Graduate Students

Taylor Cleveland (b.1992, Dallas) is a Texas-based artist driven by a fascination with technologic systems that shape realities—from AI, digital media, and the internet, to social technologies like culture, language, and politics. Having received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he is currently developing his MFA thesis, ‘Aesthetics of Real,’ at Southern Methodist University. His work has been recognized internationally through various exhibitions and collaborations including the AI/motion pieces featured in Adnan Razvi’s, international “MAWIMBI” series, being a featured artist for Meow Wolf, and having been published in the Nasher Sculpture Center magazine. Taylor has also worked for commercial clients including Disney, American Express, & Paramount Studios, and has won various marketing awards for this work, including Webby, Clio, and Shorty Awards.

Alicia Parham ( American b.1998) is an interdisciplinary artist and art educator native to North Texas. She is inspired by neurological research and the relationship with our brain. Parham's paintings act as artifacts that capture a moment of consciousness. After a major health diagnosis in 2021, her practice shifted to recording her experiences with neurological struggles. Using EEG brainwaves, and the optical “floaters” that interfered with her perception of reality, Parham creates large dramatic compositions.

Parham has been recognized by the Dallas Museum of Art via the Arch and Ann Giles Grant 2024, and UT Southwestern for her creative achievements. In November of 2023, she opened her debut solo show “Intravenous” at the The Paul Vortmens Gallery in Denton, Texas. Her work has been shown at the 500x gallery in Dallas & Irving, the Gallery 8680 in Frisco, and Jupiter Landing via Jupiter House in Denton, Texas. She is a 2-time national award-winning designer in 2014 and 2019 through the LLS Light the Night national design competition. She has received grants for her research via the Dallas Museum of Art and the University of North Texas.

Karina Ramirez is a mixed-media artist exploring color and how color can express certain aspects of a composition. Her work consists of impressionism with a hint of abstraction that covers identity, culture, belonging, and self-expression—using color through lines, shape forms, and texture. A significant part of her work is the process. Her work consists of memories she made with her family heritage as a Mexican American. She has been exploring new ways to enhance her progress by exploring various inner cultural documentation when visiting her family in Mexico with photography and printmaking. Karina received her B.F.A in Painting/Drawing and a Minor in Art History from the University of North Texas (2024). Her work has been in numerous exhibitions, including the Dallas Museum of Art for Young Masters exhibition (2017). She was also awarded a scholarship in the 62nd Annual Paul Voertman Juried Student Art Competition at the University of North Texas (2023).

Shinwoo Song is an interdisciplinary artist who worked in computer graphics, which cultivated this broader understanding of digital media, kept his primary interest in abstract painting and ceramics alive, and gained a general skill for animation, complicated visual effect techniques, 3D modeling, and photography. His works also include installation and performance art, which have expressed, in a way, getting him to an aspect of the inward related to unconsciousness. He currently studies how to pull out his emotional sources of nostalgia, freedom, happiness, comfort, identity, rage, desire, and excitement from unconsciousness. He received BFA in studio art from Southern Methodist University in 2022.

Sharmeen Uqaili (b. 1980, Karachi, Pakistan) draws profound inspiration from the allure of rugs and architecture from the Islamic lands. Her art serves as a vibrant reflection of her cultural identity and a captivating exploration of Sufism's mystical depths. Her creations are a harmonious interplay of evocative words and meticulously crafted patterns, reminiscent of the ancient tools of compass and ruler. Themes in her work revolve around spirituality and the pursuit of paradise, while finding strength in holding on to her roots and heritage. Sharmeen graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas in Visual Arts in 2023. Several of our artworks have been exhibited in numerous Dallas-area fine art exhibitions where she has also received various awards and recognitions.

Jillian Whitney is a painter who uses personal experience and the concept of synecdoche to address broader human experiences. She primarily uses self-portraiture as a means to recognize her own perspective and bias while realizing the interpersonal connection between her and the viewer’s shared experiences. Themes present in her work often revolve around violence, both the everyday and the extreme. She also pulls on themes of nostalgia, feminism and her experiences as a teacher to inform her work, most often discussing violence in schools.

Carolina Yáñez (b. 2001, Austin, Texas) is a Tejana artist and activist working with various mediums to explore ideas regarding Tejano culture and politics, history, place, gender-based issues, mental illness and how they all intersect in her identity. She utilizes photography and video, fiber, ceramics, and print in her practice to speak on her experiences of childhood, immigration, tradition, pain, beauty, and celebration. Yáñez has shown work across various institutions in Texas and is also a 2024 Resident Artist of the Mexic-Arte Museum’s Changarrito Residency program and a Jolt Artist in Residence for the non-profit Jolt, a statewide organization in Texas organizing young Latinos around the power of their voice, vote, and stories. She received her BFA from the University of Houston in 2023.