School of Art

Master of Fine Art Thesis Exhibitions

Presented annually in the School of Art Gallery, the Master of Fine Art Thesis Exhibitions feature the culminating presentations of graduating MFA students at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art. Developed through two years of intensive studio practice and research, the exhibitions form a major component of each student’s final thesis, reflecting diverse approaches to contemporary artmaking across a range of media and disciplines.

Public thesis examinations held during the exhibition period offer audiences an opportunity to hear directly from the artists about their research, process, and practice.

Interactive sculptural installation of pastel forms and bright orange balls displayed on a mirrored table.
A staged portrait of a performer seated inside an iridescent flower-like form, wearing exaggerated muscular prosthetics and a large blue rose headpiece, surrounded by glowing pink and blue floral imagery and oversized cherries.
OPENING May 22

Séamus Gallagher: It’s A Mess

May 22—June 19, 2026
School of Art Gallery
255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road

Séamus Gallagher is a lens-based media artist whose work incorporates video game engines, 3D modelling software, drag, photography, and installation. Drawing from themes of hauntology, queer ecology, camp, mimicry, and failure, Gallagher’s practice embraces maximalist aesthetics, performance, and world-building to examine the limits of representation.

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Black-and-white photograph of several people gathered beside a chain-link fence at night, with one shirtless figure standing in the foreground while others sit and talk nearby.
opening may 22

Christina Oyawale: Punk Care Commons

May 22—June 19, 2026
School of Art Gallery
255 ARTlab, 180 Dafoe Road

Punk Care Commons is an image-based installation grounded in a history of queer punk anti-aesthetics and communal care practices. Through expanded zine forms, found imagery, and installation, the exhibition considers collective “mothering,” anarchic communities, and family abolition as spaces for imagining alternative social relations.

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Past exhibitions

2025 exhibitions

2024 exhibitions

2023 exhibitions

2022 exhibitions

Front cover of the MFA catalogue

Master of Fine Art Graduate Catalogue

Each year students who have successfully completed the requirements for receiving a Master of Fine Art degree from the University of Manitoba are featured in the Master of Fine Art Graduate Catalogue. This catalogue offers an indication of the work that they produced during their programs.

View the 2021 Catalogue