On March 27, the MFA Class of 2026 presented its thesis work in “Time-Honored Non-Specifics” at The Andy Warhol Museum. The exhibition is on view through April 12.
Through a range of practices, each artist in Time-Honored Non-Specifics demonstrates an interest in the ways meaning accrues, migrates, and is sometimes deliberately obscured. Across ceramics, textiles, painting, found objects, and virtual environments, Bulumko Mbete, Naomi Chambers, and Afrooz Partovi each attend to the ways objects and sites carry histories that are both intimate and politically charged. Their work insists that materials are not neutral: they are repositories of trade and migration, of kinship and care, of censorship and erasure.
Grounded in three years of research, this exhibition presents the final thesis work of these MFA candidates in a museum dedicated to the legacy of one of the School’s most influential alumni. Chambers, a Pittsburgh-born painter and assemblage sculptor, roots her work in community histories and Black feminist modes of care, and her practice reflects years of collaboration, mentorship, and collective organizing. Mbete, a multidisciplinary artist from South Africa, draws from textile traditions and craft methodologies practiced by women in Southern Africa, engaging them as living archives of generational knowledge and contemporary realities. Partovi, an artist-architect from Iran, explores absence, disappearance, and the porous boundaries between physical and digital space, using immersive technologies to surface overlooked histories and intangible forms of memory.
Below, scroll through highlights from the public opening reception.
