Exhibition

SVA presents “The Book Show,” an exhibition of work by MFA Illustration as Visual Essay students, curated by Anna Raff. On view from Saturday, November 22 through Saturday, December 13, 2025, at the SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 E 23rd Street, New York, NY. 

In their first year, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay students are tasked with creating books in a format of their choice, whether it be illustrated poetry, memoir, social commentary, graphic novel, children’s book, or essay. Highlights from this year’s exhibition include Kailee Finn’s Taking Up Space, a design journal that reimagines the history of the Urban Renewal Movement and its impact on African American communities by transforming memory into wearable art. In Alison Staffin’s memoir comic Dr. Em, she enters a futuristic Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy pod and traces her day-to-day stress through her bodily memory back to her original trauma: being abandoned by her birth family in China as a newborn.

Other artists featured in this exhibition include Bernardo Bagulho, K Downs, Jennifer Emrich, Casey Grenier, Siyang Lim, Sitong Liu, Elaine Mou, Nancy Xi Nan, Manasi Patankar, Yuan Peng, Alexandra Smith, Mansi Vinay, Ran Xu, Yayun Yang, Yiou Zheng Miki, Hao Zhou, and Dan Zhou.

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.