Exhibition

SVA presents “Act 1: Geraldine Scott III,” an exhibition of work by alumnus Lillian Ansell (MFA 2022 Illustration as Visual Essay). On view from Saturday, November 22, through Saturday, December 13, 2025, at the SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 E 23rd Street, New York, NY. 

The work in “Act 1: Geraldine Scott III” comprises the first act in an illustrated play, building the world and inviting the audience into its landscape of edible clouds, powerful trees, open fields, castles, and sinking swamps fit for a fairytale. Pointed loafers, puffy sleeves, glowing red eyes, tents, and long-limbed birds and insects begin to populate the world, constructing a social narrative. Starting with Overture to the Great Hatch, animated birds lay red spotted eggs. The story continues in a series of drawings where, protected by insects, the eggs hold a prophecy that becomes the object of desire for an evil king. The play explores good, evil, and the betwixt and between.    

Geraldine Scott III is not a character in the play, but a solitary observer. Ansell uses a vitrine to separate the research of Geraldine Scott III from the drawings displayed on the walls. Geraldine Scott III finds the play as it is shown today, but takes fiction for fact. He believes he has unearthed findings of a past world and begins to study and make meaning of the world. Ansell uses the duality of the research and the series of drawings on the wall as a narrative study of the observer versus the observed. This separate character is a part of Ansell’s process into building a world, sharing the importance of process, and the power of visual narration.

The MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay at SVA is designed to maximize students’ opportunities as figurative artists, from the conventional gallery wall to the full range of 21^st century media. The program fuses the development of creative thinking with technical and communication skills. Additional focus is placed on best practices in navigating the visual art marketplace while empowering students to choose making art as a way of life.

The SVA Gramercy Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00am to 6:00pm. It is fully accessible by wheelchair.