The Department of Fine Arts at Weitzman and the Arthur Ross Gallery are collaborating to present Under Scores, the 2026 Thesis Exhibition featuring new work by eight second-year candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree. The exhibiting artists are Ana González, Cacie Rosario Jackson, Sol Kim, Dylan Li, Jingyi Ling, Noa Mori Machover, Shay Myerson, and Ambika Trasi.
The exhibition opens with a public reception on Thursday, April 30, from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, and will be on view through May 31. The artworks will be presented across two campus venues: the Arthur Ross Gallery at the Fisher Fine Arts Library building and the Gordon Gallery at Weitzman Hall, a hub for interdisciplinary research and teaching completed last fall.
“For a program like ours that values rigorous conceptual, material, and formal experimentation, the thesis exhibition is a moment of deep import and impact,” says Sharon Hayes, professor and chair of fine arts. “This is not only because it is the culmination of each artists’ two-year MFA study but also because it is through publicness that each artists’ work gathers meaning and develops relationships beyond the artist’s own control and understanding. This inspired transformation from studio to public is deeply moving and a pleasure to witness.”
Emily Zimmerman, the Arthur Ross Gallery Director of Exhibitions and Curatorial Affairs, is the exhibition curator. “These eight artists examine the infrastructures, systems, and histories that quietly organize daily life, engaging with urgent questions about power, technology, and representation,” Zimmerman says. “Whether it is the informal economy around catalytic converters, instruments that have played pivotal roles in cultural movements, or the remnants of an obsolete power station, these artists are asking us to consider the material histories, economies, habits of language, and embedded systems that evade our attention.”
The artworks are in a wide range of media, including printmaking, video, sculpture, sound, photography, collage, and large-scale installation.
Ana González works with glass, lard, resin, and materials unearthed from a defunct power station near Penn’s campus in a sculptural practice that invokes abstraction, surrealism and the abject.
Cacie Rosario Jackson transforms circuit diagrams of synthesizers that have defined pivotal cultural moments into artworks that speak to the dynamics of large gatherings, alongside collage and sound-based work.
Sol Kim makes video and prints in which they pose in various positions and ask artificial intelligence to assess how human they appear.
Dylan Li projects video onto a fog-filled vitrine and presents a photographic series examining the history of violence embedded in the photographic medium.
Jingyi Ling creates a site-specific installation that investigates the physics of light.
Noa Mori Machover presents a film and installation developed through interviews and site visits tracing the informal material economy of the catalytic converter.
Shay Myerson makes sculpture drawing on the history of the decoy and the prosthesis to explore how humans and animals share, and reorganize, space.
Ambika Trasi assembles antique pipe organs, glass slides, and Victorian furniture into an installation examining the extractive logics of British colonialism in India and the history of colonial display.
Under Scores will be on view fromMay 1 – 31, 2026. The Arthur Ross Gallery is located in the first floor of the Fisher Fine Arts Library, 220 South 34th Street, Philadelphia. The Gordon Gallery at Weitzman Hall is located at 205 South 34th Street, Philadelphia. Visiting hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 10:00am – 5:00pm; Wednesday: 11:00am – 6:00pm; and Saturday and Sunday: noon – 5:00pm.
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