Clockwise from top left: Maryam Bagheri, Laila Fazal, Xianghui Guan, Frankie May, Netsanet Shawl, Lisha Wang
2025 MFA Thesis Exhibitions at the School of Art, University of Manitoba
Maryam Bagheri | Laila Fazal | Xianghui Guan | Frankie May | Netsanet Shawl | Lisha Wang
This spring, the School of Art and School of Art Gallery proudly present the thesis exhibitions of graduating MFA students from the University of Manitoba. Featuring six individual exhibitions, the series highlights the range and diversity of contemporary art practice—spanning performance, painting, sculpture, ceramics, video, and installation.
Each exhibition represents the culmination of two years of rigorous studio research. Together, these works offer layered reflections on memory, identity, materiality, gender, place, and politics—contributing new perspectives to contemporary art discourse.
Exhibition Dates: May 23–June 20, 2025
Reception: Friday, May 23, 5:00–8:00 PM
Location: School of Art Gallery, 180 Dafoe Road, University of Manitoba
Thesis examinations are open to the public and held at the School of Art Gallery.
Featured Exhibitions & Thesis Examinations
Maryam Bagheri — Unwinding Complexity: Reflections on Disentanglement
Bagheri’s work merges painting, sculpture, and weaving to explore memory, diaspora, and feminism. Drawing from Iranian heritage and feminist craft histories, her pieces challenge the boundaries between fine art and traditional women’s labour.
Thesis Examination: Friday, June 6, 2025 | 9:00 AM
Laila Fazal — Woven Roots
Fazal’s vibrant mixed-media works draw from Bengali scroll painting and post-colonial histories. Her paintings and performances reflect on immigration, tradition, and the transformation of identity across diasporic experience.
Thesis Examination: Thursday, May 29, 2025 | 1:00 PM
Xianghui Guan — The Protagonist
Through painting and graphic narrative, Guan examines memory, trauma, and identity formation. Drawing from themes of childhood, migration, and familial loss, his fragmented visual storytelling resists linearity, invoking emotional and perceptual depth.
Thesis Examination: Wednesday, May 28, 2025 | 1:00 PM
Frankie May — Everyday Life Revolution
May’s provocative practice combines performance, photography, and video to critique societal norms and ideological conditioning. His absurdist approach offers a radical reimagining of perception and daily life as political acts.
Thesis Examination: Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | 1:00 PM
Netsanet Shawl — From Earth to Art
Shawl’s sculptural vessels made from clay and natural grasses explore cultural identity, migration, and ancestral knowledge. Rooted in Ethiopian and Indigenous traditions, her interdisciplinary work investigates how materials embody memory, land, and labour.
Thesis Examination: Thursday, June 5, 2025 | 1:00 PM
Lisha Wang — L.I.F.E.
Wang’s conceptual practice engages with the representation and reconfiguration of life through text, video, photo, sound, and performance. Her minimalist approach is grounded in philosophical questioning and interdisciplinary research.
Thesis Examination: Friday, June 6, 2025 | 1:00 PM
Contact & Info
Donna Jones
204.474.9322
donna.jones@umanitoba.ca
School of Art Gallery
255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
204.474.9367 | umanitoba.ca/art
Gallery Hours:
Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Closed on statutory holidays
Accessibility & Parking:
ARTlab is wheelchair accessible. Accessible parking is available; contact Parking Services at 204.474.9483 or parking_services@umanitoba.ca. Visitor parking is available in lots ACW and AC (free after 4:30 PM on weekdays and all day on weekends).