MFA Exhibition explores homelands, identity and the natural environment

Morgan Hill, a native of Baltimore County, Maryland, was attracted to Michigan State University partially because of the interdisciplinary nature of its master of fine arts program. Originally a painter, over the course of her three years in the program, she’s been able to explore everything from digital art to Chinese calligraphy.

“Many MFA programs have a primary focus, and it’s not an individual-led focus. You have to say you’re focused on painting, but I wanted to be able to do anything,” she said.

Hill remembers the spark of possibility that led to her current body of work, on view at MSU’s Broad Art Museum as part of the 2025 Master of Fine Arts Exhibition, along with work by Megan Weaver and Claire Heiney.

She was experimenting with synthetic YUPO paper and noticed the resistance of her thumbprint had become visible through the oil’s interaction with the paper.

“It was a happy accident. It made me consider how I can represent the invisible parts of my identity, those  things that seem insignificant but are the foundation and structure of our habits,” she said.

This technical discovery eventually led to an artistic collaboration between Hill and All of the Above Hip Hop Academy in Lansing. Hill laid out enormous sheets of paper and encouraged breakdancers to move on them, making marks in the process.

“I said that I was hosting an event, but after the pieces were finished, I began to call them works of collaboration,” Hill said. “Instead of me painting and thinking about people, I told the dancers, ‘You guys are my brushes.’”

Hill is interested in language and how we write. Her large, abstract pieces form a “codex,” she said. She described her techniques with YUPO paper as “being and documenting an instantaneous moment.”

Chelsea Roberts for City Pulse Weaver’s self-portrait, a sculpture cast from her own body.

Weaver’s sculptures, utilizing everyday objects and a cast of her own body, also bring hidden notions of identity to the surface. Originally from Arkansas, Weaver said, “I’d never left home, so moving to Michigan was a big deal. It really changed my perspective and informed the concepts I was already working with, including the political landscape, personal experiences and this idea of feeling a deep sense of love for your home but also heavily critiquing ideologies that are there.”

During the exhibition’s reception, Weaver was awarded the annual Master of Fine Arts Prize by guest juror Jessica Hong, chief curator of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Weaver’s sculpture of herself at a kitchen table faces a tower of pots and pans that reach to the ceiling. On the table, pieces of a redacted memoir are legible to the viewer.

“The installation is a commentary on women’s position in society,” she said.

Over the three-year MFA program, she said her original artistic intentions have changed dramatically: “They’re much more massive than I expected.”

On the first floor of the museum space, between Hill’s and Weaver’s work, sits Heiney’s environmentally based installation of an abstracted Midwestern prairie. For Heiney, who’s originally from Grand Rapids, their experience in the MFA program was an opportunity to explore their deep connection to this region.

Heiney lived in Portland, Oregon, for about three years starting in 2019 but came home to Michigan to pursue their MFA. Speaking of the Pacific Northwest, they said, “I loved that experience and that place, but I’m actually very rooted to the Midwest and this place in general. Not just family, but I care deeply about this land. So often, people who aren’t from here are so quick to write off the Midwest. But it’s a very beautiful and rich environment. I love living here.” 

The MFA Exhibition is the result of a yearlong collaboration between the students and the Broad. The show, co-curated by Broad assistant curator Rachel Winter and former curatorial research assistant Laine Lord, provides the emerging artists with a professional development opportunity to exhibit in a museum and learn about museum processes and procedures.

“One of the things that was really inspiring to me was that when you’re curating a group show, you want to help the work come together in a meaningful way,” Winter said. “This show doesn’t have a specific theme; rather, each artist has a specific question. But it came together beautifully, and the work relates to each other really well. I think part of those connections that can be drawn and how the pieces resonate with each other is because the members of this cohort are great friends and colleagues to each other.”

Added Heiney, “It’s been such a blessing that our cohort is so small. It’s just the three of us, and we’ve gotten so close. Our work is very different, but we all care about a lot of the same stuff. We’re all interested in touch and unspoken forms of communication that exist in everyday life. We examine what some people might call the mundane and the everyday.”