Tomokazu Matsuyama, MFA Communications Design ’04, who is exhibiting at LA Frieze Week, was profiled in Observer. “Matsuyama’s densely layered compositions capture the full complexity of today’s cultural and aesthetic landscape, integrating a wide spectrum of visual languages,” writes Elisa Carollo. “His work freely merges globally pervasive elements of American consumer culture with sophisticated references to Japanese prints and centuries-old artistic traditions, alongside nods to key moments in art history.”
The Daily Hub
A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute
-
-
Professor of Creative Enterprise Leadership (CEL) Christopher Shrum led the research and publication for a recent publication from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) on the impact of federal grant funding in Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. The research team included CEL alumni Kapena Alapai, MPS Arts and Cultural Management ’15, Sage Callen, MPS Arts and Cultural Management ’23, and Visiting Assistant Professor of CEL Innocent Ekejiuba.
-
An exhibition celebrating Pratt School of Architecture’s 70th anniversary was featured in Archinect. The monthlong exhibition showcases the “rather extraordinary contributions Pratt students, alumni, and faculty have bequeathed to the world since 1954.”
-
Sofi Thanhauser, adjunct associate professor – CCE, was awarded a 2025 Whiting Award for Nonfiction. The Whiting Committee wrote that Thanhauser displays a “uniquely elegant intelligence…[Her] curiosity is a gift to the reader; her sentences are as layered as her investigations, which look with a devoted intensity at the objects around us that might otherwise escape our attention.”
-
A new exhibition by designer Steve Jensen at London’s Roca Gallery showcases 100 Women: Architects in Practice. The show features work by practitioners profiled in the book, which was edited by Harriet Harriss, professor in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment.
-
Victoria Forbes, BFA Art and Design Education ’24, has been granted the honor of being the Graduate Speaker for Pratt’s class of 2025 Commencement. She will be acknowledged for this achievement at the Student Affairs Leadership Awards.
-
Graciela Carrillo, MS Urban Environmental Systems Management ’07, has been elevated to the prestigious College of Fellows by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This honor recognizes their exceptional contributions to architecture and society. The AIA Fellowship is awarded to architects who have achieved the highest standards of excellence in the profession.
-
Rodney Leon, BArch ’92, reflected on the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of the Ark of Return, a permanent memorial designed by Leon that honors the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade at the United Nations. “The memorialization of public space allows often complex and contradictory needs to coexist simultaneously. It must provide space for individual reflection and contemplation of often tragic histories, and at the same time provide a place for collective gathering and celebration.”
-
A new short documentary about Edel Rodriguez, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’94, is featured in PRINT magazine. Freedom is a Verb, by filmmakers Mecky Creus and Adrienne Hall, “focuses on Rodriguez’s bestselling visual memoir of young life in—and treacherous escape from—Castro’s Cuba.”
-
Zac Wiczek and Pranav Dawar, both BFA Film ’25, were selected to participate in the summer Byrdcliffe Communal Residency Program.
More Pratt Institute News
Commencement 2025 to Be Held on May 20 at Radio City Music Hall
Poet and cultural critic Claudia Rankine will deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree, and distinguished alumni Annabelle Selldorf and Stefan Sagmeister will receive honorary degrees.
Pratt Remembers President Emeritus Thomas F. Schutte
From Pratt Institute News
The Pratt Institute community remembers Dr. Thomas F. Schutte, who served as the 11th president of Pratt Institute from 1993 to 2017.
Live from New York, It’s Pratt!
From Pratt Institute News
Meet the Film/Video majors past and present who have brought their skills to Saturday Night Live.