Current MFA Students
Education: Pratt Institute, BFA, 2002
Website: http://johnfelixarnoldiii.com
Instagram: @johnfelixarnoldiii
John Felix Arnold was born in Durham, NC where he currently lives and works. As a multi-disciplinary artist born in the American south, his work confronts and reimagines mythologies which have influenced and informed much of the contemporary world we exist in through a range of both formal and experimental modes of art making. His work explores movement, materiality, polarity, contemplation, catharsis, and interconnectedness, with an inherent interest in repositioning objects and ideas, looking forward from historical research and lived experience He has shown and presented with SFMOMA, Nasher Museum of Art, B.R.I.C. Arts, The Luggage Store Gallery, Aggregate Space, and Tokyo’s Spes-Lab Experimental Art Space. He has attended residencies with Duke University’s Visiting Artist Program, Cassilhaus, and the Peter Bullogh Foundation. He is a Duke University Grant Awardee, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant Awardee, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Grant Awardee, and two time Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant Nominee. His work is in the collections of the Duke University Rubenstein Arts Center and Kai Kai Ki Ki Ltd. He has been published in Juxtapoz Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle’s 96 Hours, Hi-Fructose, Walter Magazine, and is represented in Aggregate Space Gallery’s First 50 Retrospective hardcover publication. He is a former contributing writer for the arts publications Coastal Post, and has written for Border Crossing.
Education: Virginia Commonwealth University, BFA in Photography & Film, 2015
Website: https://www.dominiquemunoz.com/
Instagram: @domo23
Dominique Muñoz is a Guatemalan-American visual artist whose photographs are grounded in environments reminiscent of his childhood memories, supercharged with imagination. In his current practice, he’s working with photographs, handmade books, printmaking, and found objects. His work explores themes of family, memory, and mysticism of his Mesoamerican ancestors. Dominique was Clark Construction’s first Photographer-in-Residence. He traveled around the country for over a year, documenting the art of building, highlighting the collectivism involved in construction. In 2017 Dominique was awarded his first solo exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. for his project, The Art of Building. His work has since been part of several group exhibitions including Soft Times Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Candela Books & Gallery (Richmond, VA), Silver Eye Center for Photography (Pittsburgh, PA), and The Curated Fridge (Somerville, MA).
Education: North Carolina State University, B.S. Interdisciplinary Studies, 2024
Website: cjmurphy.org
Instagram: @cjmurphy.art
CJ Murphy is a mixed-media artist from Fayetteville, NC. CJ’s work explores the intersection of folklore and globalization, focusing on the profound and often unexpected consequences of this convergence. Central to his artistic practice is the idea of the angel as a messenger, a concept recontextualized into modern abstract forms. These digital angels manifest as deliverers of information, electricity, and resources, formed from the collective thoughts of a modern populace. Through the use of scavenged materials, vibrant colors, motion, and light, these creatures display the fact that our culture and technology are inextricably intertwined. His work has been shown across the south in venues such as the d’Art Gallery and VAE. He is currently a studio artist at Artspace Raleigh.
Rebecca Pempek (she/her)
Education: Davidson College, Honors BA in Studio Art, 2020
Website: https://rpempek.com/
Instagram: @rebeccapempek
Before entering the MFA program at UNC, Rebecca worked as a teaching fellow at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. Rebecca’s large-scale mixed media works on paper render the body and mind as landscape. This exploration is two-fold: she believes the worsening climate crisis contributes to psychological distress and disorders; additionally, the physical processes of destruction and deterioration of the mind, body, and the natural world emulate one another. At Davidson, she received the Fujita Art Grant and attended several residencies in Iceland, where she studied the relationship between the changing landscape and Icelandic folklore.
Education: Palm Beach State College, 2009-2011; Florida International University, BFA 2014
Website: https:www.michellelisap.com
Instagram: @lichellemisa
Michelle Lisa Polissaint is a Haitian-American visual artist, arts organizer, and consultant from South Florida. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Florida International University with a concentration in Photography and Fiber-based painting with a minor in Art History. She has also completed coursework in non-profit management at Johns Hopkins University. As an artist, she explores the nature of human interaction through textiles and photographs. Her organizing practice is focused on overlapping art, community, and activism. She produces community-based activations and encourages artists and community members to form collaborative relationships. Her work has been shown internationally at various institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta Contemporary, the Girls’ Club Collection, and most recently La Villa du Parc. She is a current studio resident at Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami, Florida.
Education: Warren Wilson College, BA in Environmental Studies, 2014
Website: https://www.carsonwhitmore.com/
Instagram: @cool_._weather
Working with textile, paint, found objects, Carson explores the interplay of sculpture and image-making. Her experiences as a farmer and carpenter inform her material sensibilities. Carson’s work responds to and occupies spaces where public and private, wild and domestic meet. Based in Durham, NC, Carson has exhibited at Durham Art Guild galleries, the Duke Rubenstein Center, and in Raleigh at Lump Gallery, Sertoma Arts Center, and Artspace, where she was a Regional Emerging Artist in Residence in 2020.