MFA Alumni Career Panel

Join us for an engaging discussion on careers in the arts, featuring distinguished alumni who will share insights into their unique professional journeys. Each speaker will provide a brief overview of their career path, highlighting key experiences, challenges, and successes. This interactive conversation offers students the opportunity to ask questions, gain valuable perspectives, and find inspiration for their own creative careers. Food will be served!

Bios:

fields harrington is a Brooklyn-based artist whose practice spans sculpture, performance, video, photography, drawing, and writing. harrington’s work investigates the political, social, historical, and economic forces that shape empirical knowledge production, particularly within science. harrington critically examines how racism and the financial logic of slavery, have influenced scientific practices that uphold systems of oppression. Through his practice, harrington aims to reveal intersections between knowledge production and the abstraction of power, challenging how knowledge is constructed, transmitted, and weaponized.

harrington holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, a BFA from the University of North Texas, and studied at San Antonio Community College. He was a participant in the Whitney Independent Study Program, and has presented solo exhibitions at the David Salkin Gallery, KAJE, Petrine, and Y2K Group. His work has also been included in group exhibitions at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Parsons School of Design, and Automat Gallery. harrington has been fortunate to participate in research residencies, including The Kitchen in collaboration with The School for Poetic Computation and Site to be Seen at Recycled Artist in Residency.  

Aimee Koran is a multi-disciplinary artist based out of Philadelphia, PA. She holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BFA with a minor in textile design from Moore College of Art & Design. Koran explores the topic of motherhood focusing on the continuously shifting and complex binaries that shape the role. Her work has been shown around the globe in venues such as the Richard Saulton Gallery, London, UK; Mutter Museum, Philadelphia, PA; The Arlington Art Center, Arlington, VA; and completed residencies at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; The Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY; and Project for Empty Space, Newark, NJ. Her solo and group exhibitions have been featured in publications like The New York Times, Vogue, Whitewall, Artslant, Artnet News, and A Woman’s Thing. Koran’s work was recently acquired for addition to the permanent contemporary collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

will owen, originally from western North Carolina, is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, and curator currently based in Philadelphia, PA. owen works mainly with Sound, Sculpture, and Food. owen uses various materials and techniques to connect historical and social histories to the present-day complex, lived inheritances. The output of the work can take the form of solo or collaborative work of discreet sculpture, interactive installations, sound, performance, meals, collective zine making, or printmaking. will has exhibited (solo or in collaboration) nationally at The Museum of the Moving Image (NYC), Black Mountain College Museum (North Carolina), Abron Arts Center (NYC), Governor’s Island (NYC), Philadelphia Water Works Museum, University of Maryland, Jacob’s Pillow (Massachusetts), Judson Church (NYC), Independent Seaport Museum (Philadelphia), Smith College (Massachusetts), The Croft (Michigan), and Flux Factory (NYC). owen has had 5 international solo exhibitions: Les Ateliers Gallery - Clermont-Ferrand France 2018, Blue Hall Gallery - Petrozavodsk, Russia 2019; Kompan Gallery - Siglofjordur, Iceland, Captive Portal - Copenhagen, Denmark, 2023; and Shuiyuan Market Gallery (As Part of Taipei Artist Village initiative Art Moves in the Market), Taipei, Taiwan 2024.

owen’s work has been supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts (emergency grant), Pew Center for Arts and Heritage (capacity building award), Toby Devan Lewis Foundation, The Danish Arts Foundation, ARoS Kunstmuseum, The Swedish Arts Council, The Sachs Foundation, The Welsh Arts Council, Lawrence Shprintz Foundation, The Velocity Fund, and The Center for Experimental Ethnography in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. owen holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Derek Rigby is a multi-disciplinary artist that works in time-based media, sculpture, and two-dimensional processes exploring the literal and figurative landscapes of the American West and its disparate cultures. Rigby works and lives in Philadelphia. 

In his role as Audio/Visual Manager at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Rigby assists with the ideation and production of ICA’s public programming and events in support of exhibitions and community partnerships. He relishes in opportunities to realize artists’ and community members’ ideas to create unique and ambitious experiences.

Rigby holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and a BFA in two-dimensional art from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.