Faculty, MFA candidates, and Alumni, in Craft Art Biennial

Deflated explores parallels between LGBTQ+ experiences and the collective emotions of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using everyday materials, John Mack transforms familiar symbols—like balloons—into layered reflections on celebration, emptiness, and loss. The work speaks to themes of isolation, identity, and the shared vulnerability of viral testing, connecting the historic impact of the AIDS crisis to the anxieties of our contemporary moment.

riverence point

where the kaw meets big muddy

we wanted to find the source 

walk ancient paths

watch waters break and blend and bend just so

we wanted to follow flow

wander free

wade into our fathers mothers wellspring

wonder

we wanted

we wanted to rise nymphonic

witness light

web into tomorrows wake

where here began

we wanted to be borne.

riverence point is a collaboration between Amanda Maciuba and Mary Wharff which seeks to celebrate the Missouri River watershed. It was inspired by the confluence of the Kaw (Kansas) River and Missouri River in Kansas City, Kansas, and has expanded to consider multiple points within the watershed. This project considers how water shapes human life and how our actions impact river environments. It explores difficult aspects of human relationships with rivers, and at the same time, offers a way to ground our interactions from a more humble place. A place of awe, gratitude, and reciprocity.

Kaw Point and Kansas City occupy the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of Indigenous Peoples. The area has been home to numerous Indigenous Nations going back thousands of years, and also to many tribes relocated to and through the area by force over the last several hundred years due to settler colonialism. These nations have included the Missouria, Kickapoo, Oto, Kanza (also known as Kaw Nation), Osage, Shawnee, and Delaware.

The poem was written by Mary Wharff in January of 2017. The images are a combination of etchings, laser-cut relief prints, and monotypes created and printed on mulberry paper by Amanda Maciuba. The type was printed letterpress in Optima. The book was designed, printed and bound by Amanda Maciuba at In Cahoots Residency in Petaluma, California.

Poem © 2017 by Mary Wharff, Lawrence, Kansas

Images and Book Design © 2022 by Amanda Maciuba, South Hadley, Massachusetts

Marjan Khorramgolkaran is a multidisciplinary artist originally from Tehran, who currently lives and works in Buffalo, New York. Her primary artistic disciplines include drawing, experimental film, ceramics, photography, jewelry making, and sculpture. She is currently deeply engaged in the Western New York arts community while pursuing her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at the University at Buffalo.

Marjan’s artistic approach translates nature and the concept of “land” into a distinctive visual and tactile language. She approaches her subjects from an anthropological perspective rather than merely through attachment, challenging the conventional notion of “landscape” while exploring the dimensions of place and identity. Her work often incorporates a variety of materials and techniques, from drawing to cyanotype and 16mm film, to examine these complex themes.

Marjan’s background includes a strong foundation in fine art and design; she holds a master’s degree in Painting and a bachelor’s degree in Textile and Fashion Design from the University of Art, Tehran. She has extensive experience teaching in academic settings, such as SUNY Buffalo, as well as private studios, mentoring students in fine arts and jewelry making.

Her professional trajectory is marked by significant achievements. Marjan has participated as an invited artist in residencies such as the Bethany Arts Community in Ossining, NY, and the Openings Residency in Lake George, NY. She has served as a selected juror in an art competition, and her work has received awards, including First and Second Place in the Jewelry Section at the 57th Annual Keuka Lake Art Show, as well as First Place for Young Filmmakers across Iran for her video art in 2013.

Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and published in international books, catalogs, and magazines. Her recently selected exhibitions include the Sylvia L. Rosen Craft Art Biennial at the Burchfield Penney Art Center (2025–2026), Regional 90 at the Contemporary Arts Center Museum (CAC) in Cincinnati (2025), a group exhibition at Cepa Gallery in Buffalo, NY (2025), and the “Exchange” group exhibition at Academie Voor Beeldende Kunsten in Ghent, Belgium (2023).

Marjan has received multiple scholarships and awards supporting her ongoing artistic research and practice in the United States.

In Zwirn Banner, Assistant Professor Noah Breuer re-printed design motifs originally produced as bicycle seat covers in 1925 by his Czech Bohemian ancestors. Breuer's Jewish ancestors owned a textile factory in pre-war Czechoslovakia which produced printed fabrics. In 2016, Breuer tracked down fabric swatches from the family business in the Czech archives and created a new body of printed artworks based on historical motifs.