Better later in the semester than never to celebrate this tremendous group of professors! Grateful to be working with and learning from them all. Learn more about them, below: Image Photo by Ana Taylor Photography Community & ContextAnniessa Antar (she/her and they/them)MA, Education – University of Minnesota, Twin CitiesBA, Philosophy & Arabic – McGill UniversityAnniessa is an educator, cultural organizer and software engineer living in Bde Ota Otunwe, so-called Minneapolis. Her pedagogical approach centers on the power of creative, playful, and collective work to confront and heal systemic inequities. She has taught at l’Ecole nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France, and for learners of all ages across the Twin Cities. Currently, she also instructs in the Art and Art History department at Saint Catherine University, St Paul. Beyond working with artists and arts organizations in her prior role at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Anniessa has been co-coordinating MASS Action (Museum as Site for Social Action) since 2016. This collaborative project strives to align museums with more racially just and liberatory practices. Anniessa received a Master’s of Education from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Arabic from McGill University. Criticism & Theory IJen Caruso (she/her)PhD, Comparative Literature – University at BuffaloMA, Center for the Study of Theory and Criticism – University of Western OntarioBA, English and Philosophy – University of TorontoDr. Jen Caruso earned a PhD in Comparative Literature with an emphasis on European modernism and critical theory and holds an MA from the Center for the Study of Theory and Criticism at the University of Western Ontario.Her recent research and teaching interests include socially-engaged art practice, aesthetics in the context of late capitalism, and cultural responses to climate change.She has an essay on alienated labor in the novels of William Gibson in the anthology, Alien Imaginations: Science Fiction and Tales of Transnationalism (Bloomsbury). Image Image Graduate Critique Seminar ISophia Chai (she/her)MFA, Photography – University of Illinois, ChicagoBA, Chemistry - University of ChicagoSophia Chai is a Korean-American artist whose work pushes the limits of photography by tracing its origins as a natural phenomenon of light and space while simultaneously pushing it forward into its most elusive, hard-to-read forms. Working within the rectangular room of her studio using readily available materials (masking tape, graphite, and paint), Chai creates abstract compositions that mimic a minimalist geometric drawing or painting. Only upon closer inspection do the shadows of the three-dimensional space emerge, a trickster illusion born of simple means. Recent work revisits her childhood experience of learning to read Hangul, the Korean phonetic alphabet, and enacts three key ideas of language, optics, and photography. Chai has presented her work widely at sites including Luhring Augustine Gallery, the A.I.R. Gallery, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Knockdown Center, Marinaro Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Hyde Park Art Center, among others. Solo exhibitions include 106 Green Gallery in Brooklyn, NY (2016), Rochester Art Center in Minnesota (2020), Hair+Nails Gallery in Minneapolis (2020, 2023) and New York (2025), and Light Work in Syracuse, NY (2024). Chai has received generous support from the Jerome Foundation (2019-2020), Minnesota State Arts Board (2020, 2022, 2023, 2025), Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (2019), and The First Ten (2024-25), an arts program devoted to mid-career artists who are mothers. Recent press includes Artforum, MUSEÉ Magazine, and Document Journal. The City of Rochester and Destination Medical Center commissioned her first permanent public outdoor project, completed in 2024. Chai earned a BA in chemistry from the University of Chicago and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Chai is represented by Hair+Nails Gallery (Minneapolis, NYC). She is based in Rochester, MN. Criticism & Theory IWilliam Franklin (he/him)MLS, Art History - University of Minnesota, Twin CitiesWilliam "Billy" Gustavo Franklin is an educator and an independent art curator. Franklin has curated more than a dozen exhibits locally and served as panelist reviewing applications for grants and artist-in-residence programs. He earned a Master of Liberal Studies with a minor in Art History from the University of Minnesota, his thesis work focused on the international scope of Surrealism. Franklin teaches modern and contemporary art history at MCAD and critical thinking and creativity online for Dunwoody College of Technology. Franklin is also a part-time Educator at the Walker Art Center. Last year, Franklin was a Curator in Residence for the Amy Marie Sears Series at St. Catherine University in Saint Paul. Image Image Photo by Eric Mueller Graduate Critique Seminar IIIAndy Graydon (he/him)MFA, Radio, Television & Film – Northwestern UniversityAndy Graydon is an artist and filmmaker originally from Maui, Hawai’i. His work is concerned with natural and social ecologies, and with sound and listening as creative practices. Recent projects have focused on island ecologies and the imaginal and narrative forms employed by the natural sciences. His projects frequently engage structures of music such as the ensemble, the score, improvisation and variation, and techniques of the voice.Graydon’s work has been presented internationally including shows at the New Museum; Mass MoCA; Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Frye Art Museum, Seattle; and the Honolulu Biennial. Grants and fellowships include the McKnight Foundation Fellowship in Media Arts; the MacDowell Fellowship; National Endowment for the Arts Grants for Arts Projects; Film Study Center at Harvard Fellowship; NKD Nordic Artists‘ Center Residency; and the Headlands Center for the Arts Residency. Graydon has collaborated widely as a sound artist and composer, including work with Jennifer Walshe, Ernst Karel, Michael Pisaro, Delia Gonzalez, Stephen Vitiello, France Jobin, Cecilia Lopez, John Hudak, and Jan St. Werner. Teaching Art and Design OnlineDan McAvey (he/him)MFA - Minneapolis College of Art and DesignMA, Educational Psychology - University of MinnesotaBA, Psychology - Carleton CollegeDan McAvey's artistic practice explores mental health and human interconnection through the genre of landscape painting. He is a faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in studio art, art education, and humanities. Dan earned an MFA in Visual Studies from MCAD. Prior to pursuing art full-time, he worked in psychology and student development on college campuses. Dan also holds a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Carleton College. Image Image Graduate Preparation I, Graduate Critique I, and MFA Visiting FacultyGabriel Saloman Mindel (he/they)PhD, History of Consciousness - University of California, Santa CruzMFA - School for Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser UniversityGabriel Saloman Mindel is MCAD’s Visiting MFA Faculty, where he teaches Graduate Critique 1 and Graduation Preparation 1. Mindel is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and scholar who works primarily in sound, text, visual mediums, and socially collaborative forms. His current artistic research focuses on surfacing sonic archives of political resistance and fugitive imagination. For over two decades Mindel has also performed and recorded experimental music under his own name and in collaborative ensembles, touring internationally, composing for film and dance, and producing nearly 100 recordings. In addition to his solo work he currently records and performs with transmission artist Anna Friz, in electro-acoustic ensemble Bottling House, and as one half of the allegedly legendary noise duo Yellow Swans. Mindel received an MFA from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and has just completed a PhD in the History of Consciousness at the University of California Santa Cruz. He is currently working on two book projects, the first focused on Prince and revolutionary eschatology, and the second on noise’s potential to radically transform, evade, and abolish structures of political power. Published on October 23, 2025