A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute
Through April 3, Georgetown University’s Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery is exhibiting work by photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode who attended Pratt from 1980 to 82. Influenced by fellow Pratt alumnus Robert Mapplethorpe, he created stylized portraits of Black men before his death at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The Society of Illustrators awarded Jimmy Li, BFA Communications Design ’26, the 2025 Will Eisner Scholarship, and Rachel Genito, BFA Communications Design ’26, the 2025 Zankel Scholarship. This is the first time that a student from Pratt Institute has won either the Eisner or Zankel scholarships.
Visiting Associate Professor of Interior Design Ji Young Kim’s practice, PRAXES, received a Red-Dot Design Award for its library Assembled Void at the Manhattan Korean Cultural Center.
The Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships’ Building Futures exhibition within the Time Space Existence architecture showcase at the Venice Biennale runs through November 23 and features a range of Pratt research and co-design projects including the Pratt Center’s EnergyFit NYC program, School of Design partnership with Gotham Professional Arts, and the Ice Box Challenge and Passive Housing Training Center from In Cho, visiting assistant professor of undergraduate architecture. The exhibition, developed with Cycle Architecture, explores circular construction, co-living, adaptive reuse, and deep energy retrofit of existing buildings.
Big News Network profiled Ye Tian, MSIXD ’22. “[At Pratt,] she combined her creative foundation with a human-centered research methodology, discovering her true mission: to use design to solve real-world problems. With a solid academic background and outstanding innovative spirit, Ye Tian quickly distinguished herself in healthcare design, demonstrating extraordinary potential as a leader in the industry.”
Mark Grattan, BID ’06, spoke with Untapped Journal for “The House I Grew Up In,” the 2025–2026 theme of their symposium, Making Space. “It’s important to sit in [your home], understand how you feel in it, acknowledge how you move around the space, and identify things that will make you feel better in it.”
We Were the Scenery, directed by Assistant Professor of Film/Video Christopher Radcliff, screened at IFC Center from July 4 to 10 as part of the Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour. Radcliff also had a recent film screening at Metrograph, alongside a film screening by Visiting Assistant Professor of Film/Video Suneil Sanzgiri.
Alessandra Clemente, BFA Interior Design ’22, was profiled in Haute Residence. At Pratt, her thesis “received the prestigious Pratt Institute Social Justice Award in the Leadership Category, highlighting its engagement with real social and spatial issues.”
Pratt Institute was the lead in a WNYC radio spotlight and Gothamist feature article on the high demand for an arts education, with record-breaking enrollment at New York City schools, a surprising trend given recent headlines. “Especially when the world is so unstable and insecure, I think that art is a place of reflection, resistance and imagination,” Pratt Institute Fine Arts Chair Jane South said in the piece. Professor of Fine Arts Adrienne Elise Tarver added that students are “very interested in the material,” and Manar Balh, BFA ’26, was quoted saying, “A lot of my peers understand that nothing is guaranteed really, no matter what you study, so you should just study the thing that matters the most to you.” Coverage also appeared in The New York Times and The Art Newspaper.
Eshaan Mehta, BArch ’26, curated the Architecture = Art: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection exhibition at The Paul Rudolph Institute. “These drawings transcend function,” Lewin told School of Architecture News. “They are personal, poetic, and often provocative. They show how architecture begins with a bold visual idea.”
From Pratt Institute News
From Pratt Institute News
