University of Manitoba 2025 Master of Fine Art Thesis Exhibitions

Clockwise left to right: Maryam Bagheri, Laila Fazal, Xianghui Guan, Frankie May, Netsanet Shawl, and 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

May 23 – June 20, 2025
Reception: Friday, May 23, 5:00 – 8:00pm
School of Art Gallery, Winnipeg
Thesis examinations are open to the public and held at the School of Art Gallery

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. Showcasing six exhibitions, the series reflects the breadth and diversity of contemporary art practice—spanning performance, painting, sculpture, ceramics, video, and installation.

Each exhibition marks the culmination of two years of intensive studio research. Together, they offer nuanced reflections on cultural identity, memory, materiality, gender, place, and politics—contributing vital new perspectives to contemporary art discourse.

Maryam Bagheri – Unwinding Complexity: Reflections on Disentanglement
Thesis Examination: Friday, June 6, 2025 | 9:00am

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.

Laila Fazal: Woven Roots
Thesis Examination: Thursday, May 29, 2025 | 1:00pm

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.

Xianghui Guan: The Protagonist
Thesis Examination: Wednesday, May 28, 2025 | 1:00pm

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.

Frankie May: Everyday Life Revolution
Thesis Examination: Tuesday, June 4, 2025 | 1:00pm

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.

Netsanet Shawl: From Earth to Art
Thesis Examination: Thursday, June 5, 2025 | 1:00pm

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.

Lisha Wang: L.I.F.E.
Thesis Examination: Friday, June 6, 2025 | 1:00pm

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.

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

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