Exhibition

School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents “Not Yet, Yet Still,” an exhibition of thesis work by the MPS Digital Photography class of 2025. Curated by New York City gallerist and SVA faculty member Debra Klomp Ching, “Not Yet, Yet Still” is on view from Saturday, September 27 through Saturday, October 18, at the SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 E 23rd Street, New York, NY. The SVA Gramercy Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

In explaining the title, “Not Yet, Yet Still,” thesis exhibition curator Debra Klomp Ching says, “Across the different projects, there is a recurring theme of being in-between; neither quite here, nor quite there. The idea about who we are, what we have been and who we can be, are explored in varying ways; including the passage of time.”

MPS Digital Photography Chair Tom P. Ashe expands, “These ten artists have bravely explored the uncomfortable in-between spaces, where most of us live, and those beyond our imagination. The constant changes that come from evolution, migration, age, culture lost and found are with us one way or another and really one of the most consistent parts of being human.”

Photographed in Manila and Los Angeles, the two terminals of her family’s decades-long migration, Andrea Ang’s Sunday Lunch is a visual archive of an immigrant family through a multimedia archive of portraits photographed, documents filed, images scanned, interviews recorded, screenshots taken. A personal exploration of Aqua Hsu’s Hakka identity through photography—Mahjong and Tangyuan (rice ball) is a staged series of self-portrait and still life images of culturally meaningful objects commenting on what it means to be a member of the minority Hakka in modern Taiwan.

Joy Island Lei’s Pink Fantasy explores the situation and migration stories of East Asian women, especially Chinese women living in major cities abroad, through portraits and close-ups, incorporating symbolic visual elements such as the color pink and various fruits. Yihong (Bob) Liu arrived in the U.S. to study in 2017, while his parents emigrated from China last year leaving him emotionally torn between a sense of cultural dislocation and familial separation, a dilemma he explores through the self-portraits in Detachment, using unfamiliar New York settings, light, and space to convey feelings of displacement, numbness, and the unresolved tension of choosing between two homes.

Anni Hu’s room as a place of psychological retreat and the city as a space of uncertain possibility, to those of us who cannot dream anymore (少年维持着烦恼) uses her own body—through staged and spontaneous gestures—to translate fleeting states of waiting, anxiety, and quiet rebellion into images that claim space for an honest existence. While in Infinite Metamorphosis, Keryn Huang explores geological time and transformation by capturing ancient remnants, living creatures, and landscapes shaped by geological change, aiming to find connections between those subjects as the universe has evolved. She believes thinking about the past also means thinking about the present and the future.

Marcela (Marcy) Montemayor is a visual artist blending photography, digital manipulation, and 3D imaging to create immersive, futuristic worlds. Her latest project, Mythoscape, envisions life in advanced civilizations through virtual reality and speculative design. While As I Find Her: My Mother & Me is a multimedia project that explores the artist Kate Mahoney’s relationship with her mother, Joanna, and how it changes with age.

In Mukhi, Yukta Taneja uses photographic portraits and the symbolism of Rudraksha seeds and water to create a visual meditation on the mythology of the blue-hued Hindu deity Shiva. Finally, through hard-lit floral still lifes—lilies studded with piercing jewelry and sunflowers threaded with needles—Hengyi (Harry) Yang turns the word-defying emotions of dawn into vivid images that challenge still life’s traditional notions of beauty and repose in his Twenty Mornings.

Celebrating its 18th year, the Masters in Professional Studies in Digital Photography at SVA is an intensive one-year graduate degree program that addresses the digital image capture, workflow, exhibition printing, sound, video, and visual storytelling skills, which professional photographers and photo educators require to be at the vanguard of commercial, fine art, portrait, and fashion photography practices. Within the year, the diverse and talented students excel at producing conceptually compelling and technically outstanding images, and are ideally positioned to pursue gallery representation, editorial or commercial work, as well as high-end digital retouching and consulting careers.

School of Visual Arts has been a leader in the education of artists, designers and creative professionals for seven decades. With a faculty of distinguished working professionals, a dynamic curriculum and an emphasis on critical thinking, SVA is a catalyst for innovation and social responsibility. Comprising 6,000 students at its Manhattan campus and over 43,000 alumni from some 130 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. For information about the College’s 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, visit sva.edu.