The Department of Art at the University of California, Irvine is pleased to present the solo exhibitions of MFA candidates Minoo Emadi, Norma Her Pena, Laura Li, Andy Montiel-Phillips, and Alystair Rogers.

This is the first round of 2025 MFA thesis exhibitions. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, April 19 from 2–5pm.

Minoo Emadi
Three Echoes | University Art Gallery 
 
Three Echoes fractures time and space as autobiographical experience is displaced in the self-reflexivity of the painting medium.
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Laura 嘟嘟 
born of what is still becoming 生于冥冥 | University Art Gallery 

Laura 嘟嘟 is a diasporic artist, community organizer, and aspiring acupuncturist whose work weaves together memory, grief, and queer feminist resistance across China, Japan, and the U.S. Working with moving images, textiles, writing, and archival materials, they create works that cradle loss and reimagine ancestral connections through ritual and storytelling. As co-director of Chinese Artists and Organizers (CAO) Collective, a grassroots collective uplifting queer AAPI narratives, since 2022, Laura has co-created over 70 public events and exhibitions spanning 12 U.S. states, Japan, China, and Canada. Their practice draws from personal memory, Buddhism and Taoist cosmology, and kinship networks, often involving participatory formats that center care, accessibility, and community healing. (word.111)
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Andy Montiel-Phillips
Anxious Encore | Room Gallery 

Andy Montiel-Phillips is an artist living and working in Los Angeles, CA. His sculpture based practice investigates nostalgia, spiritual authority, and doubt. Recent work addressing American Christianity traces bodily sensation of transcendence in Pentecostal traditions. He received a BFA from California State University, Long Beach and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of California, Irvine. 

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Alystair Rogers
Living Room | Contemporary Arts Center Gallery 

This life is yours, this room belongs to no one. Alystair takes credit only for illuminating the front half of CAC gallery, restoring the found furniture, and connecting the following individuals: Ava Selbach (producer), Vaughan Larsen (director of photography), Alex Bravo (music), Lina Jemili (lyrics and vocals), mia simonivić (improvisational dance and performance), Fabricio Cavero Farfán (performance and music), Peter Grimm, Tim & Andrea Cheung Sheedy (talent), Liz Ayala (sewing and sculpture assist) and viewers (like you).

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Norma Her Pena
She Holds Her Penas or: Sorrows | Contemporary Arts Center Gallery 

A part of me (her) has been lost in translation. Time has numbed away my (her) sorrows. I now face my (her) greatest wounds to shed the pain and move forward. With a heavy Spanish accent, I present: She Holds Her Penas or: Sorrows.