The Only Way Out Is Through: The 2025 IMDA MFA Thesis Exhibition

March 25 – April 12, 2025

Artists’ Reception: Thursday, March 27, 5 – 7 p.m.

UMBC’s INTERMEDIA AND DIGITAL ARTS (IMDA) Masters Program presents “The Only Way Out Is Through,” the 2025 IMDA MFA Thesis Exhibition. Opening on Tuesday, March 25th with a public reception with the artists on March 27th, 5-7 pm, the thesis exhibition features five artists with diverse artistic practices and approaches: McCoy Chance, Ahlam Khamis, Ghazal Mojtahedi, Alexi Scheiber, and Mariia Usova.

Since the inception of the IMDA MFA Program at UMBC in 1992, the exhibition is presented each spring semester. Past exhibitions have included installation, performance, film, video, photography, animation, interactive art, sculpture, audio works, painting, drawing, and print media.

The Artists

In the corner of a white room near a window, four black-and-white security monitors rest on cement blocks near the floor. On them, cheetahs, from the shoulders up, guard the central color television. A color television, playing a vibrant experimental film, sits atop a pile of cement blocks. Another security monitor, on top of the color TV, completes the installation’s layered composition.
McCoy Chance, “Feedback for Nature – Dead Set 1988” (Installation view), 2025, six-channel video, one-channel audio, five black and white abandoned security monitors, one resurrected Toshiba Blackstripe Color TV (1988), cement blocks, composite cords, 3:30, photo: courtesy of the artist

McCoy Chance

McCoy Chance works with discarded electronics as Living material in “The Dead, The Living, and The Injured,” a body of work that transforms technological waste into pulsating experimental media and sculptural installation.   The work explores the relentless evolution of technology through the lens of the environment and discarded electronics, sparking dialogue on how we move forward in an era of planned obsolescence.  McCoy actively shapes the media in the body of work through a mix of experimentation, research, and handmade analog video devices.

Khalti Badr Rides Merry Go Round (Ink Jet Print), April 2024, 15” x 10”, Videography by Ania Flanigan Peña

Ahlam Khamis

Palestinian American multidisciplinary artist displaying a body of work that unpacks what it means to make art during a genocide featuring donkeys and a magic carpet.

A multimedia installation featuring white-washed vintage suitcases with projected video mapping of bright and colorful Persian-inspired patterns.
Ghazal Mojtahedi, “Hanging Garden and the Echo of Home,” 2025, Mixed media installation (suitcases, video mapping, motion graphics, audio, personal artifacts), (still image), photo: courtesy of the artist

Ghazal Mojtahedi

“Hanging Garden and the Echo of Home” is a multimedia installation combining video-mapped suitcases, Persian-inspired patterns, and personal imagery, exploring migration as a sensory experience through motion graphics and audio storytelling.

A navy blue building with stars painted on the facade. Sewing projects are demonstrated in the warm light of the window. A tulip wind turbine is installed on the green roof, the yard is dominated by daisies, and yellow passionflowers climb the front porch.
“Artifacts from the Dreaming World – Tailoring & Fibers Workshop” (detail), 2024, Gouache on black paper, photo: courtesy of the artist

Alexi Scheiber

“Awake/Dreaming” by Alexi Scheiber is a body of work that imagines a restorative world where humanity lives in harmony with nature, based on implementable climate solutions.

Mariia Usova, “Untitled 1” glass sculpture from the “Untitled Sculptures” series, documented during the “Porous Alternatives” show at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery in NYC. Photo courtesy of Elisheva Gavra.

Mariia Usova 

“Fragile Witness: Sculptural Dialogues in Glass” comprises four conceptually interwoven works—Sarcophagus, Gasps, Untitled Sculptures, and Milk and Blood—that explore resilience, fragility, and the dissolution of personal identity into collective experience. Using glass as a medium, the works navigate themes of memory, sacrifice, and the sacred in the mundane, with content illuminated through what I call a “revealing gesture.”

Events

A navy blue building with stars painted on the facade. Sewing projects are demonstrated in the warm light of the window. A tulip wind turbine is installed on the green roof, the yard is dominated by daisies, and yellow passionflowers climb the front porch.
“Artifacts from the Dreaming World – Tailoring & Fibers Workshop” (detail), 2024, Gouache on black paper, photo: courtesy of the artist
RTKL Lecture: Alexi Scheiber
April 15, 12:30-1:30 pm
The gallery will remain open until 5 pm following the lecture.

The CADVC gallery is also the site of the annual “RTKL Lecture,” a fellowship lecture made possible through the generosity of RTKL (Rogers Taliaferro, Kostritsky, & Lamb) Associates Incorporated. The goal of this merit-based award is to support an emerging artist of creative and scholarly excellence who has demonstrated a promise to make an impact on the field. This year’s recipient of the RTKL fellowship is Alexi Scheiber.

Audience members are respectfully requested to wear a mask during this event, so the speaker may remove her mask for optimal audibility and communication. CADVC realizes masking is a personal decision and ultimately lies with each individual.
Highly abstracted and layered images include several glowing blue TV monitors. On the left is a window looking out to an urban skyline silhouetted against a blue sky. Wires are scattered across a hardwood floor in the foreground, and translucent figures of seated musicians can be seen superimposed upon the interior space.

Live Improvised Musical Performance
April 4, 1-1:30pm

As part of “The Dead, The Living, and The Injured,” musicians Patrick Crossland, Ida Dierker, Brandon, Gouin, Jeremy Keaton, and Josh Weber join McCoy Chance for a collaborative performance exploring the lifespan of discarded electronics. They will engage with the screens and media works in the exhibition through live improvisation. The performance begins promptly at 1:00 pm on Friday, April 4, 2025, and will conclude in the Fine Arts Amphitheater immediately outside the gallery,—rain or shine—by 1:30 PM. The gallery remains open to the public from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Events

March 25, noon Exhibition opens to the public

March 27, 5:00-7:00 pm Artists’ Reception

April 4, 1:00-1:30 pm Live Improvised Musical Performance

April 12, 5 pm Exhibition closes to the public

April 15, 12:30-1:30 pm RTKL lecture: Alexi Scheiber gallery will remain open until 5pm following the lecture

April 18, 10:00 am–5:00 pm Special open hours

Please note: Some events associated with the exhibition occur after the close of the exhibition.

IMDA thesis defenses: open to the public

Mon 4/7, 2-4pm
Ahlam Khamis

Tues 4/8, 10-12pm
Mariia Usova

Wed 4/9, 10-12pm
Alexi Scheiber

Mon 4/14, 2-4pm
McCoy Chance

Thurs 4/17, 2-4pm
Ghazal Mojtahedi

Please note: MFA Thesis defenses must be conducted in a closed-door room according to university protocols. After a defense begins, audiences will not be admitted and will be requested not to exit for the duration of the first full hour.

Visitor Information

Our exhibitions and events are free and open to the public for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University’s nondiscrimination policy.

If you need specific accommodations at one of our events, whether in person or online, or to experience an exhibition, please contact CADVC at cadvc@umbc.edu or 410-455-3188 as soon as possible.