MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture Students Awarded Thesis Production Grants

Three MFA students in the Illustration & Visual Culture program received thesis production grants from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. The grant provides funding for second-year students to engage in creative work for their thesis exhibition.

Purvi Rajpuria’s, MFA ’23, thesis, a 32-page book with on-site illustrations and non-fiction writing, is inspired by her sense of alienation in a new country. Born and raised in Kolkata, India, Rajpuria came to the US to pursue her MFA at WashU’s Sam Fox School. She describes two goals: countering her “personal sense of alienation through close engagement with the place and material processes” that surround her, as well as contributing to the conversation on a “growing sense of alienation in modern society.”

C. Daniela Shapiro, MFA ’23, uses art as a tool for storytelling, aesthetic representation, and social justice. Her thesis, Running Without Moving, is a 200+-page graphic memoir illustrating her experiences with sexual violence and misogyny. “I explore surrealist character design,” says Shapiro, incorporating “verbatim text in conjunction with recollected memories, and, of course, the word and image relationship.”

Stephanie Silva’s, MFA ’23, work explores gesture and movement, focusing on how the body moves across space. She envisions a 12-16 page broadsheet newspaper, Beneath the Fold, including op-eds, essays, diagrams, and games, examining the lasting influence of fashion designers Rei Kawakubo and Martin Margiela. “…fashion culture on the internet tends to be oversaturated with images and analysis of trends without further context,” says Silva. “I intend to be the one to provide that context.”

The 2023 MFA-IVC thesis exhibition opens April 29. More details are forthcoming.