Exhibition

SVA presents “Becoming 2024: We The Public,” an annual exhibition of visual conversations featuring the work of eight BFA Photography and Video students from the class of 2026 prompted by the work of eight distinguished program alumni. “Becoming 2024: We The Public” is curated by artist and department Chair, Joseph Maida, and will be on view from Friday, November 1, through Monday, November 18, 2024, at the SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 East 23rd Street, New York City. There will be an opening reception on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, from 5:30 to 7:30pm.

For this year’s iteration of “Becoming,” third-year BFA Photography and Video students are paired with alumni whose works explore the civil and civic. With this prompt, alumni and students consider both individual and collective hopes, needs, and responsibilities. How do people participate in community, caring for each other and shared resources? And how can one affect change on a local, state, national, and global level? Alumni works are on view in tandem with the students’ responses to them, inviting visitors to find connections between cohorts of BFA Photography and Video pupils. Moreover, for this iteration of “Becoming,” all invited alumni participated as students in past iterations of the show, underscoring the serial exhibition’s name and spirit of intergenerational exchange.

The alumni participants are Caiyao Zhang (2023), Cyle Warner (2022), Calvin Sheely (2020), Zeqian Li (2023), Serena Ziyue Peng (2022), Rebecca Steighner (2022), Natalie Grant (2019), and Amina Gingold (2019). The participating class of 2026 students are Alice Chen, Lang Chen, Nicholas Faestel, Clarisse Lo, Mike Parker, Jaden Russell, Liam Shanley, and Shong Zhao.

The SVA Gramercy Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00am to 6:00pm.