Graduate Studies

The Department of Art’s M.F.A curriculum fosters the development of a sustained artistic practice through exploration, experimentation, and intensive studio work and study. Opened in the Fall of 2019, the UCLA Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios provide individual and communal workspaces for M.F.Art students with a design that considers the nature of artistic practice today and can evolve to anticipate change.
 

The six areas of study—Ceramics, Interdisciplinary Studio, New Genres, Painting and Drawing, Photography, and Sculpture—are supplemented by contemporary critical theory seminars. Opportunities to investigate areas beyond one's concentration are encouraged.

Ceramics

The Ceramics Area supports art practices in which material experimentation with clay propels critical thinking and work across Disciplines, including clay-based elements in performance, video, and installation.
 

Interdisciplinary Studio

The Interdisciplinary Studio Area combines artistic production and focused research to support the development of site- and debate-specific forms of critical cultural engagement that extend beyond the framework of individual studio practice.

New Genres

Graduate students in the New Genres Area are exposed to the theoretical frameworks, historical precedents, and current examples of moving image, sound, performance, installation, hybrid, and emerging art forms in combination with continued independent practice, experimentation, and critique.

Painting and Drawing

Within the Painting and Drawing Area, graduate students are encouraged to examine and explore all the formal and conceptual possibilities offered within the discipline, while continuing to refine their own personal modes of expression.
 

Photography

Graduate students in the Photography Area are encouraged to experiment and strengthen their individual practices of making works of art using photographs and to critically examine the historical and contemporary role photographic imagery and objects hold in society.

Sculpture

Sculpture's basis is the exploration of three-dimensional contemporary expression where questions about context and culture at large inform every Sculpture candidate’s studies.