Four leading curators bring new perspectives to this year’s MFA Thesis Exhibition during a full-day critique at The Andy Warhol Museum.
Each year, the School of Art invites a select group of curators, writers, and other art world leaders to lend their critical insight to the MFA Thesis Exhibition. For Holding Still, Holding On, we are honored to welcome Michaela Blanc, Lauren Haynes, Gilbert Vicario, and Diya Vij as this year’s Distinguished Critics. On April 8, they’ll join the full faculty for an in-depth, all-day critique at The Andy Warhol Museum — offering new perspectives on the work of our 2025 graduating MFA students.
Michaela Blanc
Pérez Art Museum Miami
Michaela Blanc is the Wikimedian in Residence at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and a Leadership Adviser at Art+Feminism. Previously, she was a Curatorial Fellow at the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), a guest curator for Tomayko Foundation, Casey Droege Cultural Productions at Pennsylvania Western University in California, the SMFA at Tufts on view at Tufts University Art Galleries in Medford; and MassArt Low Residence MFA programs, a juror and Graduate Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a curatorial intern at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Blanc is an alumna of C& Critical Writing Workshop, Dallas (2023). She holds an MA in Museum Studies/Museum Education from Tufts University and a BA in Art History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Lauren Haynes
Governors Island Arts
Lauren Haynes is Head Curator, Governors Island Arts and Vice President at the Trust for Governors Island in New York City. Haynes has held curatorial positions at institutions across the US, including the Queens Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Haynes serves on the board of the Association of Art Museum Curators and AAMC Foundation and on the visiting committee for the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College. Haynes was a 2018 Center for Curatorial Leadership fellow and a recipient of a 2020 ArtTable New Leadership Award.
Gilbert Vicario
Curator
Gilbert Vicario is a curator of modern and contemporary art with over 20 years of experience. Gilbert has held chief curator positions with Perez Art Museum Miami and the Phoenix Art Museum, in addition to holding curatorial positions at the Des Moines Art Center, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Major traveling exhibitions include Xican-a.o.x. Body (2023 – 2025), Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist (2018 – 2021), and Sheila Pepe: Hot Mess Formalism (2017 – 2018). Vicario was U.S. Commissioner for the 10th International Cairo Biennial where he presented Daniel Joseph Martinez: The Fully Enlightened Earth Radiates Disaster Triumphant.
Diya Vij
Creative Time
Diya Vij is the Curator at Creative Time, guiding the overall curatorial direction of the organization. At Creative Time, she launched CTHQ, a gathering space for art and political engagement, the R&D Fellowship for socially engaged artists, relaunched the Creative Time Summit and has realized several large-scale public art commissions. Over the past 15 years, she has sought to critically investigate the role of public art in politics and civic life through various positions held at major NYC cultural institutions including the Queens Museum, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the High Line. She serves on the Boards of the Laundromat Project, Poetry Project (Treasurer), and A Blade of Grass (Co-Chair) and co-curated the Counterpublic 2023 public art triennial in St. Louis.
Photo of Diya Vij by Sam Richardson
Holding Still, Holding On is on view at The Andy Warhol Museum through April 21, 2025.