Distant | Syracuse University MFA Artists in Residence

Syracuse University is proud to present the 2021 artists in residence on Governors Island Ayesha Rumi, Maya Stern, and Katie Virag, in their opening of Distant.

This exhibition will be on view in House 406B on Colonels Row from July 2 – 19, with open hours Thursday – Sundays between 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public, with proper social distancing and facemasks worn over the nose and mouth.

This summer, the School of Art expanded its internationally recognized Graduate Residency Program to include Governors Island. Housed in the island’s historic Colonels Row, graduates in the M.F.A. program are able to move beyond the academic setting as they initiate practices surrounding the history, environment, and architecture of the island. The residency on Governors Island is made possible through the generous support of the Trust for Governors Island and the School of Art.

Ayesha Rumi, born in Pakistan, uses contemporary forms of image making to challenge narratives that have influenced identity in post-colonial societies through her community. She has exhibited work in the United States, Germany, Pakistan, China and Italy. After graduating with distinction from Beaconhouse National University, Pakistan, she was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship by Syracuse University in New York where she earned her MFA in Studio Arts. Her work resides in the collections of Luciano Benetton, Michael S. Tick, Aisha Abid Hussain, Malcolm Hutcheson and Salima Hashmi amongst others.

Maya Stern earned her BFA in Printmaking from the University of Rhode Island in 2016 and her MFA in Studio Arts from Syracuse University in 2021. Her work explores the complexities of familiar history and questions the ownership of unresolved trauma. She has been the recipient of the 2020 Printmaking Today State of the Art Award, her work has been collected by institutions nationally, including the Zuckerman Museum of Art, the Lake Effect Editions Archive, the Syracuse University Art Museum, School of the Art Institute of Chicago PrintMedia Collection, and the Bend Gallery.

Katie Virag earned a BFA in sculpture and a BS in psychology from Louisiana State University in 2013 and an MFA in studio arts from Syracuse University in 2021. Her work, which has been exhibited nationally, is concerned with the psychological antitheses of the mental state of dissociation—comfort vs. discomfort, safety vs. danger, and reality vs. non-reality. She currently splits her time between Buffalo, New York, where she has a studio at Buffalo Arts Studio and Syracuse.