Exhibition

School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents “The Book Show,” an exhibition from the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay class of 2022, curated by department chair Marshall Arisman and Anna Raff. The exhibition will be on view from Friday, February 18 through Saturday, March 12, at the SVA Gramercy Gallery.

Each spring semester, the first-year students of the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program are challenged with illustrating and authoring their own books. The parameters are loose in terms of format. It can be a graphic novel, visual essay, children’s book, illustrated poetry, personal narrative—the options are as endless as the task can sometimes appear. 

This year presented an added hurdle for the class of 2022: to create books remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions. Unsurprisingly, the artists represented here worked valiantly through their isolation. And what emerges is a collection of outstanding books that, in one way or another, express the power of connection. 

We are thrilled to present the work of Andrew Alexander, Lillian Ansell, Yunyi Dai, Rae Weyn González, Melissa Guido, Stephish Liu, Yinhan Liu, Bernardo Rodriguez, Yiting Ruan, Myron Solomon, Jr., Sisi Yu, Wenxu Zhao and Zihan Zhong.

The SVA Gramercy Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00am–6:00pm. In accordance with SVA COVID-19 protocols, in-person viewing is open to SVA students, faculty and staff. The public may visit by showing proof of full vaccination (including booster, if eligible) and photo ID. All visitors to the Gramercy Gallery must pre-register through an RSVP link no less than 48 hours prior to the selected event date and time. Proper masking is required.