Department of Art and Art History

Lump Presents: UNC-Chapel Hill MFA Thesis Exhibitions

March 6th - March 29th:

INFRA ULTRA by CJ Murphy / Under the Thumb by Michelle Lisa Polissaint

Opening reception: March 6, 6-9 pm

April 3rd - April 26th:

Nepantla by Wendy Yamilett Moran / Growing Elsewhere: Ghorbatī (غربتی) by Rojano Mohammadzadeh / Blood, Sap, Dirt by Iris Moyan Wang

Opening reception: April 3, 6-9 pm

Lump Gallery is located at 505 S. Blount St., Raleigh, NC 27601

Opening Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 1-5 pm, and by appointment.

Lump Gallery is pleased to present thesis exhibitions by UNC-Chapel Hill’s 2026 MFA graduating class.

At the conclusion of a rigorous, research-based two-year program, these artists consider the concept of place and their personal relationships to it. Each artist employs a range of media and responds to geographic, constructed, technological, and bodily autonomy. These relationships between place and personal narrative raise broader questions around positionality and society; communication and identity; and human impact. Revelation, purpose, and possibility guide each artist’s research-centered practices.

CJ Murphy creates works that render the intersection of technology, magic, and globalization material by reinvigorating found and discarded electrical waste. Michelle Lisa Polissaint draws on her experience in a strict religious community and deep research into the BITE method to discuss contemporary issues of indoctrination, high-control groups, and authoritarianism. Rojano Mohammadzadeh draws on Islamic prayer, talismanic imagery, text, and ritualized gestures to approach the immigrant experience through what she terms transplantation: survival through negotiating acceptance within a host body. Wendy Yamilett Morán’s practice explores the intersections of culture, realism, and spirituality through painting and ceramics, using their work to examine how identity, memory, and belonging are shaped within in-between spaces. Iris Moyan Wang is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with ink painting and ceramics to create fluid and erotic hybridizations of bodies and botanicals that reimagine Chinese cultural heritage.

For press inquiries or other questions, please contact uncmfathesis@yahoo.com