Graduates 2025

Lucy Bell

Lucy Bell is an artist exploring memory, body, and family history through painting and sculpture. Influenced by philosophical thoughts on time and religion, Bell is interested in questions around the collapse of time, control, privacy, altered states of consciousness, and guilt. They are interested in feelings of body dysphoria, self-censorship, power, and shapeshifting for others. Bell uses figurative and narrative based painting to explore these ideas often in dream-like or stilted landscapes on the canvas or through glazing on ceramics.

Bell was raised in Pleasanton, California. They have shown in r.Blitzer Gallery, Soft Times Gallery, and Bankhead Gallery. Bell’s work has been published domestically out of Washington state, California, New York, and internationally out of London, UK. Bell received their BA in Art at UC San Diego and is now a first year MFA candidate at UC Santa Barbara.

Negar Farajiani

I grew up in the city of Yazd, Iran, where the desert stubbornly slices through every aspect of life and perception. This ever-present phenomenon and the connotations of its presence have shaped and emerged in my artistic practice over the years. From my fascination with plants and nature to the impacts of urban life, industry, education, and ‘social’ life on how we perceive our own presence in this world, I have worked as a multidisciplinary artist and curator. The projects I have initiated and/or conducted have been diverse in utilizing media and scope. They have touched disciplines such as photography, video, sculptures, performances, installations, educational programs, and publications. These efforts have also initiated novel platforms for engaging in dialogue, collaboration, and communication in public and private spaces.

Austin McCormick

I am a multi-disciplinary artist from California. I grew up in the San Bernardino National Forest in Lake Arrowhead, California. My work stems from my early exposure to the making of both theater productions and homebuilding. There I learned to value both the production and the final product. The physical work, activity, collaboration, training/practice and waste that goes into producing is traditionally hidden i.e. the backstage of a theater, or behind the walls and decorations of a home. I have worked within a variety of occupations in Los Angeles county including fine art, corporate events, and the entertainment arts, where I saw an exorbitant amount of waste which stirred up questions about consumption, excess, and its impact on the environment. As a laborer, I questioned the concepts surrounding authorship, power, and value in these industries. In my work, I collect and repurpose the discarded materials and processes of production from these trades, flipping the lens to look behind the scenes. I hope the formalist reconceptualizing of detritus generates a harmonious tension that reflects the reality of work and time, and raises discussion about the environmental impact of production and consumption.

website:  www.austinmccormick.com
instagram: @austin_mccormick_art

Autumn Nicole

I am an interdisciplinary artist working in painting, sculpture, sound, video, and installation practices as the basis for my artistic practice. I create works to bridge intimacy gaps and explore our connectedness to memory. My works comprise large-scale paintings, soft felt sculptures, and immersive multisensory installations.

Using experiences through adversity, themes rooted in psychology, philosophy, domesticism, cross-cultural identities, and language to inform my practice. These topics come together to present multi-layered narratives unraveling as profoundly or simply as the viewer chooses to engage. At times, leaning into subconsciously accepted storytelling visuals that are most familiar to us, and at other times deceive us with their oversimplifications, looking deeper into the complex nature of the trials of reality unfolding before the viewer.

Website: autumnnicole.com
Instagram: autumn_nicolee

Rose S.