Graduates 2024

Dannah Hidalgo

Dannah Mari Hidalgo (1994.) is a Filipina-American artist based out of California, and Oahu, Hawai‘i where she was born and raised. Hidalgo obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2019. Hidalgo has also attended the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute in Florence, Italy. Currently, Hidalgo is an MFA Candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. (2024)

Her work often explores daily life experiences and relationships while deconstructing space -often coupling figurative and representational work with abstract activation through paint. Currently, Hidalgo’s work explores relationships with self and others, concepts of home and space, vulnerability, and the role of humor in navigating severe atmospheres. An emerging artist, Hidalgo has participated in group shows with the Association of Hawai’i Artists, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, the Honolulu Museum of Art School, Hawai’i Pacific University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, Ventura County, California State University Long Beach and Channel Islands, and at LA Project Art Space.

Dannahmarihidalgo.com
@dannahmari_art

Diego Melgoza Ocegueara

Diego Melgoza Ocegueara, aka Melgo (b. 1993 Mexico City), is a Santa Barbara-based visual artist and graphic designer whose inspiration comes from Mesoamerican and Mexican culture. His mission is to create quality visual work about environmental and social issues, to evolve the consciousness of the viewer, and to allow us to progress through knowledge. The artist had solo exhibitions of his work at the Community Arts Workshop in Santa Barbara, CA, and 24th St Studio in San Francisco, CA. His work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions and festivals, including the CSULB Student Gallery, Community Arts Workshop, UCSB Glass Box, Lucidity Music Festival, Joshua Tree Music Festival, and Lighting in a Bottle Music Festival. Melgoza received a B.S. from San Francisco State University in Apparel Design and Merchandising with an emphasis on Marketing. He studied Printmaking and Graphic Design at Santa Barbara City College and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Fine Arts at UCSB.

@melgo___

www.melgo.art

Hope Okere

Hope was born and raised in Iowa to her Nigerian father and white American mother.  She attended Iowa State University for two years majoring in Apparel Design and Fine Art.  She then moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design to study fashion design exclusively.  She began her career by interning for threeAsFour and Robert Geller.  What followed was a decade long career, during which she designed for Gap, Target, J.Crew, Madewell, Marc Jacobs, Converse and more.  She has a deep understanding of design and a wealth of experience working within the fashion industry across womenswear, menswear and accessories.  Functionality, originality, comfort, and movement combined with modern silhouettes, emotional color, and sophisticated fabrics, are the framework of her design aesthetic.  She sees fashion as a tool for self-expression and cultural representation.

Now working toward her MFA at the University of California Santa Barbara, she continues to evolve her career as an artist.  Moving from design into fine art and expressing her ideas through sculpture, textile arts, and performance.  Recurring sources of inspiration come from film, fashion, cultural movements, meditation, nature, water, light, textiles, and dance.  Her work often stems from emotions, intuition, memories and dreams.  The abstract forms she creates are feminine, nurturing, rounded and soft.  Representative of how she experiences life, her work explores her identity as a biracial first generation American and questions prejudice and bias in regard to gender, race and culture.

https://www.hopeokere.com/

@hopengozistudio

Lyra Purugganan

Mariana Rodela

My practice explores the use of play as a subversive entity against late stage capitalism. I want to encourage my viewers to reconsider their relationship to play and hopefully dispel the notion that we should be productive at all times. I hope to encourage my viewer to not scrutinize rest and “nothingness” but instead see them as a form of resistance. I’m interested in replacing the constant feeling of alienation in a capitalist society with community through my work. I do this through dematerialized forms of art making such as social practice and soft performance. By avoiding commodification I can subsequently create an emphasis on the viewers. Currently, I’m exploring the connection between soccer and art. I’m examining the wealth, spectacle, community, labor, the body, and other social issues surrounding soccer and Harder Stadium.

@marianarodela

Lela Shahrzad Welch