacement, and Indigenous and rural communities. Their work will be featured in the 2026 Historias Reveladas exhibition and a major two-person exhibition at The Clemente in 2027.

José Villarrubia ’83 (General Fine Arts BFA), an internationally recognized, Harvey Award-winning colorist and longtime MICA Illustration faculty member, recently served as colorist for Batman: Year 100, winner of the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series. Additionally, Villarrubia is one of the selected finalists for the 2026 Will Eisner Award for Best Colorist, and was quoted in Forbes regarding the use of generative AI.

Books

Amelia Bothe ’24 (Illustration BFA) will release her second picture book, Mia's Cheetah, in September 2026. The book is about how "an interminable car trip becomes a portal to the extraordinary.” Her debut, Ellie Has a Secret, was an Amazon/B&N pick of the month (2025).

Lindsey Leigh ’19 (Graphic Design MA) released The Dirt!, the third book in the Wild Life series published by Penguin Random House. Leigh shared, “When I started writing The Deep! in 2019, I had no idea this would become a trilogy of books. I’m especially happy to now be receiving excited emails from kids, parents, and teachers about how these books have enticed reluctant readers to learn about wacky and wonderful animals.”

Eva Lou Phillips ’25 (Illustration BFA) landed a two-book deal with Tundra Books, announced in December 2025. Her debut picture book, Frogatha’s Birthday, is scheduled for 2028, with a second book following in 2029. Phillips won MICA's 2025 Ezra Jack Keats Bookmaking Competition.

Commissions

Elaine Chu ’04 (Painting BFA, Art History BFA) was selected as part of Twin Walls Mural Company to create a new public mural in downtown Los Altos, California, commissioned by Arts Los Altos. Inspired by the movement and grace of birds photographed at Baylands Nature Preserve and Shoreline Park, the mural will transform the exterior wall of the Los Altos Dance Academy into a vibrant celebration of color, harmony, and motion.

Gaia ’11 (Interdisciplinary Sculpture BFA) continues to curate murals at Orioles Park Camden Yards as part of a multi-year collaboration with PNC Bank. In total, the Birdland murals now number nine, both inside and outside of the park, with the newest addition this year. Several MICA-affiliated artists are featured in the series: Alumni Logan Hicks, Jessie Unterhalter, Katey Truhn, and Iandry Randriamandroso, and Faculty Ernest Shaw.

Caleb O’Connor ’02 (Painting BFA), a Hawaii-born artist known for figurative realism across painting, marble sculpture, and bronze work, created the monumental “Minerva” sculpture and historical installations for Alabama Bicentennial Park commemorating the state’s 200th anniversary.

Shanna Hollis ’18 (Graphic Design BFA) was invited to participate in the 2025 Wynwood Mural Fest during Miami Art Week, where she brought Bermudian culture to Miami through a large-scale public mural. Hollis, an award-winning designer, chair of the Bermuda Arts Council, and teacher at the Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation, collaborated with fellow artists to create a vibrant work inspired by Bermudian identity, architecture, and community. Incorporating elements such as Bermuda roofs, kites, and her “Happy Bermudiana” logo, the mural celebrated the warmth and spirit of Bermuda.

In the Media

Lauren Boilini ’08 (Mount Royal School of Art Fine/Studio Arts MFA) was featured in Seattle Magazine for her recent exhibitions, The Good Death, at J. Rinehart Gallery and her first museum exhibition at San Juan Islands Museum of Art. A Seattle-based painter and educator at The Evergreen State College, Boilini creates large-scale works inspired by animal behavior, ecological research, and field residencies with biologists and environmental scientists.

Haven DeAnglis ’20 (Fiber BFA), co-founder of STITCH AND DESTROY, a Philadelphia-based upcycled clothing brand that transforms reclaimed garments and unconventional materials into one-of-a-kind pieces, was featured in Bold Journey, an online publication that spotlights emerging creatives and their artistic journeys.

Diana Eusebio ’20 (Fiber BFA) was featured in Florida Design for her exhibition Field of Dreams at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. A Miami-based Peruvian-Dominican artist, Eusebio combines textiles, natural dyes, and digital photography to create mixed-media works rooted in the Indigenous traditions of the Caribbean and Latin America. 

The Baltimore Banner and BmoreArt featured Louis Fratino ’15 (Painting BFA), whose work was on view through September 3 at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again. The exhibition places Fratino’s vibrant, intimate paintings alongside works by Henri Matisse from the museum’s celebrated Cone Collection, sparking a visual conversation across generations. Though separated by more than a century, the two artists share an affinity for bold color, expressive form, and the beauty found in everyday life. The pairing offers a fresh perspective on Matisse while illuminating the ways Fratino has forged a distinctive contemporary approach to figurative painting.

Paulo Gregory ’82 (Dual Degree, Education BFA) was featured on Technical.ly for launching a Kickstarter campaign to expand Cohado, his cooperative tabletop game designed to encourage collaboration and inclusion. Based in Baltimore, Gregory created the strategy game around the idea of players acting as “co-ponents,” working together toward shared success. Gregory has introduced the game to universities, entrepreneurial organizations, and community groups as a tool for team building and communal problem-solving.

Peishan Huang ’22 (Mount Royal School of Art Multidisciplinary MFA) was recently featured in Asian Art Contemporary in an interview discussing her evolving interdisciplinary practice across photography, sculpture, and installation. Based in Shanghai, Huang explores themes of spatial narratives, emotional landscapes, visibility, and identity through layered materials and immersive environments. Her recent solo exhibitions include Crack in the Curtain at Fotografiska Shanghai and Imagine a Returning Arrow at Inna Art Space. In the interview, Huang reflected on how her MFA experience at MICA expanded her understanding of contemporary art practice beyond photography and helped shape her approach to images as spatial and material experiences rather than fixed representations.

Linling Lu ’08 ’11  (Painting BFA, LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting MFA) is the subject of a feature in Florida Weekly highlighting her exhibition, Linling Lu: Fugue in 3 Voices, on view at The Baker Museum in Naples, Florida, through Jan. 3, 2027. Inspired by classical music, Lu's large-scale circular paintings use vibrant concentric bands of color to create rhythmic, optical experiences that translate sound into visual form, inviting viewers into moments of contemplation, healing, and reflection.

Jinie Park ’15 (LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting MFA) was featured in ArtDaily for her exhibition Twins, on view at Winston Wächter Fine Art. The exhibition marks Park’s New York solo debut with the gallery and features layered assemblages of linen, muslin, and hand-woven fiber that explore materiality, skin, space, and kinship. Drawing on traditional Korean textiles such as Kwangmok and Sambe, Park creates mirrored dual-panel works that investigate perception, connection, and the relationship between painting and physical space.

Gina Pierleoni ’85 (LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting MFA) was featured in the Baltimore Fishbowl for her exhibition, Objects Made Holy, at The Peale. The exhibition brings together deeply personal objects and stories contributed by more than 40 Baltimore residents. Pierleoni describes the project as a “love letter” to Baltimore and a community-building effort centered on connection, memory, and the sacred meaning people attach to everyday objects.

Dhvani Shah ’22 (Social Design MA) was featured in Our Culture, a digital arts and culture magazine, highlighting her career using design to make complex systems more accessible, intuitive, and humane. After beginning her career in advertising and brand design in India, Shah shifted to UX/UI design and public-sector modernization, helping redesign legacy systems that support services. Her approach, shaped by the research and systems-thinking skills she developed at MICA, centers on making essential services easier for people to navigate.

Exhibitions

Lisa Brown ’25 (Community Art MFA) presented her first solo museum exhibition, Hard Lessons in Light, in Omaha, Nebraska, from January through May 2026. Developed during the Kali Baker Residency at The Union for Contemporary Art, the exhibition marked a significant milestone in her emerging artistic career. Brown also exhibited her photographic work in Living the Prescription at George Mason University from February through May 2026. Created in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Terence Nicholson, the exhibition explored how home functions as a site of care, memory, and cultural continuity, drawing inspiration from Melani N. Douglass’s The Prescription is HOME: A Manifesto.

Corliss Cavalieri’s ’81 (Painting BFA) collection, Ghosts and Beads, was recently featured at Noho M55 Gallery. The exhibition includes four large paintings, six small drawings, and one watercolor inspired by memories from his childhood in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Cavalieri, who studied alongside Keith Haring at the Ivy School of Professional Art, has shown more than a dozen exhibitions with the gallery and continues to pursue new work from his Philadelphia studio.

John Hee Taek Chae ’10 (Painting BFA, Art History Minor) has a new solo exhibition, Third, at D. D. D. D. The exhibition, Chae’s third with the gallery, reflects on family, generational identity, and cultural memory following the birth of his son and his move to rural western New York. Drawing from found and archival imagery, Chae’s paintings examine the intersections of Korean, European, and American visual culture. Chae, an assistant professor at Alfred University, has previously received fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo, as well as the 2024 AHL Foundation Visual Artist Award.

John Dean ’77 (Photography BFA) was the subject of an exhibition, A Semester in Nottingham, at Bonington Gallery at Nottingham Trent University. The exhibition features photographs Dean captured in 1976 while studying abroad as MICA’s first exchange student in Nottingham. Fifty years later, the images have returned to the city where they were first developed, documenting everyday life and social history during a transformative era. Dean continues to operate a photography studio in Baltimore and also performs as a lounge-style singer at venues around the region. His wife, Ellen Burchenal ’82 (Mount Royal School of Art MFA), previously taught painting at MICA before retiring.

Kevin Fitzgerald ’77 (Painting BFA) and Evan Fitzgerald ’13 (Painting BFA) presented a father-son exhibition at the Art League of Ocean City’s Thaler Gallery in Ocean City, Maryland. Only their second exhibition together, the show paired Kevin’s atmospheric landscapes and seascapes with Evan’s near-photorealistic portraits exploring identity through elaborate natural forms. The exhibition also highlighted a MICA family legacy spanning more than a century: Kevin’s grandfather and Evan’s great-grandfather, John R. Fitzgerald, graduated from MICA in 1910. Now based on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Kevin and Evan share a studio and continue to influence one another’s work.

Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia ’20 (Community Art MFA) recently presented Bright Sugar Hide at Soulangh Cultural Park in Tainan, Taiwan, as part of a trio exhibition featuring artists from New York. Organized through a residency program sponsored by the Taiwanese American Arts Council and Soulangh International Art Village, the site-specific installation combined video projection and performance art to explore the transmission of traditional culture. Inspired by the rare Taiwanese snack sugar scallions, the work reflects on Taiwan’s complex history and the ways its people blend cultural values from past and present.

Mya Kerner ’11 ( Interdisciplinary Sculpture BFA) was featured in While the Garden Overgrew, a two-person exhibition in Seattle, Washington, from April 24 to May 31, 2026. Presented alongside artist Zak Helenske, the exhibition explored themes of family, stewardship, and the natural world through work inspired by the wetland landscape where the couple lives and creates. Kerner’s paintings drew on the contours and ecology of the land, weaving together stories of past, present, and future through layered imagery of overgrown shrubs, grasses, and shifting waterlines. The exhibition reflected the artists’ shared roles as creators, parents, and caretakers, celebrating the lessons found in growth, wildness, and the rhythms of everyday life.

Marley Lake ’23 (Business of Art and Design MPS) collaborated with Inegale and Maketto on “World Pop-Up,” a two-day World Cup activation held in June 2026. The event brought together sport, design, and community through a curated capsule collection, exclusive merchandise, and public match viewings. Hosted at Maketto, the activation created a gathering space for fans and showcased the intersection of creative design and global sports culture.

Haesuh Paik ’26 (Painting BFA) is having a solo exhibition, The Art of Remembering, at Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre through September 27. The exhibition is running alongside Everyman’s season opening production of Kim’s Convenience. Paik won the 2025 AXA Art Prize, a national competition for figurative artists.

Joseph Sheppard ’52 (BFA) was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) during the June 2026 opening of Rooted in Classical Realism: The Drawings of Joseph Sheppard, a yearlong exhibition surveying six decades of his work. Now 95, Sheppard taught painting, anatomy, and life drawing at MICA, and continues to work from studios in Baltimore and Italy. He is internationally recognized for his classically inspired paintings, drawings, and sculptures, which include official portraits of President George H.W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI, as well as a landmark statue of Baltimore Orioles great Brooks Robinson at Camden Yards. His work is held by museums and institutions around the world, including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. The UMGC exhibition is on view through June 27, 2027.

Mary Kunaniec Skeen ’69 (Painting, Printmaking) continues to expand her artistic practice through the exploration of early photographic processes. A photographer, photography professor, and collector, Skeen has recently begun working with ambrotypes-images created on glass with a black backing. Drawing from corrupted ambrotypes, she produces large-scale paper prints that highlight the marks of age, including scratches, cracks, pockmarks, and whorls. Through the addition of text and layered imagery, her work reimagines these historic photographs, transforming them into evocative studies of memory, time, and renewal.

Leslie Smith III ’07 (Painting BFA) is the subject of Leave Your Baggage at the Door, a focused retrospective at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, Wisconsin. Featuring 22 paintings created between 2010 and 2024, the exhibition traces 15 years of Smith’s artistic evolution, from traditional rectangular canvases to increasingly complex, multi-panel compositions. His abstract works use color, form, and shape to explore memory, emotion, and human connection, reflecting a pivotal shift in his practice after moving from New York City to Wisconsin. Smith is professor of drawing and painting and chair of the Art Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The exhibition is on view now through Oct. 11.

Cynthia Nourse Thompson ’92 (Printmaking BFA), a professor at Kennesaw State University, curated Georgia Women to Watch: A Book Arts Revolution at Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, Georgia. The exhibition explored book arts and the wide range of techniques artists use to transform books into art objects, including bookbinding, papermaking, typography, letterpress, sewing, weaving, and sculpture. A longtime specialist in book arts and printmaking, Thompson conducted statewide research to select five Georgia artists whose work demonstrated the breadth of the field. Thompson previously served as associate professor and director of graduate programs in book arts and printmaking at University of the Arts in Philadelphia and has curated more than 50 exhibitions since 2000.

In Remembrance

Ezra Berger ’99 (General Fine Arts BFA), an artist whose work became part of the visual landscape of Havre de Grace and Harford County, died in July 2026. A painter and muralist, Berger created public art throughout Havre de Grace, with his work appearing on businesses, restaurants, and other community spaces. He described himself as a narrative painter, drawing on impressionism, surrealism, and absurdism to create work marked by bold color, whimsy, and storytelling. He studied at MICA with artists including Philip Koch and Raoul Middleman.

Thea Osato ’79 (Painting BFA), a painter and window-display artist whose imaginative work enlivened some of Baltimore’s best-known storefronts, died March 4 at age 69. Osato moved to Baltimore to attend MICA, where she studied with painter Raoul Middleman. After graduating, she co-founded Rozy Windows with fellow MICA alumna Lucy Chittenden. Osato went on to create elaborate displays for businesses including Louie’s Bookstore Café, Nyborgs’ art supply store, and An die Musik LIVE. She was also a prolific painter whose work ranged from biomorphic abstraction to portraiture. Friends and family remembered Osato for bringing creativity and a
sense of wonder to both her artwork and everyday life.

Barbara Gillette Price, a painter, designer, educator, and former MICA vice president for academic affairs,
died April 24 at age 87. Price joined MICA in 1982 and spent 13 years at the College, where she helped shape the curriculum, develop international programs, and establish an artist studio complex while continuing to exhibit her paintings. A Philadelphia native, Price studied at what became the University of the Arts and later earned her BFA and MA from the University of Alabama. Before joining MICA, she taught at the Corcoran School of Art and served as dean of Cranbrook Academy of Art. She left MICA in 1994 to become president of Moore College of Art and Design.

Jack Wilgus, faculty emeritus and longtime chair of MICA’s Photography department, died June 12 at age 82. Wilgus joined MICA in 1968 and taught photography and the history of photography for more than four decades, serving for many years as department chair. The student-run Wilgus Gallery was renamed in his honor upon his retirement. Wilgus embraced experimentation throughout his career, helping make space for video and early digital art at MICA. Former students remembered him as a generous, patient, and deeply knowledgeable teacher whose enthusiasm for photography was contagious. A photographer, historian, and collector, Wilgus and his wife, Beverly, also assembled an important collection of historic photographs and photographic artifacts.