Painting and Printmaking

The Painting and Printmaking Program is a vibrant community centered on both practice and research. Here, you'll build skills in painting, drawing and printmaking, but will also have opportunities to participate in an expanded field that includes socially engaged practices, creative coding, video, performance and more.

You can pursue both B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees in addition to interdisciplinary models of education in partnership with other areas across the university. As a Painting and Printmaking major you can participate in a range of public programs including lectures and studio visits with artists, curators and critics, exhibitions and open studios.

Our alumni have gone on to pursue successful careers as artists, teachers, gallerists, curators, arts administrators and master printers.

Our alumni include recipients of numerous awards and fellowships. Alumni exhibit their work throughout the world, attend prestigious residency programs, hold teaching positions, are entrepreneurs and maintain active studio careers.

Degree Programs

The Work

I’m So Glad I Met You

Queer Arts Collective Juried Exhibition

This juried exhibition explored the theme of chosen family and its role in the survival of the queer community.

Crafted in the Storm

Black Art Student Empowerment Juried Exhibition

This exhibit explored themes of creative agency, relief in times of anguish, and radical joy. Art is a powerful tool which builds a shelter of joy and expression in the midst of a storm.

E4

Erin Ehren & Daša Kulikova

Two artists’ practices came together between shared interests in formal abstraction, expansive tactility, and color as a site for the material, the vibrational, and the desired.

Capstone Exhibitions

2026 BFA Senior Capstone Exhibitions

Presented in two rounds, Capstone exhibitions represented the accomplishments of the 2026 senior class from each area.

Late Breaking

2026 MFA Candidacy Exhibition

Late Breaking, the 2026 MFA Candidacy Exhibition, featured the work of 21 artists from six departments.

Trölls

Eleanor Mahin Thorp (Third Prize, Round One, Capital Square Prize 2026)

The award for Third Place and recipient of the $500 prize in round one of the inaugural, 2026 Capital Square Prize, goes to Eleanor Mahin Thorp (M.F.A.’22). Thorpe was featured on Yellowstone Public Radio in 2025. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post and published in Anarchist Review of Books. She currently teaches at City College at City University of New York.

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future

Luis Vasquez La Roche (Second Prize, Round One, Capital Square Prize 2026)

The award for Second Place and recipient of the $1,500 prize in round one of the inaugural, 2026 Capital Square Prize, goes to Luis Vasquez La Roche (M.F.A.’20). La Roche is an artist and educator who resides between Trinidad and Tobago and Virginia. They hold an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. They are a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design at George Mason University in Northern Virginia.

Pillar and Cadence

Natalia Mejía Murillo (First Prize, Round One, Capital Square Prize 2026)

The award for First Place and recipient of the $3,000 prize in round one of the inaugural, 2026 Capital Square Prize, goes to Natalia Mejía Murillo (M.F.A ‘23). Murillo, (b. Bogotá, Colombia), is a visual artist whose work explores the notions of territory, repetition, trace and time through correspondences between astronomy, cartography and archaeology. She holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, an MA in History and Theory of Art and a BFA from the National University of Colombia.

Post Opera

Suzy Slykin

Post Opera is a performance and installation exploring medicalization, labor, desire, belief and transformation.

Glossed Over

Rebecca Oh

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Our Faculty

are Teachers and Doers

Painting and Printmaking faculty are working artists and experienced teachers. Their experiences both in and outside of the classroom will help each student develop their own artistic practice.

Meet Our Faculty & Staff