Alumni Notes Fall 2024

Alumni Notes is Pratt alumni news highlights compiled from class notes submissions, newsletters, items shared by faculty and staff, and media mentions. 

Submit your notes for Spring 2025 now—here are our submission guidelines:

Pratt alumni, we want to know what you’re up to, and so do your fellow graduates. Send your updates on work and life to classnotes@pratt.edu. Notes may be up to 75 words in length. Please include your full name, degree or program, and graduation year. Submissions will be edited for length, clarity, and style. Image submissions should be high resolution (300 dpi at 5 x 7 inches).

Group Highlights

On June 6, The Black Alumni of Pratt hosted its inaugural BAP Summer Social. The much-anticipated gathering, with alumni from the newest graduating class and across generations convening at Pratt’s Foundations Lab, marked BAP’s first alumni social event since the pandemic. BAP celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2020, marking the group’s flourishing since it was founded in 1990, by senior students representing a range of disciplines, with a mission “to identify and advance scholastic and professional opportunities for Pratt students and alumni of African and Latinx descent.”

Fashion alumni Emilio Sosa and Paul Tazewell were nominated for 2024 Tony Awards. Sosa, who has previously been nominated for his work on costumes for The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Trouble in Mind, Ain’t No Mo’, and Good Night, Oscar, was nominated for Best Costume Design of a Play for his work on Purlie Victorious. Tazewell was nominated for Best Costume Design of a Musical for his work on Suffs. Tazewell has been nominated for eight Tony Awards for plays and musicals including In the Heights, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Ain’t Too Proud and won a Tony for his work on the musical Hamilton. (The New York Times)

1940s

HIGHLIGHT: Seymour Nussenbaum

Seymour Nussenbaum, BA Illustration ’48, (1923–2024), was one of three surviving veterans from the US military’s “Ghost Army” to be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for their heroic contributions during WWII. On the occasion of the honor, awarded at a ceremony on Capitol Hill in March, the activities of the 603rd Camouflage Engineers and similar units—also known as the Ghost Army—were covered by The New York Times and NPR, which highlighted their use of “inflatable tanks, phony uniforms, fake rumors, and special effects to deceive German forces.” Several students in Pratt’s Industrial Camouflage Program, which researched and developed camouflage techniques to support the defense effort, would go on to join the Ghost Army, part of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops defense force. Along with Nussenbaum, among the Pratt alumni who served in the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops were Bernard Bier, Ed Biow, Victor Dowd, Ned Harris, Ellsworth Kelly, George Martin, Irving Mayer, Mickey McKane (Irving Nussbaum), Elmer Mellebrand, Richard Morton, Robert Petrucci, Bill Sayles, Arthur Shilstone, and Bob Tompkins, as noted in a 2020 Pratt news story. Nussenbaum passed away on October 7, 2024. (NPR)

1960s

Sheila Metzner, BFA ’60, was recently featured in a solo exhibition at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The exhibition, Sheila Metzner: From Life, included 40 works encompassing a combination of her well-known fashion photographs for Fendi, Balenciaga, and Ralph Lauren, as well as portraits of celebrity actors like Brooke Shields and Uma Thurman along with fellow photographer and Pratt alum Robert Mapplethorpe, BFA Photography ’70. Throughout her career of over 40 years, Metzner has taken on assignments for fashion magazines and designers, including Valentino and Chanel. Reflecting on this expansive exhibition, Metzner notes how “it has been a tremendous journey . . . It is hard to explain how really, really marvelous it has been.” (Women’s Wear Daily) 

Richard D. Miller, PE, BME ’61, writes, “As fate would have it, I was shopping at a local market in my now hometown of Henderson, Nevada. I was wearing my Pratt hat and sweatshirt. Next thing I know, I had a voice behind me say ‘Hey, did you go to Pratt?’ I turned around and spent the next 20 minutes with a complete stranger that was a ’76 graduate in fine arts chatting about ‘the good old days.’ It was the first time for both of us encountering someone from Pratt so far from Brooklyn and from so long ago. Great fun. WEAR A HAT!”

Pasquale Pagnotta, BID ’61, was awarded the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who’s Who to commemorate his interior design career. Pagnotta and his work have been featured in Newsday’s Guide to Design, Home Entertainment, and Interior Design. Clients of Pasquale’s include Sammy Davis Enterprises Ltd. and MPL Communications/Paul McCartney, Lorne Michaels, Calvin Klein Jeans, and Eastman and Eastman. He is also a member and treasurer of the Institute of Business Designers. 

Nancy Grossman, BFA Graphic Arts and Illustration ’62, received the National Arts Club’s Medal of Honor for her contributions to the field of fine arts. As Forbes reported in coverage of the award, Grossman joins previous honorees including Louise Nevelson, Faith Ringgold, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ed Ruscha. “I’m so grateful and fortunate to have this time to still keep learning, to still keep showing, to be collected, to still be relevant and influential after all these years,” Grossman said at the award event in June. “And I’ve lived long enough and worked long enough to not feel like an imposter.” (Forbes)

Judith Murray, BFA Graphic Arts and Illustration ’62; MFA Art Education ’64, writes that she has been working in her Soho studio since 1973 and has created a new piece, Pleasure. Murray has received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award for Painting, and a National Endowment for the Arts Award. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, Walker Art Center, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  

Pat Steir, BFA Graphic Arts ’62, had a new series on view at Hauser & Wirth’s West Hollywood gallery. The exhibition, Pat Steir. Painted Rain, featured large-scale works the artist dedicated to the color blue. On the occasion of the show, which ran from February 28 to May 4, The New York Times Style Magazine interviewed Steir on her latest work, her previous career in the New York City welfare department, and her artistic practice. Steir shared that she “only wanted to be an artist. I only wanted to do this work in my life. Nothing else. I saw anything that stood in my way as an inconvenience.” (The New York Times Style Magazine)

Lorraine Badge, BFA Art Education ’69, and Richardson Mackinney, BS Food Science and Management ’69, celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary on June 14, 2024. Before retiring in 2013 from Miami-Dade Public Schools, Badge was a K–8 art teacher in Miami Beach. Mackinney spent several years in the hospitality industry, starting his own business doing yacht repairs, cleaning hulls, and changing propellers. He earned an MS ESE ED and became a special education teacher for homebound students at Broward County Schools, retiring in 2012. 

William J. Gallo, AIA, BArch ’69, CEO of Gallo Herbert Architects since 1988, stepped back from his leadership position to transition into an advisory role for his new team. During his career, Gallo has received numerous AIA Awards, publications, and accolades for community service. Gallo shared that he owes “a great deal to his Pratt years and key mentors like Stan Salzman, Bill Breger, Charles Gwathmey, and Mike Brill.”

Kenneth A. Larson (1947–1994), BFA Interior Design ’69, had his exhibition, The Black Matriarchs, on display for the first time in 35 years at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. Commissioned in the late 1970s by historian and educator Jimmie Elizabeth (Timmons) Nkonoki-Ward, Larson’s pen-and-ink and charcoal drawings depict women who inspired her. A press release for the show notes that the exhibition “is a tribute to African American women who are pillars in their families and in their community—women who infuse culture, faith, education, and the arts as a cornerstone of a vibrant community, full of possibility—and in which these Black Matriarchs were exemplary.”

Lorna Ritz, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’69, reports that she recently survived a serious illness and that she is “back to painting [her] best paintings yet.” Ritz, who studied abstraction with Lennart Anderson in the ’60s at the Art Students League, has held teaching positions at Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, University of Minnesota, and Dartmouth College. She was a visiting guest critic at Vermont Studio Center from 1991 to 2013 and is a lead teacher at Mount Gretna School of Art in Pennsylvania as of 2023.

1970s

Richard Bettini, BArch ’72; MArch ’73, now semiretired from teaching, has spent most of his architectural career as an educator. After many years of architectural practice, he taught full-time in CUNY’s Department of Architectural Technology. He recently retired from a full-time position at West Essex Regional High School in New Jersey, where he taught STEM pre-architecture/engineering courses and robotics. Now an adjunct professor at a number of architectural faculties, including Pratt’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Kean University’s Michael Graves School of Design, and William Paterson’s STEM Program, he is also the author of a completely revised workbook, The Complete CAD Exercise Book.

Douglas G. Campbell, MFA Fine Arts (Printmaking) ’72, lives in Portland, Oregon, and he is professor emeritus of art at George Fox University, where he taught painting, printmaking, drawing, and art history courses for 27 years. He writes that after a 2012 stroke left him with aphasia, a language disorder, he has been able to reconnect with his artwork and poetry. He currently participates in the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire’s Thursday Night Poetry Guild and has published several poetry books since. Learn more about Campbell’s work at douglascampbellart.com.  

Elaine Norman, BFA Fine Arts (Printmaking) ’72, had four of her self-published collage books added to the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library. Using The Met’s annual Engagement Book—her calendar of choice—as a starting point, each collage in the series uses elements Norman created, acquired, photographed, or found on the corresponding week of their creation. Numerous public collections include Norman’s work, including the Museum of the City of New York, the Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center.

George Ranalli, BArch ’72, was recently covered in the online journal STIR, a publication focusing on architecture, interior design, and more. The architect spoke with STIR about “his quest to bridge history, context, and innovation continually with his architecture.” Ranalli’s designs have been exhibited by cultural institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the US Library of Congress, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

B. Robert Johnson, BFA Fine Arts ’73, was part of a trio exhibition titled Marie & Friends with Marie Mastronardo and Richard Arnold at Olive Branch Gallery in Olivebridge, New York. The show was considered a retrospective, highlighting Mastronardo’s hand-built ceramic sculptures, paintings, and drawings over her 70-year career, and Johnson’s work included drawings, paintings, and multimedia sculptures. Johnson was recently among 30 artists selected for the Best of the Mid-Hudson Valley exhibition at the Muroff-Kotler Visual Arts Gallery at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge, New York. He currently serves as director of printing and graphic services at SUNY Ulster.

Pat Cummings, BFA Communications Design ’74, contributed a story within a chapter of Fourteen Days, an anthology edited by Margaret Atwood that puts a contemporary spin on the plague novel. Following tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan one week into the COVID-19 lockdown, the 36 North American authors weave together their varied voices to tell a story about community and the spectrum of human experience. 

Tobi Kahn, MFA Fine Arts ’74, completed a sculpture commission and opened a solo museum exhibition this year. Kahn created ALOMH, a meditative sculptural installation, for Jefferson Health Honickman Center in Philadelphia. The solo show, Memory & Inheritance: Paintings and Ceremonial Objects by Tobi Kahn, opened on May 16 and is on view at Museum at Eldridge Street in New York City through November 10. 

Mark Meyer, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’74, created a new work titled Homage to Hopper and Prada. “I was a photorealist early on but then became an abstract painter,” Meyer writes. “This one was a gift to my wife and very different from my current work.” He currently teaches art history for the United Federation of Teachers—UFT Welfare Fund.

C Bangs, MFA Fine Arts ’75, had work exhibited in a group show titled The Visual Read at the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries, Scotland, from May 18 to June 29, 2024. Her sculptures, painted panels, and holograms are also included in a display case at Duffield Hall on Cornell University’s campus, titled Postcards from Earth: Holograms on an Interstellar Journey, referencing her 2023 exhibition at the Intrepid Museum. Various public and private collections include Bangs’s work, including MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, the Library of Congress, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the British Interplanetary Society, New York City College of Technology, Pratt Institute, Cornell University, and Pace University.

Michelle Nahum-Albright, BFA Communications Design ’75, and her daughter Elizabeth Nahum-Albright, BFA Photography ’13, remember longtime Pratt illustration professor Donn Albright, who passed away on June 19. They write, “After Donn listened to a dramatization of Ray Bradbury’s story ‘Mars Is Heaven!’ in 1950, Bradbury and his work became a lifelong passion. Ultimately, Donn would travel to visit Bradbury two or three times a year and over the years become his principal bibliographer. Donn used his talents to create more than a dozen limited-press Bradbury collections that showcased unpublished work. Like Bradbury, Donn’s heart always remained in tune with the child within.”

Kay WalkingStick, MFA Fine Arts ’75, had paintings and works on paper from the mid-’70s exhibited at Hales Gallery in New York. The exhibition, Deconstructing the Tipi, ran from March 16 to April 27 and featured work that WalkingStick says represents a time when she was “searching for a motif and a process to make abstractions which expressed [her] concerns with Native American History.” Additionally, her work has been shown at the New-York Historical Society, the Shah Garg Foundation, and the 60th Venice Biennale at the Giardino della Biennale, where five of her paintings are included in a group exhibition titled Stranieri Ovunque, on view until November 24. 

Steven Bleicher, BFA Fine Arts ’77; MFA Fine Arts ’79, had his graphite and mixed-media work Shadows of Anne Frank featured in an exhibition titled Yom Hashoah at Sig Held Gallery in Nashville. Bleicher is a tenured professor in the visual arts department in the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Coastal Carolina University. He has worked and taught at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture; SUNY; and Brooklyn College. 

Maritza Davila-Irizarry, MFA Fine Arts ’77, had a new work on display from March through May 2024 at the Porch Window Gallery in Minneapolis. The Porch Window Gallery features a box on the interior window at 418 Malvern. The artist has the work lit so visitors can view the piece 24 hours a day. Davila-Irizarry has served as a professor of fine arts at Memphis College of Art for the past 41 years, acting as department chair since 2012. She is currently the director of the printmaking studio Atabeira Press, located in Memphis.

Phoebe Farris, PhD, MPS Art Therapy ’77, gave a lecture-photography presentation titled Indigenous Photo Power: Personal Reflections in November 2023 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Humanities Center as part of their On Native Ground speakers series. Cosponsored by the Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival, which took place the same week, the talk explores Farris’s photography practice, which looks to document frequently ignored tribes east of the Mississippi River. She was recently published in Cultural Survival Quarterly for her reviews of Natalie Ball’s exhibition Bilwi Naats Ga’niipci and Rhiana Yazzie’s theatrical production Nancy.

Bennett Harris Horowitz, BFA Fine Arts ’77, had a landscape painting accepted for a juried exhibition, Far and Wide, at the Woodstock Artists Association Museum (WAAM) in Woodstock, New York, in June 2024. The painting, Virginia Falls/Downstream View, uses oil paint to depict a running river in a rural environment. The painting is part of the artist’s Glacier National Park series. Additionally, Horowitz was chosen for a WAAM juried show, The Spirit of Woodstock, which ran from August to October. They selected his piece Folly and the Soldier of Fortune, a large oil triptych.

Mary Rieser Heintjes, BFA Fine Arts ’79; MFA Fine Arts ’85, had her art of welded steel fused with glass included in Resilience in Color and Form, an exhibition by the New York City Branch of The National League of American Pen Women. The show was held through the summer at the Charles P. Sifton Gallery at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. Also included was her 12-foot oil painting on canvas In Search of City Trees and two photographs, Swallowtail Clipper Butterfly in Flight and a photographic print of the drawing of In Search of City Trees.

Tom Wright, BFA Illustration ’79, has been posting his art weekly on his social media channels, including Instagram (@solarized69) and Facebook (tom.wright.796). In Wright’s words, this project is “a sort of virtual changing online gallery, if you will,” he writes. “While it’s a pretty common thing to do for many, it beats trying to get work seen in any number of physical spaces.” His body of work consists mainly of portraits of musicians, including Robert Plant, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Bernstein. At the time of this writing, he had recently shared black-and-white illustrations of the musician Steve Albini in light of the musician’s passing in May.

1980s

Marilyn Fox, MFA Fine Arts (Printmaking) ’80, has retired as chief preparator in the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum. Her work included microscopic preparation of tiny fossils, fieldwork, molding and casting, micro-CT scanning, and, most recently, preparation of specimens for the reopened museum exhibitions. She has published extensively in her field and has been instrumental in forming a society for fossil preparators, the Association for Materials and Methods in Paleontology, for which she remains the vice president.

Zion Ozeri, BFA Photography ’80, had an exhibition of his photography, Jewish Identity, Jewish Diversity, at Columbia University. The exhibition, which showcases “the diversity of modern Jewish life” through black-and-white photographs of Jewish people around the world, aims to “begin an honest conversation about the rich diversity of thought and belief that make up all peoples and cultures.” The show was also replicated at CUNY Hostos, with an opening last March.

Robert Blanton, MFA Fine Arts (Painting/Printmaking) ’81, established the Brand X Editions Archive—named after Blanton’s own New York-based print studio and publisher—at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The archive consists of more than 350 artworks made at Brand X over nearly five decades. There is also an online database of the archive to facilitate scholarship and study. According to Blanton, opportunities will also be available for scholars to study and view the works in person at the PMA’s print study center, and the museum will mount a large-scale Brand X Editions retrospective in the fall of 2025, accompanied by an in-depth exhibition catalog. 

Thomas (Wes) Foley, BFA Fine Arts (Drawing) ’83, writes that he has pursued a dual career as an illustrator and an executive pastry chef for Marriott hotels since graduating from Pratt. He has exhibited in New York City and illustrated for the United States Air Force. His new work, Petitions, is part assemblage and part construction, using wood, garden tools, and found objects painted in acrylic. 

James (Jim) McAuliffe, AIA, BArch ’83, saw the completion of the restoration and renovation of the Philadelphia Inquirer Building in 2022 with the Philadelphia Studio of USA Architects. The project converted the vacant national historic landmark Philadelphia Public Services Building, which now houses the police headquarters, chief medical examiner offices, and the 911 center. McAuliffe and his team renovated more than 460,000 square feet of interior space on 20 floors. The team restored the building’s terra-cotta façade (including its iconic two-story clock) and original lobby, replacing hundreds of windows.

Moses Ros-Suárez, BArch ’83, had a show, Skywide: Mobiles of Joy, at Lehman College Art Gallery from February 7 to May 4, 2024, and a solo installation of mobiles and floor vinyls, SKYSOUL, at the Sugar Hill Museum, from September 2023 to August 2024. The artist also had work included in the IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair as part of the New York-based printmaking collective Dominican York Proyecto GRAFICA. Additionally, Ros-Suárez presented printed mobiles, sculptural collages, and murals at Storefront for Ideas, an exhibition and programming space run by the community-based nonprofit organization Immigrant Social Services.

Glen Schofield, BFA Illustration ’83, opened a solo show, Creatures, on June 20 at The Cannery in San Francisco, presented by the Academy of Art University. The show features over 75 new, large-scale illustrations from the veteran video game artist behind such games as The Callisto Protocol and Dead Space. Schofield shares that the pieces, which are pen, brush, and ink, and range from two to four feet tall, represent what he’s “been doing [his] whole life as an artist creating characters and creatures.”

Andrew Bass Jr., BFA Communications Design ’85, published Creative Catalyst: A Guide for Students Transitioning into Building a Career in the spring of 2024. Drawing from his teaching experience over the past several years, he created this guidebook geared toward creative students navigating the business of design. Additionally, his work was awarded a National Silver Award, a Regional Gold, and a Silver Award from the 2024 Azbee Awards of Excellence held by the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Learn more about Bass’s work at andrewbassdesign.com or on Instagram (@AndrewBassDesign).

Garrett Burke, BFA Communications Design ’85, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his coin concept being minted as the California State Quarter, which had an initial launch date of January 31, 2005. Burke’s drawing honoring naturalist John Muir within the Yosemite Valley was one of 8,300-plus public submissions, and was selected by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger along with the secretary of the treasury, director of the US Mint, Commission of Fine Arts, and Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. Half a billion commemorative coins were minted at facilities in Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. Burke’s website is garrettburke.com.

Tom Grassi, FAIA, NCARB, BArch ’85, has been named a cochair of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY) Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Grassi received the 2024 Design Excellence Award from AIANY for the Recomposure Bench project for United Airlines at Newark Liberty International Airport. With a career spanning four decades in New York City’s both public and private sectors, Grassi has spent the last eight years at HNTB, working on various projects nationwide. There, the company elevated Grassi to an HNTB Fellow in recognition of technical excellence.

Cheryl D. Miller, MS Communications Design ’85, published a new memoir on October 15 with Princeton Architectural Press. In HERE: Where the Black Designers Are, Miller documents the history of the questions, “Where are the Black designers? Where have they been? Why haven’t they been represented in design histories and canons?” while tracing her career development as a designer. Miller established one of the first Black women-owned design firms in New York City in 1984, servicing corporate communications to a Fortune 500 clientele that included BET, Chase, American Express, Time Inc., and Sports Illustrated.

Seung Lee, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’86, is at the time of this writing on sabbatical from teaching at LIU Post. Lee has traveling solo exhibitions at Wada Garou in Tokyo, Japan, and at Jang Eun Sun Gallery in Seoul, Korea. In an interview with Faces of Long Island, Lee shares how, although he was hesitant to show his work in Korea due to his difficulty leaving to immigrate to the US, he found comfort and inspiration in returning. While in Asia, he is also presenting a lecture tour at institutions like Tama Art University and Pusan National University. 

Nicholas Battis, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’89, director of exhibitions at Pratt Institute, had his works exhibited in two group exhibitions in the spring of 2024. His paintings, which investigate color, nature, process, the built environment, and the digital age, were shown at George Billis Gallery in New York City and Yupo at Court Tree Collective in Industry City, Brooklyn. Battis’s career has included art making, curating, and consulting. As director of exhibitions, he organizes art and design exhibitions focusing on sustainability, politics, media, and science. 

1990s

Carey Jolliffe, BFA Communications Design (Graphic Design) ’91, unveiled the first in a trio of children’s books he wrote and illustrated, titled The Hawaiian Alphabet (Acme Tiki Co.). As described by the author, the book uses “a whimsical retro illustration style, dynamic typography, and a vibrant color scheme” to assist children in learning the 13 letters of the Hawaiian alphabet. More information can be found at hawaiialphabet.com.

Trish (Fitzgerald) Kreiser, Communications Design (Illustration) ’92, celebrated the launch of her debut picture book, Always Together (Capstone), on January 1, 2024. In a description shared by the author, the book tells the story of “two otters who are always connected, always sharing, and always together—until suddenly, they are not. One is left behind, and nothing is the same. A moving story with universal sentiment appropriate for anyone experiencing the loss of someone or something special in their lives, either through death, moving, divorce, loss of friendship, or any other life event.” A portfolio of Kreiser’s work can be found at patriciakreiser.com.

Peter Wachtel, MID ’92, invented a new toy that PetSmart is now carrying. The dog toy, Batter Batter Fetch, from Jazwares and Wham-O, was created with Wachtel’s son, Aaron, and has led to a nomination for Mojo Nation’s 2024 Play Innovator of the Year. Wachtel has taught toy, product, set, exhibit, and graphic design at Pratt Institute, Columbus College of Art and Design, Ai Hollywood, Otis College of Art and Design, Parsons School of Design, MIT, and Adolfo Camarillo High School.

Rodney Leon, BArch ’92, designed the recently opened Cultural Museum of African Art in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, which features more than 3,000 ancient artifacts amassed by collector Eric Edwards, the founder and curator of the museum. With funding assistance from New York State, entry to the museum on the second floor of Restoration Plaza is free to all. In an interview with News 12, Leon shared that they had to “balance and provide enough space for the artifacts to be exhibited” and that his team was “going to do whatever to help bring this public space to fruition.” (News 12) 

Sharon Krinsky, MSLIS ’93, has returned to her “first love” of artmaking after retiring from her career in publishing. Krinsky has received several awards for her work and has been juried into two significant arts organizations: The National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) and the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors. Strongly influenced by the simplicity of outsider and folk art, Krinsky’s techniques range from collage, drawing, acrylic and watercolor painting, and printmaking.

Jean Shin, BFA Fine Arts ’94; MS ’96, adjunct professor (CCE) of fine arts, was featured on WBUR for her project Perch, a sculptural installation composed of repurposed wood located at Appleton Farms in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The sculptures provide a resting place for bobolinks, songbirds that rely on Appleton Farms as a refuge during their annual migration. “Their populations are really dependent on farmers and their hay fields, their pastures—and grasslands are declining all over the world,” Shin told WBUR. “So, it just seemed like the most beautiful story for us to understand more deeply and really appreciate their contribution to the landscape.” (WBUR)

Edel Rodriguez, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’94, was awarded the 2024 Hamilton King Award by the Society of Illustrators, the oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to illustration in America. One of the industry’s most prestigious awards, the selection is made by former recipients. The Society of Illustrators describes Rodriguez’s work, which has been commissioned by The New York Times, Time, and The New Yorker, as “an examination of identity, cultural displacement, and mortality.” (Society of Illustrators)

Helen Louise Gorayeb, BFA Art and Design Education ’95, is currently a teacher and tutor of English and math at Huntington Learning Center, following her return to school to attain a master of education in elementary education. During her time as an undergraduate at Pratt, Gorayeb worked as an administrative assistant/office manager to the CEO of a computer consulting company. She began work as a high school art teacher, preschool teacher, and several other positions after graduation. Having traveled extensively to Spain, France, Italy, Bermuda, and Canada, Gorayeb writes, “My motto is ‘stay curious, remain a student, and always smile.’”

Allison Miskulin, MPS Art Therapy and Creativity Development ’96, started her eighth year in private practice and continues to show her work regularly. This month, she was accepted into the juried exhibition Skylands 36, sponsored by the Sussex County Art and Heritage Council in Newton, New Jersey, with her painting White Cuckoo. Miskulin is a licensed professional counselor (LPC), licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor (LCADC), and art therapist (ATR-BC) with over 20 years of experience in psychotherapy and art psychotherapy. 

Hamid Rahmanian, BFA Computer Animation ’96, concluded a North American winter/spring tour of Song of the North, his theatrical adaptation of a Persian epic poem. The performance is a multimedia production that uses 483 shadow puppets to adapt part of the Shahnameh (Book of Kings). In The Washington Post, which profiled the show, Rahmanian compared the Shahnameh to The Iliad or The Odyssey in Iranian culture. This production expands upon Rahmanian’s previous works on the Shahnameh, including a 600-page art book retelling, which he designed and illustrated, with text translated and adapted by Ahmad Sadri. (The Washington Post)

Scott Rummler, MSLIS ’97, launched his start-up, ScalarSight, which uses quantum logic to predict stock and equity prices. He recently received interest from a major investment bank. Despite receiving some skepticism surrounding his initial stock predictions, Rummler writes, “I posted predictions for each day’s opening price for the S&P 500 and Bitcoin on LinkedIn months in advance, and they turned out to be pretty accurate!” Additionally, Rummler wrote an article titled “Scalar Wave Paintings” that was accepted for publication in the journal Leonardo (MIT Press) and is set to be featured in their 2025 season.

Jana Ireijo, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’99, showcased her work Vanishing Pueo in the exhibition Interisland Action, curated by Josh Tengan, at Kahilu Exhibits in Kamuela, Hawai’i, from January to March 2024. Ireijo, who composed the work using wildfire charcoal and other pigments foraged near the gallery, writes that she “washed the mural away to symbolize impermanence, connection, and the need to protect what we love.” Her new NFT Pilina uses blockchain technology, pulling from data on ocean temperatures to create layered images that fade and reappear when Hawaii’s water temperature rises and reaches optimal levels. “As the art ‘vanishes,’ the constellations shine brighter to guide our way home.” 

2000s

Timothy Garside, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’00, who currently serves as the Department of Aviation Sign Fabricator group leader at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), received the “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work” award from PHL’s Employee Recognition Program. This August marked Garside’s 20th anniversary with the airport, where he is known for “his teamwork, effectiveness, and transcending expectations. . . . The design skills and spirit of collaboration that Garside learned at Pratt Institute continue to serve him well,” said a press release announcing the honor. (PHL)

Jen Pawol, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’00, became the first woman to umpire a Minor League Baseball spring training game since 2007. Aside from umpiring, Pawol is an artist and has worked part-time as an eighth-grade art teacher. “For any umpire working in the pro system, this is a big, big deal,” Pawol told AP. “This means so much. It’s the culmination of a lot of innings. I’ve probably put in about 1,000 professional games at this point.” (Yahoo News)

A new touring special exhibition by Mickalene Thomas, BFA Fine Arts ’00, Mickalene Thomas: All About Love, opened at The Broad in Los Angeles in May, and is on view at The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia from October 20, 2024, to January 25, 2025, before traveling to the Hayward Gallery in London. The show, co-organized by the Hayward Gallery and The Broad in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, is the first major international tour of Thomas’s work, featuring more than 80 works by the artist made over the last 20 years, spanning mixed-media painting, collage, installation, and photography. (The Broad)

Carrie Osgood, MS Communications Design ’02, published a pair of picture books, Path to the Palace and Escapades in Caves, combining her original imagery with short stories. Both books tell allegorical tales for readers of all ages to set out their own paths and embrace adventure. In a Medium article describing her process, Osgood shares that her books “fit best in the Personal Growth section of bookstores, as they aim to give anyone between the ages of 10 and 110 a warm hug after reading (and re-reading and re-viewing).” Learn more at YourStoryGPS.com.

Brett Purmal, BFA Computer Graphics ’02, was the animation supervisor for Moving Picture Company on their newest Netflix film, Spaceman, featuring Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, and Paul Dano. His other films include The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, King Kong, Captain America: Civil War, Dolittle, and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Purmal has won two Oscars for Best Visual Effects on Avatar and King Kong and an Academy Award Special Achievement for the VR experience Carne y Arena. He has worked in feature film, gaming, VR, AR, forensics, television, and teaching for the last 20 years. 

Aja Cohen, BFA Fashion Design ’05, recently launched her athleisure brand, Transcendent Active, a line of clothing sustainably made in Los Angeles using recycled materials, which Cohen says serves “an underserved community; a modest athlete.” Before Transcendent Active’s launch, Cohen designed for Aeropostale, Converse, and Macy’s. Having completed 200 hours of yoga teacher training, she currently teaches corporate yoga for Betterspaces at the Glenpointe in Teaneck, New Jersey, while managing her new line. 

Chrissy Angliker, BID ’06, opened her third solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery on February 10, 2024. The show, titled See Through, centers on the artist’s paintings of cut flowers, which Angliker refers to as “severed from their source, brought indoors as poignant reminders of abundant fields beyond.” The artist’s newsletter notes that Angliker’s “current body of work literally and figuratively addresses that transformative process in that its genesis was grounded in the loss of a loved one.” (artist’s newsletter)

Little Wing Lee, MS Interior Design ’06, shared her thoughts on five of her most important works in advance of the Dezeen Awards, for which she served as a judge in 2023. “My designs are always informed by context, location, and function,” Lee said in an interview on dezeen.com. “I always think about the project’s story and connect that to the design decisions I make.” Lee is the founder of Black Folks in Design, an organization uplifting Black designers, and was named the first winner of the Female Design Council and NicoleHollis Grant, which recognizes women-of-color-led interior design firms located in the US. (Dezeen Awards)

Billy Cotton, BID ’07, started a new architecture firm, Cotton Thoene Korolev (CTK). In a profile in Architectural Digest, the project is referred to as “a sustainability-driven architecture and project management practice,” and an extension of Cotton’s ongoing inquiry into “what it means to build a special house.” One of the partners, Architecture alumnus Ilya Korolev, also attended Pratt. Speaking with Architectural Digest, Cotton explained that his working relationship with Korolev developed organically, and the two have worked on numerous client projects over the past decade. (Architectural Digest)

Eric Wrenn, BFA Fine Arts (Graphic Design) ’07, was profiled in The New York Times. The minimalist designer is known for his iconic work with clients spanning the fashion, art, design, and music industries. Speaking to the Times, Wrenn shared, “I try to give someone a design that says something about their brand, but that also doesn’t say too much . . . The idea is you say something without saying anything.” Wrenn was the design director of Artforum from 2014 to 2020 and has worked with brands such as Eckhaus Latta, Helmut Lang, and Supreme. (The New York Times)

Vicky Chan, BArch ’08, won the AIA 2024 Young Architects Award. His firm, Avoid Obvious Architects, has been recognized with 55 international design awards for their innovative projects. His passion is to use codesign with the community and stakeholders to achieve better sustainability and well-being. The projects collectively help 500,000 people every year.

Michael DelleFave, MArch ’08, was promoted to studio director at RODE Architects, a Boston-based, collaborative design and architecture firm. A press release from the firm notes that this new role was developed especially for DelleFave and was “born out of his passion for design and mentorship.” DelleFave has served in several roles in the industry over the last 17 years, and in his new role, he will work closely with designers and other talent throughout the staff to ensure that “the firm’s portfolio continues to meet a high caliber of design . . . pushing a process that has consistently delivered strong, concept-driven work.”

Maya Edelman, BFA Animation ’08, visiting assistant professor of film/video, received the 2024 Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation Emmy Award for her color design work for the short animated documentary More Than I Want to Remember (2022). The short follows the story of 14-year-old Mugeni, who wakes one day to the sound of bombs outside her home in southeast Congo. Edelman is the animator behind Dream City (2022), a public artwork created for the MTA following the return of 24-hour subway service after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Pratt News)

Karina Sharif, BFA Fashion Design ’08, recently showed her multidisciplinary artwork at Gallery 495 in Catskill, New York. The exhibition, Karina Sharif: A Dream Embodied, was her first solo show and featured a selection of her paper constructions. The artist, who completed a residency with the Brooklyn-based Worthless Studios, discussed her latest projects and approach to art for a profile in i-D magazine. Additionally, Sharif’s piece titled Seat #1 was selected as a permanent addition to the Ganni store on Mercer and Grand Streets in Soho. (i-D)

HIGHLIGHT: Salman Toor

Salman Toor, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’09, had a solo exhibition, No Ordinary Love, at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum. The show was “conceived as an enhancement of a traveling exhibition of recent paintings (2020–2022), curated by Dr. Asma Naeem of the Baltimore Museum of Art [that would] contextualize Toor’s art by installing it in dialogue with relevant pieces from the museum’s stellar permanent collection.” (Brandeis University)

In an interview for the PBS arts and culture series Canvas during the exhibition’s run, Toor said, “About three or four years ago, I decided to make semi-autobiographical paintings that were about being more out as a gay man. . . . It’s a way to seize control back and to be able to be the master of [my] narrative.” Toor’s paintings utilize European portraiture traditions to feature people of color in settings from which they have been historically excluded. Toor has exhibited internationally and in New York, where he had a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2020 and 2021. (PBS)

2010s

Sharon Itkoff Nacache, MPS Art Therapy and Creativity Development ’10, runs a private art therapy practice, Co-Create Art Therapy, that specializes in perinatal mental health. Itkoff Nacache partnered with the Whitney Museum of American Art and the NYC Health and Hospitals Arts in Medicine department to run integrative arts-based wellness workshops for hospital employees across the five boroughs. “I’ve recently presented my work on creative resilience skill-building at the NYCMER conference at Columbia University and BrainMind Summit in NYC,” she writes. “As a mom of a two- and six-year-old myself, this work continues to nourish me!” 

Zoe Norvell, BFA Communications Design ’11, launched INeedABookCover.com, a website helping self-published authors find professional cover designers, in 2023. Norvell began her book-cover design career at Simon & Schuster and Penguin Books before going freelance in 2015. Over the years, she has designed more than 2,000 book covers for clients of all sizes and has expanded her services to include typesetting/book interior design. INeedABookCover.com boasts a growing gallery of nearly 3,000 covers by contemporary designers, positioning Norvell as a champion of her peers. Her platform has become a resource for book cover designers and art directors alike, offering trends, articles, and inspiration.

Adrian Volz, BFA Communications Design (Graphic Design) ’11, published an independent research and design project, Archiprint: The Architectural Issue. The newspaper-style, 20-page publication combines “impactful examples of historic modern architecture” with graphic design, highlighting international architectural movements, typography, and film. It is now carried across five US bookstores, including McNally Jackson and Printed Matter in New York City, as well as William Stout Architectural Books in San Francisco. Digital copies are available on Volz’s website, adrianvolzdesign.com. 

Liz Waytkus, MS Historic Preservation ’11, was interviewed for Madame Architect, discussing her time at Pratt, her wide-ranging career, and her approach to historic preservation. In the interview, she considers that to “save architecture of the 20th century, especially with sites that are misunderstood and often disliked by the public, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach.” Waytkus is the executive director of Docomomo US, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the documentation and conservation of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods of the modern movement for nearly 25 years. (Madame Architect)

Anthony Acock, MFA Communications Design ’12, is chair of the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Communication Design at Cal Poly Pomona. He met Dylan Smith, BFA Fine Arts (Printmaking) ’10, at a Pratt alumni event in Los Angeles and went on to hire him as an adjunct to teach an advanced illustration course. Reflecting on the experience, Acock shared that his “takeaway is that immediate friendships from shared connections from the Pratt community [emerge] even from different years. The fact that the alumni group for Pratt in Los Angeles is doing cool things [brings] folks together in meaningful ways,” Acock writes. 

Katherine Duclos, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’12, was the subject of a short film made by LEGO, highlighting her use of the building blocks in her artwork to express ideas about neurodivergence. In the video, Duclos shares how she began working with the blocks as a creative medium while playing with her three-year-old son, who was diagnosed with autism and loved to play with them. A statement from the company notes, “Katherine’s relationship with color and her unique use of bricks is a great inspiration to continue pushing the boundaries of creativity and play—that building with LEGO bricks can come to life in a million different ways.” (LEGO)

Laura Henriksen, MFA Writing ’12, released her debut full-length poetry collection, Laura’s Desires, published by Nightboat Books. A diptych of two formally distinct long poems, each approaching various pop-cultural artifacts as sites of feminist analysis, from deep-dives into hit ’90s singles like Selena’s “Dreaming of You” to heroines of cult classic TV and films like Twin Peaks’s Laura Palmer and Variety’s Christine. 

Simon Liu, Certificate in Computer Animation/Video ’12, visiting instructor of film/video, had his 16mm film, Let’s Talk, in the 2024 Whitney Biennial. The Hong Kong-born artist’s short uses experimental filmmaking techniques to explore his hometown’s politically turbulent transfer from Great Britain to Mainland China. The film, which ran as part of the Biennial until August 11, coincided with this year’s particular focus on international artists. Artforum noted that “about 28 percent of the cohort hails from outside the US.” (Artforum)

Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, MFA Communications Design ’15, debuted Time Owes Us Remembrance, an art installation she created as part of Weaving Our Stories, the US Embassy and Consulate in Thailand’s celebration of the 190th anniversary of US–Thai diplomatic relations. Phingbodhipakkiya’s work is a large-scale woven piece exploring this international relationship and the important role textiles play. In an interview with Thai PBS, Phingbodhipakkiya shared that her “favorite thing about this piece is how so many techniques from across the United States and Thailand come together to weave this beautiful monument, when people brush up against each other and really create together.” (Thai PBS)

Ray Fontaine, MID ’16, is the founder and principal designer at Bywater Branding Service, which focuses on coastal issues in New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana. Fontaine and her fiancé, Christo Martin, won the Best in Creative Reuse award in the Salvations Salvage Design Competition, an annual challenge in which makers create functional objects from found materials. Under the name Hot Trash, the duo submitted The Range Lamp, the first lighting design they had ever made together. The competition is hosted by the Green Project and held in New Orleans. Fontaine also taught Visual Communications for Advocacy at Tulane School of Architecture in the bachelor of design program from spring 2022 to spring 2023.

Michael Golub, BID ’16, has worked for the last five years with The Sea Monkey Project, a social enterprise creating ocean plastic solutions and education in Malaysia. He designs products and injection molds for the project and its partners, developing work handmade from 100 percent upcycled plastics. “My combined bachelor of industrial design and minor in sustainability from Pratt Institute helped shape my career, focused on creating positive social and environmental impacts through design,” Golub writes. 

Mallory Zondag, BFA Fashion Design ’16, created a large moss rug commissioned by Amalia Mesa-Bains for the artist’s traveling retrospective, Archaeology of Memory, organized by Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 2023. The show was on view at El Museo del Barrio in New York City this past spring and summer before moving on to the San Antonio Museum of Art, where it is up until January 12, 2025. Zondag writes that she “made this piece entirely by hand through wet felting and latch hooking, techniques [she] was introduced to at Pratt by Roxanne Eklund in [her] textiles courses.”

Mari Kroin, BArch ’17, received an Independent Projects Grant from the Architectural League of New York and the New York State Council on the Arts for her project Subway-Color-Archive (S-C-A). The S-C-A maps the layered elements of MTA platforms as the 8th Avenue Independent Subway (IND) stations between 207th Street and Jay Street Metrotech approach their centennial. With assistance from Mike Tully, a current graphic design faculty member at Pratt, Kroin plans to disseminate her research in print form about the painting (and repainting) of subway columns along the IND 8th Avenue line. She is seeking additional recipients and feedback, and copies can be requested at subway-color-archive.com.

HIGHLIGHT: Maryam Turkey

Maryam Turkey, BID ’17, won the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Design, a $50,000 award for using mixed media to create surfaces and sculptural elements that reference man-made structures and organic elements. The award is one of the Vilcek Foundation’s prizes in the arts and humanities, awarded annually to build awareness of immigration’s role in enriching intellectual and cultural life in the United States. The foundation notes that Turkey’s ethos is “deeply rooted in questioning and commenting on the patriarchal system,” and that her work “repurposes and reimagines architectural elements like concrete blocks and pipes as idiosyncratic furniture and unconventional planters.” Speaking with the Vilcek Foundation, Turkey shared how her “journey as an immigrant informs my work in many ways . . . Most of all, it gives me the drive to achieve anything I put in my mind.” (PR Newswire)

Cosmic Kitty (Hannah Yukon), MFA Writing ’18, founded Liberatory Learners, an online interdisciplinary play space that uses Minecraft, music, movement, film, and vegan culinary arts as a learning tool to develop research, literacy, critical thinking, and public speaking skills. Describing her work, Yukon writes that by “inviting students to question their own history, we begin to investigate the ways we have held ourselves back as a society when it comes to creating a world without violence, torture, and cruelty.” 

Isabelle Brourman, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’19, was profiled in The New York Times, which highlighted her ongoing and highly expressive courtroom sketch series. At the time of this writing, Brourman was sketching the New York civil fraud trial of former US President Donald J. Trump, and she previously sketched the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial. Describing the intention of her practice, Brourman shared that she “wanted to bring something unregulated into such a regulated space.” (The New York Times)

2020s

Miriam (Mira) Etingof, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’20, also known as Mira IRL (In Real Life), founded Chill Mag with her best friend, who writes under the pen name Finn DeNeuf, in February 2023. Etingof writes that they are both “passionate artists and writers who wanted to create a platform that publishes work from creators who refuse to be governed by hustle culture and the ‘starving artist’ mentality.” Chill Mag celebrates artists and writers worldwide, connects them, and amplifies their voices. They publish two archival-quality issues per year with different thematic focuses and host events featuring art, literature, and performance. Etingof writes, “Be chill; read Chill Mag!” 

Rob Redding, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’22, recently had his work highlighted in New Criterion, a monthly art review, and was featured on the cover of Consciousness Magazine as the “Master of Commentary and Canvas.” Additionally, Redding’s most recent book, Smeared, was a #1 Amazon Kindle best seller in the Art Reference category. Alongside these accomplishments, Redding spoke at Pratt for LGBTQIA+ History Month’s Artist Spotlight: Art in Activism, and was part of the group exhibition There Is a Certain Slant of Light, which featured the work of Redding along with other alumni of Pratt’s MFA Fine Arts program. 

Mehmet Kaan Çapar, MArch ’23, received the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award at the Turkish Consulate General in New York, presented by Consul General Reyhan Özgür and Education Attaché Şamil Öçal. Çapar, who studied at Pratt as a Fulbright Master’s Scholar, worked as a facade consultant at Buro Happold for the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The Center, a $465 million project, has recently opened its doors to the public.

Sylvia Chen, BID ’23, was honored at the German Design Council’s one&twenty competition at Milan Design Week. Her team’s electric cargo scooter was among 21 winning competition designs selected by the Foundation Council for Design. The scooter utilizes three wheels to assist in transporting everyday loads throughout cities and other urban areas. The competition supports young designers who work with an eye toward sustainability and inclusivity. (Designboom)

Amy Chien, MArch ’23, and Marissa Zhao, MArch ’23, received the Material Lab Prize 2023, given by the Material Lab at Pratt’s School of Design, for their project Decomposition and Restoration. In their project brief, the duo described how they “designed a composite bio-plastic and bio-rubber building wrap textile that can also—in its secondary use after wrapping modules in shipment—be used in a variety of geotechnical and site remediation applications according to the woven pattern that the material is molded into.” The material is designed to biodegrade and is composed of ingredients that can be composted, ultimately addressing the issue of plastic construction waste in modular mass production. (@prattmateriallab)

Sally Kim, BFA Art and Design Education ’23, is represented by IMUR Gallery, where she is also a curator. Kim unveiled her first solo exhibition, Confetti, upon graduation and curated and showcased the group exhibition Bodies of Grace, Souls of Beauty in March 2024. Kim had a group exhibition in June 2024, Tradition, Identity, and Future Narrative, at Salmagundi Art Club in Greenwich Village. Her artworks are displayed on Artsy and are part of the Turkish House’s collection. Kim teaches visual arts at Primoris Academy, a private school in Westwood, New Jersey.

Qinyan “Doris” Liu, MFA Communications Design ’23, produced an independent publication project, Distant Flash, which was the competition winner in the Communication Design category of the Type Directors Club’s 70th annual competition (TDC70). This work was originally her graduate thesis and capstone project, consisting of a three-volume photobook set and a thesis book. It will travel to eight cities worldwide as part of the TDC70 exhibition.

Catie Poneck, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’23, had an exhibition titled The Weaker Vessel at Mercury Project, an event space and gallery in San Antonio, Texas. The exhibition ran from May 3 to May 20 and was Poneck’s first solo show since graduating from Pratt. The show featured work inspired by Greek kraters and vessels, which she found inspiration from while studying abroad at the Lorenzo De Medici Institute in Florence, Italy.

nikki terry, MFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’23, was accepted to the 2024 Openings Artist Summer Residency in Lake George, New York. She recently acquired representation from Brandt-Roberts Galleries in Columbus, Ohio, where her work was featured in March. She was also featured in the annual Summer Group Exhibition at the Anita Rogers Gallery in Tribeca, which ran from July to August. Describing her work, she says that her “paintings honor the struggles of Black women healing from the denial of suffrage that benefited other people and not ourselves.”

Daiwen Mila Wang, BFA Fine Arts (Jewelry) ’23, was selected for inclusion in the So Fresh + So Clean exhibition by Ethical Metalsmiths. A piece from her 2023 thesis collection, Glass Vitamin Necklace, is featured for using responsibly sourced materials in the design challenge, highlighting artistic decision-making that prioritizes social, political, and environmental sustainability. Discussing her work with Ethical Metalsmiths, Wang notes, “These materials are often forgotten, but they will be saved every time I [am] about to throw them away.” (Ethical Metalsmiths)

Chloe Scout Nix and Lena Smart and Erin O’Flynn, Ethan Li, and Kunwar Prithvi Singh Rathore, all MFA Photography ’24, were highlighted in Hyperallergic for their photography thesis exhibitions. On O’Flynn, Li, and Singh’s group exhibition, Hyperallergic reviewer Daniel Larkin noted that “with this show, Pratt’s MFA photographers reveal the fingerprints on the landscape to coax out questions of race, power, sexuality, and sustainability.” Hyperallergic’s Larkin wrote of Nix and Smart’s joint show, “It’s worth a trip to explore body parts like ears, arms, and hands in an unconventional way, but more importantly this exhibition challenges the distorted body images that prevail in mainstream media.” (Hyperallergic)

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Submission guidelines:

Pratt alumni, we want to know what you’re up to, and so do your fellow graduates. Send your updates on work and life to classnotes@pratt.edu. Notes may be up to 75 words in length. Please include your full name, degree or program, and graduation year. Submissions will be edited for length, clarity, and style. Image submissions should be high resolution (300 dpi at 5 x 7 inches).