MFA – Notre Dame Art | Art History

Nik Swift (tiwonku)

Nik Swift (tiwonku)MFA | Visual Communication Design DESIGNER BIOYooo! I’m Nik, a human who consistently tries (and fails, and succeeds, and fails again) to live in the present, and to design things that align with the way that I see the world. I love human connections, music, nature, and even the internet (despite its flaws),… Read More

Joe Matty

Joe MattyMFA | Photography ARTIST BIOI am a photographer from Pittsburgh, PA, focused on the exploration and application of historical photographic processes. Drawing from 19th-century photographic practices, my most recent photographs are created as documents that explore virtual worlds we inhabit in video games. By using the process of wet-plate collodion, I create a physical… Read More

Jacob Lehmann

Jacob LehmannMFA | Painting & Drawing ARTIST BIOSwelling up from the mud of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I am a multi-media artist from Clemson, South Carolina. While I am currently based in South Bend, Indiana, I am interested in investigating my own upbringing as a queer person within southern Appalachia and how the intersections of… Read More

Hans Miles

Hans MilesMFA | Ceramics ARTIST BIOI’m a potter and sculptor from a small town nestled in the craggy granite, shivering pines and listlessness of central Arizona. My work pertains to the livingness of objects, the magnitudes that exist within them and the body’s interplay with the other. I received my BFA from Arizona State University… Read More

Riley Fichter

Riley FichterMFA | Sculpture ARTIST BIOI am from Baraboo, Wisconsin, and I grew up alongside the Wisconsin River. The watershed of the river was the catalyst for my imagination to flourish. With my brother and friends, we built forts, castles, and designs of grand childhood magnitude. My experiences here convinced me to become an artist.… Read More

Compression Molding Samples. Ground Wheat Straw, Corn Starch Bioplastic, Rice Starch, Paper, Gelatin Bio-Resin, 2022.

Jason Carley

Jason CarleyMFA | Industrial Design DESIGNER BIOI am an Industrial Designer focusing on sustainable product development, circular economies, and consumer behavior. My work examines our relationships with resources and how whole-system design can enable empowering experiences with dramatically lower environmental footprints. My love for learning “how the world works” has led me to explore a… Read More

Amelia Mendelsohn

Amelia MendelsohnMFA | Painting & Drawing ARTIST BIOI grew up along the coast in Kingsland, Georgia. I received my BA in studio art and art history from Sweet Briar College. I currently live in South Bend, Indiana and recently earned my MFA in painting and drawing at the University of Notre Dame. I love running,… Read More

Jonathan Kusnerek

Jonathan KusnerekMFA | Ceramics ARTIST BIOJonathan Kusnerek is an interdisciplinary artist inspired by wild, strange, and magical things. He grew up in Pensacola, Florida, where he developed a love for nature and the outdoors. After being introduced to ceramics at Pensacola State College, he continued his education and earned a BFA at the School of… Read More

James J. Ostrander

James J. OstranderMFA | Painting & Drawing ARTIST BIOI identify as a Frankenstein’s subject – the monstrous aggregate of ill-fitting cultural forms, stitched together with cognitive dissonance, and haunted by the accumulated sins of millennia of bad actors, well-intentioned though some may have been. In absurd vignettes, I parody my struggles as a navel-gazing self-portrait… Read More

Jenn Kaplan

Jenn KaplanMFA | Ceramics ARTIST BIOI am an art-scienst-activist with an MFA in Ceramics, a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and a deeply rooted love of gardening. Teaching, like gardening is a profound part of my life, as it has the capacity to nurture and facilitate potential. I have been teaching (mostly. In… Read More